The Big Apple

Evie and I have returned today from a wonderful trip to the Big Apple.  We went to visit Annalisa starting on Saturday, and we packed in a lot of fun!   Be forewarned: there are going to be a ton of pictures in this post!

We got up super early in the morning and drove to the airport to catch our sunrise flight.  Actually, Grannadaddy is the one who drove us, and he even had a cup of coffee there for me to drink!  We talked about what Grannadaddy remembered about his first trip to NYC which he took when he was a boy on his 9th birthday.  His aunt Laura took him when she had to fly there to meet some clients.  It was also Grannadaddy's first plane ride.

Evie's no stranger to planes and was great during the flight.  She was so excited!  She even asked me, "Mama, did you know a child's dream could come true?"

Annalisa met us at the airport and we checked off one of the things Evie said she was looking forward to most: riding in a taxi.

Later that afternoon, we went out grocery shopping and then walked to a movie theatre to see the "My Little Pony" movie.  Evie was never once daunted by the height of the buildings, the crowds, or the enormity of NYC.  In fact, she strolled through the streets of Manhattan like she owned them.

The next day we began our journey with a ride on the subway, another much-anticipated event for Evie.

She was thrilled to have her own MetroCard.

We only went one stop, but she had a good time on the train and then we explore the Natural History Museum for a while.

Cheetah mama in control of her cheetah family (she plays this game at school where she and her friends are a family of cheetahs and she is the mother).

Later that afternoon, Evie got her first taste of New York cheesecake.

And then went to to play at Riverside Park.

The next day, we took a bus (another anticipated form of transportation!) down to the Staten Island Ferry.  Evie was fantastic on the bus, looking around at all the buildings, asking Annalisa how the bus knows where to stop and how people get on.  She was elated to pull the cord when we got to our stop.

On the Staten Island Ferry, I had the pleasure of explaining the meaning of the Statue of Liberty to Evie (on the heels of seeing a news bulletin that Trump was saying that we need the wall now more than ever).

We got to Staten Island and turned right back around and got the return boat to Manhattan.  Then we ate lunch and walked down to the sea port, ultimately ending up at the Brooklyn Bridge.  We walked almost half way across when Evie's legs got tired (which is fair because we'd walked a LONG way!) and posed for pictures.  Evie amazed me that she was not at all afraid of the height of the bridge or the car traffic whizzing by below.

 
We bought her an "I Heart NYC" shirt and then walked to the Horace Greeley Park while our wonderful Annalisa figured out what bus we needed to take home.  During that time, Evie saw a squirrel who came right up to her.  Evie has been fascinated with squirrels since she could walk, and she's always wanting to catch them to tame them.  So I let her have a piece of my snack to feed the squirrel and it came close enough that she could have touched it (though I told her not to) and she was elated!

Yesterday, we went to Central Park and stopped at the Belvedere Castle where Evie enjoyed pretending to be a princess.

Then we spent some time going around the Park, with Evie trying to navigate us and eventually getting tired and making Annalisa carry her.

Evie then enjoyed a snack from the Halal cart: a pretzel as big as her head.

She fed most of it to the birds

Unfortunately, we had a miscommunication where Evie though when we said we were going to "The Park" that we were going back to Riverside Park with the playground equipment she enjoyed so much.  So there were some tears when she realized we weren't going there, and then she was okay once we told her we could go back there later that day.  When we did, she immediately made friends with a little girl named Clementine.  My kid never meets a stranger.

Sadly, today we had to come home.  Evie helped Annalisa hail a cab like a local, and before we knew it, the trip was over.

Evie must have told Annalisa about 16,000 times that she didn't want to go and that she was going to miss her.  She also told me she didn't want to go because she was going to forget what New York looked like.  I promised her we could look at plenty of pictures and movies, so we are now sitting at home watching "Enchanted" and I got to point out to her all the places that the movie characters go to that we went to this trip, including Belvedere Castle.

Evie cracked us up with how much she enjoyed New York.  At one point on the bus, Evie was leaning close to the railing of the seats in front of us and I told her to sit back because I was afraid she'd smash her thyroid cartilage into the bar and then her trachea would be impacted and she wouldn't be able to breathe.  Her response was, "Well, I'd still be in New York."  Yesterday as we were walking back to Annalisa's house, I asked Evie, "So, what have you liked about New York."  She said, "Like," as to remind me that New York was not past tense yet.

Other things not pictured:

• Evie was fascinated by all the battery-operated candles that Annalisa's roommate keeps around the apartment.  She would ask to turn off the lights, turn on all the candles, and then tell us "We're celebrating Jesus," and then she would sing a made up song "in her language" to do so.
• We were talking about making up Annalisa's roommates bed since we had been allowed to sleep in it and Evie said," Okay, to make the bed, I do the sewing, and you do the furniting, and Annalisa, you do the under sewing."  Brilliant plan.
• When we were looking for our gate today, Evie told me how funny it was that we were looking for a B gate, since our flight to NYC had left from gate C3 (she had helped me look for it).  The memory on this kid!!!

I also just have to say that I am so incredibly grateful to have such an incredible friend in Annalisa.  We only worked together at Cincinnati Playhouse for one year, back in 2004-2005, and yet we've managed to remain the best of friends, and now she loves my daughter like family.  Thank you, Annalisa, for letting us invade your home for a few days, for taking us around the city, and for loving us so well!