Wasylik Boys World Tour ‘06

Okay, maybe not world tour, but we had a great time in New York visiting Nani and Pop Pop and many, many others. We arrived on Wednesday, and Nate met his great grandmother, Tootsie Nani, for the first time.

On Thursday, Nani and Pop Pop took us to the Bronx Zoo, where we saw a polar bear, lots of birds, a tiger, a grizzly bear, and assorted other animals, and were the sole riders on a buggy (figuratively, not literally) carousel. Pop Pop snuck into the shop and bought Alex a souvenier T-Shirt, which he lovingly refers to as “my tiger shirt.” The weather was cool, but clear and not too windy, so we were able to enjoy strolling outdoors.

On Friday, we went into Manhattan to have lunch with my Great Aunt Eva (does that make her the boys’ great great aunt?). We had a lovely lunch at the greek place a block or so away, and enjoyed walking the streets of Manhattan with Nate in the sling and Alex holding Aunt Eva’s hand. Alex also was enthralled with looking out the window of Aunt Eva’s apartment.

On Saturday, we had guests in the morning, and were guests in the evening. First, my Uncle Chris, Aunt Rosie, and Uncle Ray all came to visit. We enjoyed bagels and pasteries and each others’ company for a few hours, and they all got to meet Nate and otherwise dote on the boys. That evening, we enjoyed a fantastic sushi dinner at a cute little restaurant near Dennis and Amy’s house, then went back to their place for cookies and ice cream and the grand tour. Alex once again did great with the chopsticks and with his faux sake (water in a sake pitcher and cup!).

On Sunday, we had an amazing lunch with some friends of mine who have kids around the same age as Alex. Miranda (the blonde beauty in the pictures) and Alex share a birthday, in fact, and Emma (the dark haired, trilingual beauty) is about six months older. They, too, met Nate for the first time, and we met Miranda’s six month old little brother, Quinn, for the first time as well. We met at Emma’s house, and she had a fabulous keyboard with a microphone that Alex had a blast singing into (video will be here.) The toddlers were all so very well-behaved and played well together, which was great.

On Monday, we were on our own, as Nani and Pop Pop both had to work. I got a little crazy and decided to haul the kids into the city via the Long Island Rail Road. We really did have a great time — Alex loves all things train, and so was great about being on the LIRR and taking the subway up to the American Museum of Natural History. If you ask Alex what we saw at the muesum, he will quite accurately say “butterflies and dinosaurs.” We went through their indoor butterfly garden and got to get pretty close to some amazing butterflies, and then went up to the fourth floor to learn all about evolution and see lots of dino bones. I finally learned why I kept mistaking all of the dinos labeled apatosauraus in Alex’s various books for a brontosaurus — they are one in the same, it turns out. Discovered by the same guy, even, but he didn’t realize at the time that they were the same. They’ve decided apatosauraus is the correct name since that name came first. So everyone learned something at the natural history museum. We then went up town a few blocks so that Alex could run around at a lovely play ground, which we did for about an hour and a half before heading home. Alex was so wiped he fell asleep before the train doors closed!

On Tuesday, we did a little shopping and mostly just hung out with Nani in preparation for our flight home. At the airport, we changed both boys into (matching!) PJs, and I was able to get Nate to sleep just before we got on board. He slept for the entire flight! Alex also went to sleep, after a snack and some stories and snuggles. Truth be told, Mommy fell asleep too — it had been a loooong week. Fun, but long.