A Gracious Host - Kinda

Robert is back in town! We made plans to meet him at his hotel at 10 AM this morning and then set out for The Cloisters (a/k/a "The Castle Museum").  On this cold and rainy day, we traveled down to Manhattan with Daddy and hopped on a crosstown bus at 57th Street. 
We were so tired from yesterday, though, that we both overslept.  So, we wound up not being able to get a full breakfast.  More accurately, Mommy didn't get her coffee.  At Robert's hotel, we stopped for breakfast.  Thankfully, Robert seemed hungry too.  (At least he ordered a full breakfast.)

The ride on the A train was long, but the walk from the subway to the museum was even longer.  (Mental note: the M4 goes straight to the museum and stops right at the exit of the subway.)  Alex was still trooper.   He didn't complain once while we all trudged up the hills and more hills and still yet more hills. See, the Inwood Hills/Fort Tryon areas are two of Manhattan's completely undeveloped areas.  And one walk through Fort Tryon park will tell you why.  The place is loaded with dense Fordham Gneiss and it's practically a vertical climb up.   The expense of building there wouldn't have been worth it until the 20th century and, by then, the history was too lengthy to destroy.

At long last, we reached the Cloisters museum.  Alex was his usual patient self. (Cough, cough..)  Robert did his best to view the exhibits quickly, but this time, Alex was anxious to have Robert's attention.  "Come onnnnnn, Robert!" he whined several times.  Poor Robert.  He might be best off saving the museums he's not that interested in for the days he'll be spending with me and Alex.

The Cloisters is a small museum, though.  We were done with the place by a quarter to one. I'd already planned to travel to the Dyckman Farmhouse in Inwood if it wasn't raining too heavily.  Unfortunately, they hadn't mentioned on the website that the place has "Winter Hours" (open only on Fridays and Saturdays.)  So there the three of us were in Inwood with nothing to do - and it was lunchtime.  The only place we could find was McDonald's.  A regrouping resulted in a plan to travel to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  

Back on the A train to 110th! (With one transfer to a local train).  Then a trudge through now windy rain to Amsterdam Avenue.   It was on this walk that Alex would learn that Robert doesn't use a gun in his work as a Metropolitan Police Officer.    "No gun??" Alex asked in a tone of incredulity. "What do you use?"  When we told him that he uses a nightstick, Alex offered a solution.  "An American police officer can work for you.  They have guns."  He didn't hear that part in which Robert said that in 13 years as a police officer in Greater London, he'd used his stick only once and never found himself in a situation in which he thought "I wish I had a gun right now."  Hmmmm...maybe Alex needs to be a little bit older for that sort of lesson.

But on to St. John the Divine: I'd never been to the Cathedral before.  I now want to know more about it and how and why it was built.  I mean, I knew it was an Episcopal Church, but it's huge!! Quite possibly bigger than Saint Patrick's.  The grounds are definitely bigger than those of St. Pat's.   And it's just gorgeous inside. A main cathedral. Tons of small inner chapels.  A baptistry.  Too much to list here.

The main exhibit was one on fresh water and the current water crisis the globe is facing.  Robert toured around while Alex and I waited in the choir pews.  I wanted Alex to rest there. He wanted to play train conductor.  Guess who won?

Aaaalllll aboard!! Next stop, Larchmont!

Collecting tickets down the row of seats.



Mommy's plans for Alex's rest time/nap time never seem to go her way do they?  I'll remember these days when he's 20 and sleeps 14 hours a day again.

Too bad he didn't rest.  He didn't get a chance to see this cool statue of Saint Boniface in a chapel dedicated to him:



And Mommy didn't get to inspect this baptistry more closely.  It was donated by the descendants of Peter Stuyvesant in the 1920s. 

Though not visible in this photo, there are supposedly tulips and windmills carved into it as an homage to the Dutch heritage of New York City.

And, just how liberal is the Episcopalian Church these days?  Just in case you missed that part about the Cathedral hosting art exhibits about the fresh water crisis and the unequal distribution of this precious resource, there was this, carved into one of the frames surrounding the altar area.

The figures there are (fr. l to r), Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, Susan B. Anthony and Mohandas K. Gandhi.   Icons of peace, equality and modern learning.

Yeah, I'd say they've drawn their line in the sand, especially since this newly carved figure follows a line of icons like Lincoln, Washington, Shakespeare, Gallileo and Columbus.  Other than Shakespeare, there's a lot of Enlightment stuff going on there, yes?   Maybe it's just me.

We had already planned to have dinner with Daddy.  So, we got on an M4 bus and rode it all the way to 59th.  By now, the wind was bitter cold and damp.  The walk east was uncomfortable. Worse still was that we had to reach Third Avenue to find a selection of restaurants.

We'd worked up such an appetite that even Alex ate his dinner and half of the ice cream I ordered for him.  Dinner!! Alex hasn't eaten dinner in quite some time.  Between the Cloisters and St. John the Divine, perhaps there was some influence from on high? 

Ice Cream! Yum!

 We got a late train home - an 8:40!! And it was crowded, so poor Alex had to sit on Daddy's bag as a seat.  There was little to no trouble getting him to bed.

Robert leaves New York on Friday morning for Washington, DC. Unfortnately, we have Preschool Ecology tomorrow and it doesn't end until 2.  So, we said our goodbyes at Grand Central.

Until next time Robert!!

Clownin' Around in Vanderbilt Hall

Mommy was hungry.  They'd had a busy afternoon at Central Park, playing in the playgrounds and walking around talking to doggies.  It was time for dinner! Mommy took Alex straight to Grand Central so that they could leave as soon as they finished eating.

Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus had other ideas...

For the past two years, the circus has not been able to perform at its usual NYC haunt of Madison Square Garden.  They'd instead booked some time in two NJ arenas and the Nassau Colliseum.  In order to let New Yorkers know that they were still around, they had an exhibit in Vanderbilt Hall of Grand Central Station.  

It included clown jackets and a green screen photo.  Props and everything!

Green screened! 
We wore the jackets. Alex sat on a stationary unicycle

It included popcorn and 18 dollar plastic Dragon Swords!  (%$#%$ing Ringling Brothers...)  It included Elephant Art and an entry form to win one!  It included souvenirs and fortune cookies and plastic clown noses!  ("Dragons" - from, this year, the Year of the Dragon)

It even included a clown show.  Right there in Grand Central Terminal. This charming photo was taken after the show with Arthur Adventure and his sidekicks, Mike and Dan (pictured).

Alex and Dan the Clown

So, Alex learned a lesson about not wanting to leave playgrounds.  He sure did!!  Do it - and there will be clowns!!

Well, sometimes there will be.

Earning a Trip to the Pyramids

Alex has been operating under a new reward system.  He now gets stars for having listened to Mommy or paying attention to all the rules in class or doing his homework.  And there are no toys to be won in this reward system.   There are only treats and adventures.   At the end of last week, Alex won 30 stars.  Ten percent of them are to be banked, but he can spend the remaining stars as he wishes.  He wished to spend 20 stars on an adventure.

Mommy had her midterm this morning.  There was no way she felt like dashing back to Alex's music class right after school.  (We are not taking that class again. Too bad. I liked the program, but it MUST be held earlier in the day for preschoolers.  Sigh.) So, she offered a choice to Alex.  We could go to Music School, and if we did, he could have Alex time after we got home.  We could stay in Manhattan, but he had to take a half hour Rest Time if we did that.  Or we could go straight home and he could nap and wind up with a colored in Angry Bird and three more stars. 

He knows that Central Park is just a few blocks away from school. What do you think he chose?

Yeah.  That.

Our first playground wasn't so intriguing to him. It was pretty and rustic and all, but it had no fun equipment.  I promised him that another was just down the walkway.    It was a smaller version of the Ancient Playground; the one located across the Traverse from the Ancient Egyptian exhibit of the Met. (And which you can see from the glass walls of the cafe and the Temple of Dendur.)

Pyramids! Temples! Sand!! He was in his glory.

That pyramid had a ladder going up to the top from inside the tunnel.  Alex was, at first, afraid to climb down the ladder.  When some older boys overheard me encouraging him to try it, one of them offered to show him how.  After that, Alex cautiously tried it and surprised himself with the result.  He became ALL about his new skill then!

After having jumped from a low rung

Slowly climbing down

 

SO much fun was had. 

Mommy felt badly about telling Alex that they had to leave briefly to go find a rest room.  She promised with all of her heart that he could come back to the playground if he liked.   On the walk to the restroom, we spotted a pretty special squirrel. 

He was red.

 But after we'd used the bathroom, Alex wanted to keep walking.  We did until we found another playground.  (This one less taxing on Mommy. Yay!)    It had a nice slide and climbing pipe frame and a cool sand pit.  Alex and Mommy stopped to see the sand pit and Alex joined in playing with two younger boys, one of whom nicely offered to share his sand digging toys with Alex.   That boy's name was Carson and he was with his grandma Ronni. Carson was only a month past two, but so incredibly articulate.  He was able to ask Alex his name, remember it and even say goodbye to Alex in the right context. 

It was soon 4:30 and turning cold.  Mommy told Alex that we had to leave and he was happy about it in the least. (Lots of crying. So much for "Rest Time" doing the work of a nap.)  But there was one more event to brighten Alex's day.  We didn't know it when we got on the bus headed for Grand Central, but we were going to the circus that day...

From Preschool to College, or is it Both?

This will be a month of firsts for Alex and Mommy.  It will be Alex's first time in a preschool setting with a full day's attendance.  It will be Mommy's first time back in a college class in a very long time.

And this month will bring the first time the two of us have been apart for any length of time on a regular basis.

I wonder which one of us will take it harder? 

(Actually, I don't wonder that at all.)

Side Effects May Include Weight Gain and Cavities

My poor boy was running a fever this morning. After some uncharacteristic vomiting, he took a nap at 10:30.  When I took his temp through the morning, it continued to climb towards 102.  When it hit 101.7, I gave him the bad news that he would need to take the cherry medicine (acetaminophen).  When he responded pretty badly, I researched ibuprofen's effect on fever reduction.  Turns out that some researchers concluded it to be even better at reducing fever in children.  I had some good news for him. He could have the grape medicine.

After about an hour, he felt so much better that he could help me with the garden, where we had discovered that a squirrel had helped itself to the seeds inside the bigger pumpkin.  Alex was intrigued by the idea that pumpkin seeds were edible.  Then there was a connection to marshmallows (from a discussion of our upcoming Christmas Eve brunch).  I told Alex that after we were done, we could go to the store and get pumpkin seeds and marshmallows.  I really wasn't concerned about his diet today.  He needed to eat something.  It might as well be those two.

The pumpkin seeds bombed, but the marshmallows were a hit.

I commented that he seemed to really be feeling better and that I was grateful that I'd found out that the grape medicine could help him.  Alex had another theory:

"I think it was the marshmallows that did it.  Yeah, definitely the marshmallows made me feel better."

Our Christmas Adventure - Part II

Since we were all done with Hunter by about 12:30, I decided to see if I could fit as much of our typical Christmas Adventure in on that day as I could.   We wound up doing it all!  
We left Hunter at around 1:30 and walked to Fifth, taking a downtown bus.  We got off at 56th and walked back to 57th to see Tiffany's windows. Since I had to pick Alex up to see them, I didn't get any photos of his enjoyment of them, but he did enjoy them a lot. They have a carousel theme this year and their windows show carousel animals getting free and roaming Central Park. Here's a link to photos that are of a much better quality than my camera (or skill) can take.
http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/the-holiday-windows-at-tiffany-company-2011

From there, we walked down Fifth to Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Alex fondly remembered our visit to Saint Bart's last year, so once we were in front of St. Pat's, he agreed to go in. He was thrilled to be around so much majesty. Because Dan still identifies as a Catholic, I took Alex to some saints' shrines and lit candles there with him, telling him to keep Daddy and his family in mind while we did. I also took him to see the large creche there and I realized that he didn't understand what it was because he'd never heard the Nativity Story. (Hicksite Quakers don't place a lot of emphasis on literal interpretation of the Bible, viewing the stories as illustrative moral lessons instead of history. The Hicksite view of the nativity is that the story contained in Luke is a mixture of fact and fiction and that it did not take place in December anyway.) I told him that I would explain the scene in front of him with Daddy.

This is Alex at the main altar of the Cathedral.



Our next stop was Rockefeller Center.  At night, during this time of year, this area is too crowded to take a child into, but during the day, it has a lighter crowd. Here's Alex at the Angel Promenade




And at the tree:


At Rockefeller Center, there's a new store - the answer to every Lego junkie's dreams. A Lego Store at which shoppers can fill up a cup with Lego pieces from a whole wall of buckets of pieces. Alex was in his glory!!! That's the wall behind him in this photo. I helped him fill his cup with a bunch of unusual pieces, such as axels, hinges, wheels, etc. He's been able to build so many things from it. Not bad for $7.99 I think.


At this point, given that we'd been mobile since about 8 AM, Alex was tired and, at the same time, was excited to play with his new Legos. I suggested that we get some hot cocoa and treats which would give him lots of time to play with his Legos right now. I asked him where we should get this hot cocoa and he immediately said "F.A.O. Schwarz!!!!".  We took a bus back up to 58th, but the Schwarz cafe was a little crowded and I knew he was anxious to play with his Legos. So, I suggested another "cool" place: Bloomingdale's! (I was flubbing. I didn't think he would think it was all that cool and it doesn't even have a toy department. But it does have Santa and it's right across the street from Dan's office. I was aiming for a Santa visit with Daddy in attendance.)

We walked up 58th to Lexington Avenue. If I'd been hoping to make Dan's part in it a surprise, this sharp little guy caught on quickly. He immediately recognized Dan's office building. Oh well. He surprised me again when we walked into Bloomingdale's. He announced that it was a really cool place indeed.  We went to the 6th floor to get some hot cocoa and fancy cupcakes at Cafe B. Alex didn't ever care if we left. He had his hot chocolate and his new Legos and he was in little boy heaven.



I had to ask him several times if he wanted to go see Santa in person. Since he'd received the personalized videos Santa had sent (from Portable North Pole), he figured he didn't need to see Santa again. "I talk to Santa all the time now.". I urged him that it was very different in person.

Once he SAW Santa - he was excited again. Once Dan arrived there, I snuck over to a register to buy a small pack of Matchbox cars so that Santa could hand them to Alex in his visit. (They'll do it only if there's no crowd where other kids will see it.) This is Alex receiving the cars. NOW he's all about Santa again.



On the walk south from Bloomingdales to Saint Bart's, he told me that he and Santa were now best friends.

We took Park Avenue south and took in lots of the lights. 


I didn't get photos of our visit to Saint Bart's. It was very dim inside and Alex distracted me with his deep conversation. We lit a candle there too and stayed a little inside a side chapel that had a (Byzantine like) mosaic of Mary and baby Jesus. In another chapel, we came across someone fervently praying and in crisis, so we ducked out quietly. Alex - who doesn't usually like dark places - wanted to sit down and talk. He told me that Jesus loves everyone. He also said that it's sad to be alone and that he doesn't want to come between me and Dan.  (????) I tried to get him to talk more on it, but he wanted to talk more about the sadness of loneliness and how he feels sorry for anyone who is alone. It touched me.

From Saint Bart's, we walked through the Met Life building to Grand Central and then back out to 42nd so we could get to Bryant Park. It's one of our traditions to ride the carousel there next to the rink and in sight of the large tree in the park. 





And for our last stop before dinner; but not the least for Alex - a visit to the train display at the New York Transit Museum store in Grand Central. Again, my crappy camera doesn't do it justice (and my video of it was taken sideways), but it's amazing. 


By the time we wrapped up here, I was absolutely famished and so was Alex, so we stopped at a Mexican restuarant in the Dining Concourse of Grand Central. We caught at 8:10 train home.

Alex went RIGHT to sleep - needless to say.

A Day of Christmas Surprises, Part I

As further incentive for potty training, I had promised Alex that we would be visiting Hunter College's Children's Learning Center again.    (The idea being that he would love it there and want to make sure he was potty-trained so that he could go there on a regular basis.)  I made my appointment to meet the director of the center at 11 AM, but we rode the train in with Daddy.  This left us arriving at Hunter about 90 minutes or so before our appointment.  I had planned for this, hoping to use this time to get some preparation of my own out of the way.   I'd spent the night before printing out things like my unofficial transcript from Westchester Community - so that I could qualify for advanced classes at Hunter and my immunization/titre records, so that I could hand those in and be cleared for registration.   I considered it to be a good day if I got one of the four tasks I'd planned accomplished.

First, Alex agreed to come with me to the Welcome Center where I learned about transferring in as a second degree student, getting an ID card, getting prerequisites approved for advanced classes and registering for said classes.   Then, he agreed to come with me to the health center to hand in my immunization evidence.  But we arrived before they were open, so we went back to the cafeteria to have a mid-morning snack.    After which, we went to the Economics Department to find out who I was to speak to for approval of my prerequisites.   At this point, Alex was telling everyone he ran into that he was a secret agent and that he couldn't tell anyone his name. (He was dressed all in black.)  This is what he said to the Administrative Assistant, Paulette too.  

Now, mind you, all of this back-and-forth business involved traveling between the North and West buildings through the glass skywalk.   We did this multiple times before our appointment time came up.  Alex didn't complain once.   In fact, he said "Hello" to everyone he passed, telling me "I'm making so many new friends here!!"

Once we got the info from the Economics Department, we still had some time before our appointment would come, so we went to the bookstore to get Alex a Hunter sweatshirt. Now, he felt like a real college student. He was no longer Alex Delgado, Secret Agent. He was now, Alex Delgado, Hunter College BMOC, flirting with all of the girls. 

At the Children's Learning Center, we met Miss Rita, the Director of the Center and Miss Evelyn, one of the teachers there.  They told me a big ol' secret...Alex has pretty much met their definition of "potty trained" already.  If the teacher is told that he needs reminders to go, then they're OK with that.  They also both assured me that after a few weeks of being around other children who go on their own that he won't need reminders.   They were far more concerned with the fact that he'd never spent many hours separated from me and encouraged me to make sure that my class time isn't really long.   Ssssshhhh! Don't tell Alex.  I've got Santa on my side, encouraging Alex to tell us when he has to go.

Speaking of Santa...he comes in later in this story.  We still had stuff to do at Hunter.  Wrapping it up at the Children's Learning Center was easy once Miss Evelyn explained to Alex that she had to close up the classroom.  At that point, we went back to the Economics Department to speak to the advisor there. (Prof. Sevak).  She was with a student at the time we arrived, so we had to wait a while in the hallway.  Alex was still patient!  Sure, I had to remind him to not block the pathway, but he was amazingly good!!  Surely, I had to bring Santa in on this day of surprises.

Professor Sevak approved me for the class I wanted and suggested to me how I could go about saving both time and money getting to the MA program.  She also suggested that I speak to the Department's Graduate Advisor about it.   I was quite hungry at this point and I was sure my little guy was too.  We headed back downstairs to the cafeteria for lunch where Alex had pizza.   By that time, I was wondering about him.  I asked him if it was OK if we made one more stop.   He said it was.
So, we went back to the North building to go to the Health Center so that I could hand in my immunization records, but not until we'd stopped at Office Services where they made a copy of my lab report for me.   Handing in the paperwork took longer than expected and yet, Alex still had patience!  This kid is just amazing sometimes, I'll tell you.  Santa must hear of this. 

In the meantime of all of this going on - from 9:20 to just short of 1:30 - Alex used the public potty twice, both times urging me that he had to go once we were in the stall.  OK, those count towards prizes at this time.

This was a big day of surprises.  I'd gone in with the expectation of getting only one of my four tasks done.  Instead, I got three done.  I'd gone in with the expectation of having to tell Alex when to go potty. Instead, after I had to go to the bathroom, he piped in with his own requests.    I'd gone in with the expectation that Alex couldn't possibly have the patience to come along with me from one department to another.  Instead, he was just proud to do so - once I got him his new Hunter College sweatshirt. 

Oh yes, Santa will have to hear of this.