Seeing the world through different eyes
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
We're in NYC for Thanksgiving and today we went up to the Central Park Zoo with Evvy's 2 year old cousin, Eli. It was a great afternoon, save the fact that my daughter has chosen this trip to NYC to boycott her stroller-which means I strapped her to my chest for our entire walk through the zoo. Oh and did I mention that Evvy is not so fond of shoes? Eli's favorite phrase by the end of the day was "shoe alert! Shoe alert!!" Because that's what I said every single time my daughter's shoes were kicked off. Which totalled about 50.
Anyhow, I kept my eyes on my kid more than anything else. And she kept her eyes on the entire world. The lights, the noises, the tall buildings, the trees- it was a visual playground for my 8 month old daughter. And I got to see NYC through her eyes. Everywhere she looked I looked. She was absolutely exhausted. Yawns for days...but it didn't matter- she wasn't going to miss a thing. Reminded me of myself back in the day...didnt matter how tired I was. I could sleep when I got back to LA.
We got through the zoo, then walked down Fith Ave past the silver clad windows of Bergdorf Goodman, the lit up red bow of Cartier, the horns and the yelling and the every day average sounds of NYC- all unfamiliar to my little girl. When it was time to go home, it was 4 PM. For those of you who don't know, that's the time that many many cabs go off duty, making finding one a nearly impossible feat. We walked and walked. We tried the stroller, but she wasn't having it. It started to spit, but she a hat on and didn't care if she got a little wet as long as she could look up and see everything. We walked fromthe east side to the west side. I sang her songs as she yawned, hoping to make her sleep, but instead they made her laugh which truthfully, was probably better than sleep ever would have been. There were no cabs to be found and while my feet were ready to fall off, I decided I'd rather sacrifice my feet than take the subway in the age of swine flu.
We walked down 9th, which was a veritable parking lot and around 45th I realized that my child was going to have to get in her stroller if we were going to make it downtown. She screamed, I walked faster and 3 short blocks later, at 42nd, we finally found a cab. The second we got inside, away from the lights and the sounds and the smells, my little girl fell asleep in my arms.
It was exhausting. Made me question whether or not I could truly have a baby in this city. My feet freaking killed (still do), my hair was a disaster (still is), my child barely napped (and for those of you that have kids, you know that's a NIGHTMARE.)
But. At the end of the day, I can honestly say that it was the best view I've ever had of NYC.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Posted byMeesh-elle my Belle at 8:31 PM
sounds perfect :)
happy thanksgiving.
I used to think about that all the time, about what it would be like to have a baby in NYC. It just seems so dramatic. Like, I feel like everything would just be so much more taxing and stressful. Good thing I'm done living in NYC and not even close to having a baby, no?