A well travelled boy

On Saturday Sammy and I got back from a three day trip to New York City.  My husband's sister recently moved to the upper west side, and so I took Sammy (courtesy of a $150 plane ride with Delta) to the big apple for the first time.  It had snowed the day before and it was still lying on the ground when we got there.  Sammy was elated and kept trying to hold it, then getting upset when it disappeared and his hands got too cold (and his gloves got wet!).

I have only been to New York City once before (3 years ago) and had forgotten how much I love it there.  As much as I adore the countryside, fresh air, walking and hills, I do love a good city.  I love the selection of shops, even though I cannot afford to shop in 99% of them.  I love love love the architectural mouldings on the buildings.  The funny thing about that is, I never really noticed them before my sister-i n-law pointed them out, and now I think they are so pretty and ornate.  A little delicate piece of artwork on a huge lifeless building.  My two favourite things about NYC are the food and the opportunity to just walk.  Everything I ate whilst I was there was the best!  I had the best slice of pizza I have ever eaten (chicken mole!), I had the best pad thai (and only $9 for a huge portion!) and the best of all was a cookie cupcake from Crumbs bakery.  It was the best $4.50 I have ever spent.  The cake tasted like it was half yellow/half white with a funnel of chocolate ganache through the middle.  The frosting was cookie dough flavoured and there was a small delicious cookie placed delicately on the top.  Seriously, this thing was a piece of art.  It belonged in a museum. http://www.crumbs.com/cupcakes#product=114

We visited the Natural History Museum, Central Park (and its zoo), Times Square, FAO Schwartz, Riverside Park and so many more places.  Samuel and I just loved having the opportunity to walk everywhere.  The temperature was late 30's, early 40's and so we just suited up with coats, hats and gloves and walked until we (well I, he was in the pram) was achy and stiff.  It sounds weird to like that feeling, but I have not had it for so long (with the lack of pavements or hills here) that it was really comforting.  And to run into a Starbucks with chilly fingers and order a hot drink because you need it, not because you want it was great too. Although I think I loved on those caramel macchiatos (with skimmed milk) a bit too much while I was there!

As much as I loved it, it would be such a pain in the a#se to live there with a baby.  I just don't know how people make it up and down onto those subway platforms by themselves, it was almost impossible with two of us.  There is a distinct lack of greenery too, with the exception of Central Park.  It is a fabulous place to visit, but I don't think I could live there, not with Sammy.  If I was by myself it would be a different story...

Miracle

Ask me why I am blogging at 8.46am?  Go on, someone ask!!!!!!

A miracle has occured.  Samuel is still asleep!  (It just turned 8.47!).  I have checked my emails, picked up the toys, had a cup of coffee and made the bed.  I thought I was lucky yesterday with 8.03!  I am hoping and praying that the days of 6 something am might be gone, and that this is not a fluke.  If it is a fluke, I will take my two 8 o' clock golden mornings and cherish them forever!

Tonight, a new season of Millionare Matchmaker starts on Bravo.  I am very excited about this, it is one of my favourite shows on TV over here.  I love the brutal honesty.  I could never be that way, but I appreciate it in others.  I love the way that the matchmaker just spells it out to the men in plain English about what women want.  Some women find it offensive, but I don't.  Most of the women I know are fairly simple in their requirements for a partner.  Honest, trustworthy, willing to listen, thoughtful and monogamous.  Men, women are not complicated and this lady has a recipe for success, LISTEN!  This is in no way aimed at my husband, I am lucky as he is all of these things and more.  I am very lucky and I tell myself so every day. x  By the way, it's now 8.59.

Slacker

I have just spent the last thirty minutes reading other people's blogs and realising what a slacker I am.  So much has happened since the last time I was on here that it would take a book to log it, so I won't. 
I will say that Mike, Sammy and I had a wonderful Christmas in England, I think my favourite Christmas ever.  Only now that I have my own baby do I realise how my childhood Christmases have influenced me as an adult.  For example, if my sister and I do not argue about whose turn it is with the snowman stocking, it is not a real Christmas Eve.  If my sister and I don't pester my Mum about our stockings (we are 29 and 23) until she gives in and fills them for us, it is not Christmas Eve.  If I wake up and my mum has not put a tangerine and a bag of gold chocolate pennies in said stocking, it is not Christmas Day.  Needless to say, my mum is the best in the entire world and always indulges us.  I think she likes it!  She gets extra brownie points this year though because she did the same for Mike, Rob and the babies.  The icing on the cake was the snow.  It was a wonderful, very cold and white Christmas.  It does make me worry though.  I have not yet found a way to accept that every Christmas cannot be this way, and that I cannot spend them all with my nuclear family.  Any ideas or suggestions are very welcome.

These are just a few of the wonderful pictures and memories from Christmas 2009

On a more recent note, I cannot stop Sammy from talking.  I do not mean a little bit, I mean all day, every day.  Stealing the idea from my friend Stephanie (and her beautiful Sam), here is a list of his latest vocabulary.

Daddy

Mummy (mama)

Eddie

Emily, Toby and Percy (Thomas trains!)

Milk

Yes

Get down (even to get up)

No

Read it

Go go go

Banana

Megan

Grandma

Grandad

In there

Cheese

Doggy

Woof, meow, moo and something that sounds like quack

Dodo (dummy - pacifier if you are American)

Card and brrrrmmmmmmm

Hiya (the Manchester hello)

I am sure I have missed lots, but yesterday morning I heard my favourite combination so far.  No matter how hard he tries, my darling husband wakes up my baby every single morning when he leaves.  I have got the Sammy swipe down to a fine art.  If I get to him within about a minute of him starting to cry, I can duck into his room and swipe him up, give him a dodo and lie him down with me with about a 60% success rate.  Any longer than that and I am making coffee whilst the clock on the cable box is reading 6 something (it is my personal belief that there should only be one 6 o'clock per day).  Yesterday I did not get to him on time.  I tried forcing him to lie down.  "Lie down son, go back to sleep with Mummy".  "No, mama.  Get down. Yes".  And that was it.  Awake I was, wishing that the West Wing started at 6am rather than 7.  If he wasn't so cute, I am just not sure that I could do it.