This past October Abigail and I went to New York to visit the Neff family east coast contingent. Jake was set to travel to China on business sometime in 2012, so I determined long ago that I would take that opportunity to spend some quality time with my nieces, and Abigail with her cousins. I wish that I could say that I am a great traveler, jet-setting about as I please, but it's not true. Flying is not my favorite activity, and I suffer from motion sickness on long car rides (thanks a lot, Dad), so I find that years will tick by with the best of intentions to visit friends in northern California, the Moely family farm in Wisconsin, a long list of great friends in the DC area, or the multitude of wonderful national parks within road trip distance of San Diego. This is something I truly need to work on. My goal for this year was New York and Sacramento, but only one of those happened. Adding the toddler factor into the equation certainly does not increase the chances of leaving town, since everything is complicated by one recently potty trained two year old and all the scheduling that comes with her, but we made it happen, and I'm so glad we did.
 |
| On a real airplane early in the morning |
 |
| Moving sidewalks were very exciting |
 |
| My little champ traveler |
 |
| Excited about being close to the airplanes |
Abigail was excited to get on the airplane, and she behaved wonderfully throughout the entire trip to NYC. It was some serious work for me, juggling trips to the potty, coloring books, reading quietly, molding clay, playing memory, and telling stories. The flight was actually just under 5 hours, but I was "on" the entire time. She couldn't have behaved better, and she sang her ABCs over and over again as we descended. There were a lot of families on the flight, which made it all very low stress for me as I watched the other kiddos walk the aisles and watch movies on iPads. It was a good trip.
 |
| Eveline and Abigail quietly held hands for much of the ride from the airport to Brooklyn |
Michael and Eveline picked us up at the airport and we proceeded to their lovely apartment in Brooklyn. The girls took to one another instantly, and it was so fun to watch them play. The three of them colored and cooked, ran and danced, and generally enjoyed each others' company. Stephan was the ultimate host, cooking for us and taking us all around town, even when her girls were in school and she could have been spending some rare time alone. I'm very grateful to have her as my sister-in-law.
Abigail was very, very excited to use the subway system, and boy did she impress me with her ability to be flexible, especially in relation to her recent potty training. She did not have one accident about town, despite the fact that numerous times she had to wait up to 20 minutes to find a restroom. We are really never in that situation at home, so I worried a little. We got rid of two crutches by going to NYC. The first is that she used a potty seat that I would carry around in the diaper bag when we were out and about, but I decided that I was absolutely not going to carry it around in a backpack in NY, so I left it home. No problem, and now she doesn't need it anymore. She also learned to go to the bathroom before leaving the house, which is something I could not get her to do before. When I told her that if she wanted to go on the train she had to go potty first, since there are no potties on the train, she decided that was very reasonable. Now she will pretty consistently use the bathroom when asked to if we are going to drive somewhere far or leave the house for an extended period. Awesome.
 |
| Plugging her ears when the subway pulls in |
 |
| Ticket for the ferris wheel inside toys 'r us |
 |
| Love |
 |
| Cheers |
 |
| Matching bows |
 |
| Playing in Washington Square Park |
 |
| Finding Uncle Danny |
 |
| Fun times together |
 |
| Lyra looooves Danny |
We spent one entire day walking around Manhattan with Danny, eating and seeing sights. It was a long, napless day for Abigail, but she really enjoyed it. We visited a college friend of mine and met her adorable baby. Danny treated us to lunch and a carriage ride in Central Park. We stopped to listen to musicians and to light a candle in St. Peters Cathedral. Abigail was taking it all in and enjoying the sights. We got home just under the meltdown line and she crashed. Unfortunately, Danny's only day off was the day before we flew home. It would have been nice to spend this day together early in the trip and see the two of them banter a little more. We had dinner together prior to spending the day with Danny, and Abigail hid from him most of that visit. But he won her over, and I got to see where my little bro lives and works. We miss you, Danny.
 |
| Abigail warming up to Danny on our day long adventure |
 |
| Carriage ride in Central Park |
Some other highlights: chatting with Michael while Abigail napped over a cup of tea, seeing Johnny working, and chatting with him when he came over to keep me company on Michael & Stephan's night out, watching Abigail taste her first ice cream scoop with Aunt Stephan, and hearing the little girls call to each other first thing in the morning or after a nap.
The trip home was a little more rough for Abigail. We flew out at 4:30 pm EST and landed at 7:30 pm San Diego time, so she was very tired. Add to that the fact that she didn't nap the previous day or the day of flying, since we left for the airport around nap time. Of course, being my non-sleeper, she didn't fall asleep until the plane was literally about to hit the runway, so the last hour of the flight she complained and really wanted to be home.
I was also yelled at by a grumpy old man sitting in front of Abigail, which upset me more than I thought possible. Abigail's legs are too short to hit the seat in front of her, but she was using the tray table for different things, like coloring and eating, and she was also playing with it. About 2 hours into the flight the man stood up and screamed at me that I needed to keep my child under control. Then he turned around and put his headphones back in without even looking at me. I started crying, not sure why, but I just couldn't help it. Abigail turned to me and said, "Ma ma sad?", but I couldn't stop for a couple of minutes. I guess it was just stress. I was working so hard to keep her happy and to control the situation out of consideration for the other passengers, so to be criticized harshly despite the fact that he did not once ask nicely for me to limit her use of the tray table was really upsetting to me. That's life.
Luckily once she fell asleep she stayed asleep, which was really amazing. I waited until every last person was off the plane, took her head off of my lap and placed it on the seat, strapped on my backpack and positioned our suitcase with the rolling handle in place, carried her off of the plane and transferred her to the stroller, waited 20 minutes for the car service that picked us up, strapped her into the car seat, drove the 20 minutes home from the airport, and transferred her to her bed. That was the most tired I've ever felt at 8:30 pm at night.
 |
| Going home to see Daddy |
I didn't get one picture of myself with my brothers, Stephan, or my nephew Johnny. We saw him three times and it was great to hug him and to see that he is doing alright. We now have quite a group of New Yorkers in our family, which I think is nice. Of course I miss them, but I'm glad they are close enough to see one another and to support each other as needed. I only wish New York was in California. Love you so much!
Missing New York! Glad you took the little miss.
ReplyDelete