New York and the Garden State

Last weekend Xander and I spent a whirlwind three days in NY and New Jersey. The first day was mostly travel. We left Cincinnati at 11am and I did my best to tire the kid out at the airport. We sang songs, we played with cups....





And most importantly, he crawled and crawled and CRAWLED all over. He was fascinated by a wheelchair sitting at the gate, so I borrowed it and wheeled it all around. The videos are shaky because I took them while steering the wheelchair in circles.

In this one you hear a man say, "Mommy, I'm tired!" Xander had been crawling for probably 20 minutes now, and had made friends with a family on our flight who were avidly watching him. Everyone always wants to know his name and how old he is.

When we got into NY, we took a cab over to Mara and Mark's. It was truly like a hotel: Mara set out towels, fun magazines for me to read, and even a stuffed giraffe for Xander. After settling in, we walked around her neighborhood in Queens. There is a public square very close to where she lives, and Xander and I took in a clown show. So many colors and so many noises! It was actually a promotion for a local church, but it was lovely to sit there and hear Spanish and Greek spoken right next to me.




We continued walking and had dinner at a cozy Greek restaurant (I always go for Greek when I'm by myself, since Jonathan doesn't like it that much. He always goes for Chinese whenever I'm not around, for the same reason). What diversity there is to be found in NY! More than LA even. Let's not even compare it to Ohio.



Sunday morning we were up bright and early to go with Phil and Alyson to the wedding. We drove through Manhattan and passed many famous sites I'd been to before. Behold, the Empire State Building.




Then came the big event... Xander crawled more in the reception hall while the ketubah was being signed. The wedding ceremony itself was beautiful, and it was a mini-reunion of HUC folk who I hadn't seen in two years. Think of HUC-Cincy but with new people: the baby was held by everyone else until he got cranky, then I rocked him to sleep in the back. The reception was unbelievably fun: I popped Xander in my wrap and danced with him the whole time, and he loved it! When he started to squirm I took him to the lobby to crawl and explore. We schmoozed all night, and someone later told me he won the "cutest baby at the wedding award."

I was too busy having fun to actually take any pictures, so I must credit Dave and his camera phone for all the ones below.

Me and Stephanie.

Smile for the camera!

HUC boys: Dave, Josh, bride and groom, and Phil

For all the rest of the wedding photos go here: The rest of the wedding photos. But warning: if any of you know Mara and Mark and want to see a full display of the wedding, you'll be disappointed. I figure most people who care about the whole thing are on Facebook and will see the pictures there. The ones I downloaded are just of me and Xander.

Monday after the wedding was very relaxing. Unfortunately, I had left my baby carrier in New Jersey, so I had to nix my plans to walk all over Manhattan. That's okay though, it worked out well as there was much less pressure and I was able to keep Xander to his nap schedule. Odelia came by to see us and we hung out for a while, then she came with us to the airport and helped me get through the security line with our bags. Then we said goodbye, boarded the plane, and again, the baby made friends.

All in all, Xander's an excellent traveler, I was so happy to be a part of Mara's wedding, and I was glad to be back in the Big Apple. Go mini-vacations!