New York City Fun

This past Monday Theo and I went with my best friend and her two girls to lunch at Ruby Foo's uptown, then to the Children's Museum. Even though he's only 5 months old, it was great fun to see how excited he was to be around so many other kids. They even have a room specifically for babies, although it is much more suited for older babies, say around 9 or 10 months old. Still, I want to expose him to as much as possible as early as possible so that he's an old pro by the time he reaches the "appropriate" age to actually enjoy the installations.

I had a single-mommy moment while there. There was this man there with his little daughter who couldn't have been more than 10 or 11 months old. From his accent I would say that he could've been Russian. He would call out to his daughter in this deep, heavily-accented voice, "Nina. Niiiina!". You could tell she was the pride of her Daddy's heart. My own heart did a quick little tumble that Theo's Dad wasn't there to do the same for him. Sometimes, every now and then, it can be a little heavy having everything all on me, all of the time. It was a flash though, I didn't allow it to take up residence in my spirit. I acknowledged the feeling, then sent it on its way. "I am enough!", I told myself. I will always be Theo's foundation, and I will provide him with everything he needs, and lots of what he might want. I have family and friends to round out the equation, because I truly believe the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child. I'm grateful for all that I do have. I hope to raise a grateful child as well. I'm human though, and I can't help it if I get a little bummed out every now and then that my situation is different from what I pictured as "ideal". Also, I'm getting older and it's just not as easy to find that "special someone" as it used to be. Plus now I have a baby, and some people consider that more "baggage" than blessing. I told someone recently that I would be 35 in May and they just could not believe it though. They said I didn't look a day over 26 or 27, tops. Whoo hoo!!! That's what I like to hear! The thing is though, that after having a baby at 34, my body ain't what it used to be, and I can't help but think that my "prime years" are now all behind me. It's a crappy way to feel about oneself, but every now and then, if I'm honest, I really do feel that way. Kinda sucks.

Ok, enough of the poor little me routine. My girlfriend told me that I should wake up each morning, look in the mirror, and tell my reflection, "I'm a bad-ass broad!". I think I'll try that.

Here we are at the Museum:

My Son, The Fledgling Contortionist

It is so wonderful to watch my baby discover his world. And trust me, it's his world. He had found his hands, his feet, his tongue, his onesies, his toys, Mommy's glasses, etc., etc. He is so bright and alert -- such a quick study. For example, my cat's nails are too long (like I have time to remember to trim my cat's nails!), and you can hear her tip-tapping on the floor. The other day Theo heard the sound she made with her nails and looked at her as she walked right up to us. He stared at her almost as if noticing her for the first time, with the most perplexed look on his face as if wondering what kind of funny-looking person that could be. Then she eventually tip-tapped away. Many hours later, we could hear her tip-tapping toward us again, and my 5 month old infant immediately looks down at the floor to watch her approach. That he remembered that sound and put it together with the fact that the cat would be walking over to us was so amazing to me. Ok, maybe I'm just being a typical Mom and seeing a prodigy where there is only a perfectly normal baby. So what? I'm entitled to a little extra dose of pride since I'm the only one in the house to catch these wonderful moments of his development. Usually a baby has a Mom and a Dad to ooh and aah over him. Just because it's only me doesn't mean he should get short-changed and get only the ooh part. I'm oohing and aahing for two, baby!!!

Well, even if he turns out to be of normal intelligence and therefore not a candidate for NASA's astronaut program, he is certain to have a chance at traveling with Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey's Circus!

Theo and I Voted Yesterday!

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday, telling her that I would be voting with Theo on me in the baby carrier, and I suddenly got a flashback of going to the polls as a small child with my Grandmother. Once I stepped into the booth and my Grandma pulled the curtains closed I felt as if I had been drawn into a magical place, especially with all those impressive levers. I think many adults tend to take voting for granted and can have a very "ho-hum" attitude about the process, but as a child, I felt as if this was the most important thing in the world -- We were going to elect the President of the United States! Of course it never occurred to me that who "we" had voted for might not win, as I was still not sanded down by life into looking at the possibility of 'defeat'. We were going to ELECT the President of the United States, and wow, what a huge, important, magical thing to be able to do!

I hope my Theo has that same sense of importance when he gets older and I close the curtains around us and we pull those levers to ELECT the President of the United States.

Mom in the City

I love New York. No, I'm not one of those silly New Yorkers that think that because this city is so representative of many of the cultures on Earth that there is no need to expose yourself to other places. I love love love to travel, and one of the biggest reasons for that is that I love to immerse myself in cultures different than my own. I helped to run an international exchange program for inner city youth for 4 years and I absolutely loved what I did. Going to places outside of New York, and even more so, outside of the U.S., is one of my greatest passions.

That said, I love New York.

When 9/11 happened, I could not rightly allow myself to get swept up in this county's wave of uber-patriotism. I do acknowledge that this country is one of the greatest in the world, primarily because of the freedoms we can take for granted that other countries have never experienced. I do not, however, labor under the misconception that the U.S. is the GREATEST country in the world, because I don't believe that country exists. The United States has internal issues just like any other country - homelessness, hunger, racism, marginalization. No one is perfect, so therefore no country could possibly be. When 9/11 came, I did, however, become an even greater lover of New York City. For a city that was supposed to be populated by angry, rude, and selfish people, there was an awful lot of love, selflessness, and compassion that day. Stories abounded of people who took complete strangers into their homes because they could not get back to New Jersey or Staten Island or wherever else they lived. There was a beautifully simple story of a business owner contributing the only way he knew how -- he stood outside of his business and offered his inventory away for free by handing out sneakers to people who had been walking in work shoes for miles to get home. There are too many stories of the kindness and compassion of strangers surrounding that horrible day to recount here. That awful tragedy did something that most people would have thought impossible: it took a huge, impersonal city and made it feel like a small hometown. People cared about their neighbors. About strangers. About their city. I have always loved this place, where I was born and have always lived, but I have never been more honored to say I was a New Yorker than I was that Fall, and I wore my I Love NY T-shirt with pride.

As a new Mom, I am in love with all of the things I get to expose my child to, and this city almost has it all. Huge parks with zoos in them, Children's Museums, street fairs, indoor play spaces, music and art enrichment programs for babies and toddlers. The list goes on and on. One of the many great things about the internet as the "information highway" is that it can distill a vast quantity of information for you to suit your particular needs. Mom in the City blog and newsletter helps other NYC Mamas stay in the know in regards to some of the activities and events in NYC. Mom in the City is run by Kimberly Coleman, who I had the pleasure of meeting at one of her "talks" at the Babies R Us in Union Square, Manhattan. You can check out her blog and sign up for her newsletter at : http://www.mominthecity.com/

I'll be profiling other great websites, blogs, and newsletters that keep other NYC Mamas in the know.

Happy February!