Big Weekend

Wow we did a lot of things this weekend. On Friday night friends of mommy's came over to Dumbo - Roger, Piper, and their son Jackson. We had dinner at Bubby's (which we think has gone decidedly downhill as of late). Here is Piper holding you in our apartment after they arrived.


This is Jackson and you in your strollers. Roger and I are behind. I don't know what that light is inside your stroller. It looks like a light sabre from Star Wars. It must be some reflective coating in the back of the stroller that lit up with the flash from the camera.


This is a nice picture with the sunset and the Manhattan Bridge in the background.


And a nice one with the other couple.


And one more with the two of you up on our shoulders. You like to play with my hair when you are up there.


So that was Friday. Today we got up and spent some time at home. Mommy fed you and I watched the Tour de France. It was the last important stage in the Tour and the last Tour before Lance Armstrong calls it quits. He has almost won 7 in a row. Okay back to our day. We left the apartment after feeding you lunch and took the F train up to where I work in midtown. We went to a very nice hotel called Le Parker Meridian. That's a picture of the lobby. Nice huh? Well this hotel is famous for something - Burgers.

Here's a picture of the Burger Joint. It's right in the lobby of that nice hotel and it looks like a regular shack with fake wood panelling and graffiti on the walls. So strange huh? Well mommy and I each had a cheeseburger and we split an order of fries. It was very good. We agreed though that Shake Shack (in Madison Park in NY) and In 'N Out Burger are still better. But it was fun going to a divey restaurant inside an expensive hotel. When you are older and you have burger cravings like we do we'll take you there for lunch.


After eating our burgers, we walked a few blocks from the Burger Joint to Central Park. It was a beautiful day but very hot and bright outside. Here's a picture of you in the Baby Bjorn with mommy. We have that funny white hat to shield your eyes. You have sensitive eyes like daddy. We saw lots of things in the park. You were supposed to have taken a nap but you were too interested in looking around!


There was this nice fountain that overlooked a lake. You can see some of the big buildings off in the distance that surround the big park. It's a big park. It goes from 59th Street up to 110th Street. So that's about 50 street blocks long which makes it about 2 and 1/2 miles long (and about 1/2 mile wide).


Here's the lake I was talking about. There are boats you can rent that you can paddle yourself or you can go find these boats called Gondolas that are pushed for you by a guy standing in the back. He has a big pole and uses it to push the boat around. And sometimes he will sing out loud for you like this guy did.


Here's a picture of some of the other row boats on the lake. And some big buildings around the perimeter of the park. Someone very rich lives at the top of that building!


Here we are going over the bridge that you saw two pictures back. It was a very nice bridge. Very ornate sides and lovely wood on the ground. People were watching the boats pass underneath.


And here I am trying to take a picture of me, you, and mommy. You unfortunately didn't make it into the picture.


We walked up the park a little more and climbed to the top of a castle that is the center of the park. It's called Belvedere Castle. It's not a real castle but it looks like one and it has stairs that look like castle stairs inside - very narrow and twisty. This is a picture from the very top terrace that looks down on the baseball fields and a lot of sunbathers.


And here is a shot to the left that looks down on a terrace on the 2nd level and the ground level below that. It looks like one level but it's two. Look how people on the closest terrace are bigger than the people on the bikes on the ground level.


And here are the baseball diamonds we saw from the castle. Lots of people playing and lying on the grass. You can actually see the castle. Click on the picture and then look at the trees off in the distance. In the very center you can see a stone castle. We headed to the upper east side after this and had pastries and coffee in a boulangerie. Your mom thought the place was called Le Pain Quotient even though it was spelled Le Pain Quotidien. We had to ask the waiter to settle that one. Your mom now owes me $56 from the many $1 bets we make and she loses! :)

And then we stopped off in Chelsea to buy a few things for you (a huge foam playmat and some other things for your bottles). And then we came home. We were out 6 hours and you were tired and hungry.

Apart from that two other interesting things happened this weekend. On Friday you managed to sort of crawl for the first time. I saw you do it but mommy hasn't really seen it yet. That's why we got the playmat. So you have an better 'floor' to practice on. We tried to get you to do it again this weekend but you couldn't quite do it. I'm sure in a week you'll have it down.

Also you said 'da da' for the first time. I told you before that you've been vocalizing quite well. But the sounds have been monosyllabic (you can ask me what that means if you need to). Basically ooos and ahhhs and shrieks! Well today you started voicing polysyllabic sounds like, "ooh-waa-eee" and things like that. We kept saying 'ma ma' and 'da da' to you and you said 'da da' a few times tonight. Now we have to get you to say it a few more times and we have to help you understand that the sound refers to me. Then we need to do the same with 'ma ma'. That way you can call us if you need us. Once we do this you should learn words and how to talk pretty quickly. Once you understand that you can say things and make things happen as a result, I'm sure you'll master the language quickly so you can terrorize us with "Why?" and "Can we get this?". :)