Am I There, Yet?

I love
New York City.  There’s always something going on.  It truly is the city that never sleeps.

 

My mom was in town last week.  We had a really great visit with her and wish she could’ve stayed longer.

 

While she was here, we took advantage of Kids’ Night on Broadway and took Lilly & Titus to see The Little Mermaid.  It was snowing, so I wanted to start our little trip early to give room for delays.  I pulled the kids out of school 40 minutes early and drove to the train station.  Found a parking spot (Wahoo!).  I know…it’s probably nutso to get excited over a parking spot, but I already had parking tokens and didn’t want to pay double to park in a private lot.  The spot was on my left and I was getting ready to pull into it when a driver behind me decided they didn’t want to wait for me.  He wanted to pass me.  Problem was that there was no room to pass me on the right, so he decided to pass me on the LEFT as I was pulling LEFT into an empty parking spot.  No collision happened…thank God!  But, it was a close call. 

 

I was later telling Josh about it and had to explain it to him several times.  He didn’t believe that somebody would pass somebody else…on the left…as the first somebody was pulling into a parking spot…on the left.  (How long has he lived in Jersey…and why he was surprised is beyond me.)  He asked, “What did you do?”

 

“I honked my horn.”  (Of course…what else would I do?)

 

“Did you beep-beep honk, or did you lay on the horn?”

 

“I lay on the horn.  I don’t beep-beep anymore…I’m a Jersey girl now.”  He laughed.

 

What?  Am I supposed to be courteous and polite to the guy who almost hit me???

 

In spite of our near collision, we made it to the train station in time to catch the earlier train.  We arrived in the city 40 minutes earlier than planned.  I was pretty excited about this because now we could change our plans.  I originally planned to eat dinner in the theater district so we would be close to the theater, but we now had time to head down to the kids’ favorite restaurant near Union Square.  The problem was that I made a big mistake.  I relied on my flawed memory to get us there.  The N, Q, R, W, 4, 5 & 6 trains go to Union Square.  We walked over to Herald Square and grabbed the train downtown.  However, we grabbed the D train.  I was thinking the B, D & F trains also stopped at Union Square.  Of course, I didn’t figure out that we were on the wrong train until we were crossing the East River and could see the Brooklyn Bridge out the window.  Ugh!  I felt so stupid.  We got off the train in Brooklyn and grabbed the 4 train back to Manhattan and Union Square. 

 

We entered the magical world of Max Brenner Chocolate.  Willy Wonka truly does exist.  The hostess greeted us by saying, “Oh look!  Kids!”  I laughed out loud.  She asked me if they were allergic to nuts.  I told her they weren’t so she took us to the candy bar and passed out caramelized chocolate-covered pecans.  Yum!  Dinner was great…dessert was fantastic.  The kids shared half of a Chocolate Pizza.  Mom had the Chocolate Chai Tea and I had the Vanilla Profiterole Fondue Skewers.  Need I say more?

 

After dinner we took the correct train to the theater district.  It was a slow train, but it got us to our destination.  I’m not sure why it was slow, but do you ever notice that people talk on the train to strangers only when there are problems on the train?  While the train is going, everybody pretends they are the only passengers on board.  When the train stops for no reason…people start talking.  It’s kinda strange, if you ask me.  Titus was talking to me about who knows what and the guy next to me starts laughing.  He looks at Titus and says, “You’re one funny little guy, you know that?”  Titus nodded his head.  Of course he knows he’s funny.  I just wish I now remembered what he was telling me.  I have no idea what tickled this stranger’s funny bone.  Most of our conversations on the train have to do with the advertising posters.  We had an earlier conversation about bed bugs…but that was on the Brooklyn bound train.

 

Anyways…the show started at 7:00.  It was fantastic…of course.  Most Broadway shows are.  The first half went by without incident.  We even had a great view because nobody was sitting in the row in front of us.  The second half was a little bit more adventurous.  It started with some not-so-tiny seat hoppers deciding to take advantage of the empty row in front of us.  Halfway through the 2^nd act, they regretted their decision and quickly went back to their original seats.  Why?  Because Titus decided his chocolate pizza didn’t agree with his tummy.

 

That’s right…my 6-year-old son vomited in the Lunt-Fontanne Theater in Manhattan.  He puked all over the floor and on the people sitting in the row in front of us in the middle of “If Only.”  I grabbed him and walked as fast as I could to the lobby, ripped off his clothes and did laundry using the bathroom sink and hand dryer while he shivered and fussed about having to be in the women’s bathroom…as if puking in a public place wasn’t humiliating enough…

 

When the actors took their final bow, I made my way back to our seats to assess the damage.  The people behind us were kind enough to give us an entire package of baby wipes, but there’s only so much you can do.  I was grateful for their sympathy.  They told me their youngest was a puker, so they understood.

I was bummed I didn’t get to watch the end of the show…but, I’m told that Eric and Ariel got together and lived happily ever after.  (I hope I didn’t ruin the ending for anybody…Sorry if I did!)
 

I hope that we don’t single handedly discourage Broadway from doing Kids Night on Broadway from this point on.  If the program shuts down…you can blame the kid who puked during The Little Mermaid…my kid.

 

We left the theater and made our way back to the train station.  We got to Penn Station just in time for Titus to mention he had to throw up again.  Mom took him over to a trash can and held him over it while Titus tried to empty his stomach again.  It’s amazing how much space you can get in a crowded train terminal when you have a puking child.  Our gate was called and we walked to the platform and somehow managed to get an entire train car to ourselves.  I should take Titus with me to NYC more often.  I’m sure I can train him to fake puke in order to get some personal space. 

 

O.K.  That’s about all I can blog right now.  My life continues to keep me on my toes.  Mom left and everybody got sick.  Titus has strep throat, Lydia has ear infections in both ears, Lilly has pink eye, Josh has a migraine and our toilet is about to fall through the floor and into the kitchen below.  But…I’ll blog about that some other time.

Inevitably distractions show up every time I sit down to blog.  Imagine that!  So, I thought I’d post some Christmas pictures to get started and then do a real blog post sometime this week.

 

We had a nice Christmas/New Years.  I ended up having to take Titus in to the hospital on Christmas day.  He had a fever of 104.2…but it was written off as “just a virus” and was fine within a couple days.  It put a minor cramp on our Christmas celebration, but the important thing was that everybody stays healthy. 

 

We had a nice Christmas break.  We spent most of the time at home, but did venture into NYC on New Years Eve Eve.  The kids didn’t get a chance to see the tree this season, so we took advantage of a slightly warmer/less wet day to do so.

 

So now we are in the New Year and I am able to catch my breath.  I finally got those Christmas cards out.  I’m calling them Valentine’s Day cards to make myself feel better.  Haha.

 

All for now…here are some Christmas pics:

Last weekend we took the kids to their Mixed Martial Arts tournament.  This was the 2nd time they competed in this tournament and they did great.  Lilly won 3rd place in kickboxing and 2nd place in grappling.  No other girl placed higher than her in her groups…so she’s the #1 girl (in my book!)    She’s so driven…she’s already talking about the next tournament and how she’s bringing home the 1st place trophy.

Titus didn’t bring home a trophy, but he tried his hardest.  I’m very proud of him for not letting his loss discourage him and for being proud of his sister.  He was her biggest fan.  He was promoted last week from a yellow belt to a green belt.  The promotion gave him a much needed morale boost.  He’d been talking about quitting MMA for about a month now.  I don’t want to be a parent who pushes, but I encouraged him to continue with the tournament training and compete in the tournament and then we’ll talk about doing something else besides MMA.  He agreed, but now that he recieved this promotion he’s found a new love for MMA.  He’s now asking to go to classes again. 

Lydia’s doing great.  She, Titus and I have been sick this past month…fighting all kinds of garbage and sharing it around.  Ugh!  Anyways…she’s not a complainer.  She’s been in high spirits.  One time I didn’t even realize she had a fever because she was smiling and acting as if nothing was wrong.  I hate how fast she’s growing up.  I see newborns and can’t fathom that Lydia was that tiny only 7 months ago.  She’s a big girl, too…off the percentile charts.  She’s outgrowing her size 12-months clothes.  Crazy. 

Merry Christmas!!!

I was playing a video game where they give out grades for performance.  They don’t give out “F”s but they do give out “E”s.  I got an “E”.  Lilly was pointing my failure out and Titus said, “Do you know what “E” stands for?”  I thought he was going to say “Rated ’E’ for Everyone” because we hear that on video game commercials.  I asked, “What is it ‘E’ for?”  He said “’E’ is for That’s Awkward!”

I’m pretty upset with myself right now.  Ugh!

 

I ordered 100 Christmas cards with an adorable picture of the kids…plus a couple other personalized photo items as gifts for the grandparents.  I ordered them on Black Friday thinking they’d easily get here on time.  I’ve been wondering where they are and just assumed they were coming.  I didn’t bother checking on them.  Well…this morning I started panicking.  If I don’t get them out in the mail soon then they won’t get to friends and family on time.

 

I went over to the website that I ordered them from and noticed they were shipped to the wrong address.  I changed the billing address and could’ve sworn I also changed the shipping address.  I guess I didn’t because they were shipped to our old house via UPS.  They were dropped off over a week ago at an empty house. 

 

My wonderful husband (who is so good at trying his hardest to rescue me in times of distress) drove over to the other house (a ½ hour drive) to look for them.  I’m stressing out at this point.  If they happen to still be there…they’re probably ruined from the bad weather we had last week.  Well…the package wasn’t there. 

 

Now what?

We caught Lydia testing out some new skills a few days ago.  Check it out:

Her trick doesn’t seem so new anymore…once she figured out how to do it…it seems that every time I turn around she’s standing up. We think she’s pretty cute.

“Write on your blog so you have memories recorded.”

 

I just read those words of advice and figured I needed to catch up over here.  It’s easy to slack off.  I can find every excuse in the book.  “I really need to __________ first before I can blog.”  “Nobody reads it anyways.”  “I can’t put all my thoughts into words right now.”

 

However, the advice is good.  It’s true.  I like to look back on my blog and see where I was a year ago (pregnant)…two years ago (just moved to NJ)…three years ago (uncertain of our future).  I can’t believe that February marks my 4 year blogiversary.

 

So, what’s been going on here?  We’re gearing up for Christmas…had a wonderful Thanksgiving. 
Lydia is crawling all over the place and cute as can be.  Lilly and Titus are both doing great in school and karate.  They have a karate tournament coming up this weekend and both REALLY want to bring home a trophy or two.  Titus has had a few bumps in the road at school.  Some kids have been picking on him.  He told me that kids were making fun of him for a couple of things.  One day he sat on the bench during recess because some of his classmates told him he couldn’t play with them.  Another kid called him “stupid” on the bus.  (That kid later apologized.)  That’s been hard to watch.  But, he still likes his school and doesn’t complain about having to go. 

 

I started karate a couple weeks ago.  This is the first time I’ve been back since finding out I was pregnant over a year ago.  It feels great to be working out again and I’ve gotta get rid of my white belt because the kids keep teasing me about it.  LOL!  It’s good for me to get out and do that a couple nights a week…it’s the only “me” time I get.  Since I work 7 days a week as a “stay-at-home-mom” I don’t get much “me” time. 

 

Speaking of “me” time…I took a mom-cation last weekend.  It was only for a few hours, but I was able to get away for awhile.  I decided to go to NYC and take in the Christmas sights and do some shopping.  Well…I made the mistake of spending the day in mid-town…knowing full well that the tourists mostly hang out there.  It was insanely crowded…lines of people waiting to get inside stores.  If I was serious about getting some shopping done I should’ve gone elsewhere.  No shopping was accomplished.  But, I did get to see a lot of the NYC Christmas sights.  I walked from Macy’s (on 34^th) up 5th Ave and over to Bloomingdales and Barneys (on 61^st).  You can see some of the sights I saw on my photoblog:  http://fuzzyshot.com/jerseygirl .  Those are all taken from my phone so you can also map the pictures.  The window displays were fun to look at.  It was fun to get away.

 

Anyways…that’s what’s up in my neck of the woods.

 

I’d love to receive comments…just so I can throw the “nobody reads anyways” excuse out the window.  J

11/16: The Evidence of Heart Change from Princeton Alliance Church on Vimeo.