You have a baby…in a bar…

We thought that when we had a baby we would be forever banished to family restaurants that hand out baby-food encrusted highchairs and crayons, and house screaming children and frustrated parents. We didn’t want to be those people with the fussy baby at the $50-a-person French Brasserie, but we didn’t want to eat with other kids for the next 12 years either.

But some bars are surprisingly baby-friendly and help my husband and I feel like adults. Bars at lunch are perfect. We can have a beer and relax, the waitresses generally love Brady, and Brady can be fascinated by sports on big-screen tvs. Most of the places we go have at least one highchair and they’re rarely used so we don’t feel too gross when Brady inevitably bites it. The best thing is that bars are usually deserted at lunchtime (unless there’s a big game) so there aren’t many people for Brady to annoy.

We still go to family-friendly places and it’s not bad at all. But it’s great to have somewhere else to go, especially since we live just off 2nd Ave – the bar capital of the UES.

So yes…I have a baby…in a bar…and I love it!

MTA frustration

On Saturday we headed down to Union Square to meet up with some friends for lunch. With our new MacLaren stroller the subway was SO much easier! Yay! And it would have been great…if the subway had actually been running properly.

It never fails that when we plan a weekend subway trip something goes wrong with the train. We never attempt a Sunday, the trains NEVER run right on Sunday, but Saturday might sometimes be ok. And since we live on the East Side we have no choice in trains. We’re lucky that we live on an express stop so that we can at least go between the local and express.

We arrived at the station and the local platform was jammed so we went downstairs to wait for a 4/5. We were so excited that a train came right away only to see that it was empty and read “Not In Service” and stopped right in front of us. So now, not only was this train not running, but we knew no other train could come while it was sitting there. Fifteen dripping sweaty minutes later the doors opened and the train went into service – woohoo! We had a lovely time at lunch and no problems on the way back.

This wasn’t such a big deal at all. Just a bit of a wait. But I just don’t understand why there are inevitably problems – that have not been posted – on the subway on the weekends. We have ended up in the middle of Bed Stuy with no warning, been stranded in the Financial District, and had to switch trains at Grand Central more times than I can count. And our friends wonder why we don’t want to pop out to Brooklyn on a Sunday???

And yet the MTA has just raised fares and plans to do so again not once but twice in the next three years! I can’t get into the whole thing here as I would go on forever, but they have been reporting shady financials and proposed repairs and improvements for years much to the ire of New York straphangers. All I can say is I had better see some service improvements and soon!

I met Derek Jeter!

And it was unfortunately not as exciting as it should have been. I made the horrible mistake of actually making contact with him

One of the coolest things – at least in my opinion – about living in New York is celebrity sightings. Seeing stars filming is definitely cool. But the very best sightings are of celebs doing ordinary, everyday things in the same places that you do: playing with their kids, grocery shopping, seeing a movie. I’ll admit I’m a little celeb crazy, but I can’t help it. When you see Uma Thurman strolling through the park you eat lunch in everyday, it’s just cool. But New Yorkers are supposed to be good and go on about their days as if the person were never there – and I usually do – but in this case I just could not resist. Derek Jeter was sitting there…drinking coffee…at (one of) MY Starbucks.

Yesterday my mother-in-law took Brady to the park and I was planning to go to my beloved Starbucks to get a latte and sit and read a book. But as I walked up the steps to the store I spotted someone sipping coffee with a friend…Derek Jeter! I immediately called my husband, who advised me to touch him and run away. What I did was drink my coffee, and then go and meet my mother-in-law with the baby and bring them back to Starbucks.

My mother-in-law is NOT impressed by celebrities. She just doesn’t understand what all the fuss is, they’re just people. But she saw how excited I was and encouraged me to go up to him. I decided to get a picture of him and Brady.

This was my fatal flaw. Lots of people were going up to him by this point and asking him to sign things and take pictures. I went up and stammered out my request. He looked at me, unsmiling, and said sure and turned to take the picture.

It was fine. But I felt awful. I was embarrassed and felt foolish. Like I did when I asked my high school crush out only to have him tell me that I wasn’t his type.

I’m finding it a bit hard to watch the Yankee game tonight. I’m having flashbacks to my palm-sweating run-in. But at least Brady will have a picture of himself with a baseball great to show his kids.

Baby Tylenol and rectal thermometers

My poor angel baby got a fever today. Other than a little bit of the sniffles, in his whole 8 1/2 months of life he’s never been sick. But this morning I picked him up and his whole little body felt warm. I took his temperature under his arm and it soared up past 98.6. His temperature has never registered more than 98 under his arm, so I prepared myself, got out the vaseline and took his temperature in his little tushie.

It was less traumatic than I had expected, but not exactly pleasant either. The thermometer read 100.3. Our pediatrician had told me that anything over 100.3 counted as a fever, but it was still scary. I called the nurses’ desk and left a message.

A few hours later, Brady seemed fine and I hadn’t heard from them. I blew it off. But they never called me back and by the time my husband got home he was warm again and just not acting himself. So again we went through the tush trauma and this time it was 100.9. So again we called the doctor, only to get a call back saying that it’s probably nothing. We gave him some Tylenol and he cooled down.

Unfortunately it doesn’t feel like nothing to me and I’ve been on edge all day. I know he’s probably fine and it’s most likely because he’s teething, but I just want my baby to be a-ok and his perfect and loud and jumpy little self. Here’s hoping he wakes up fine in the morning.

I am a brat with two strollers

Yes, I am one of those people. I gave in to the hype and got a Bugaboo Chameleon. Yes, all-in-all it cost about $1000. But I LOVE it. The bassinet attachment was Brady’s bed for the first 3 months of his life. The carseat attached to it and I could snuggle him in there in the cold weather. The seat faces forward or back. The shocks are amazing. Despite the wide wheel-base I can navigate it around tiny delis and I can swivel it in and out of doors with one hand. The bag under the seat fits 3 bags of groceries, and the rain cover, and an umbrella, and my sling. I could go on and on.

But – it doesn’t fold up in one piece, it’s heavy, and it’s big. Also, it cost $1k so I don’t want the airlines to mess it up if I check it on a plane. And that brings us to stroller number 2. We did have a little Graco base for our carseat which was great for taking cabs and travelling to see my family. But now that Brady has outgrown his infant seat we can’t do that anymore. So we bought a lite little MacLaren Volo. It folds in a snap, only weighs 8.6lbs and goes anywhere. Now we use it when we’re going out to dinner, getting on the bus or the subway, and travelling by plane.

My in-laws wanted to get us something big for the baby and so they generously got us the Bugaboo. If that hadn’t been the case we probably would have gone with something else, but I am so happy I have it. For city-living I really do recommend it. But apparently even a $1000 stroller can’t do everything.

And so I am a brat and I have two strollers for my one baby. But I need them. I really do.

I’m melting

This has been a hot summer in the city. I normally love hot weather, and it really hasn’t bothered me too much lately. But with a baby you have to be more careful about the heat, and the sun, and well, about everything.

The last few weekends have either been too rainy or too hot to really get out much, but today we had had enough and since our yard is now open again we packed up and headed over to the park. We were baking and since Brady refused to stay in his shady area, he had to wear a hat.

His head was absolutely dripping once we took it off. He got a bit miserable and we had to pour some water over his head to cheer him up. Still, overall it was a great day.

Like most things in the city, there is a negative and a positive to being able to walk everywhere. I love being able to just get out and go, to have something to see, and to be able to walk to everything I could possibly need (well, except Babies R Us). However, in inclement weather it can get very frustrating. I’ve always hated rain in the city, all those umbrella just don’t fit on the sidewalk. Having a newborn in the winter was pretty torturous. I felt like I couldn’t take him anywhere. And this heat is starting to get to me.

But I would definitely rather have it this way than not. I don’t know what I’d do for entertainment if I couldn’t walk miles and miles everyday.

Babies need SO much stuff!

Since Brady is apparently a giant baby – he’s in the 90th percentile for height and weight – he has been outgrowing all the things that are supposed to last until he’s a year old. That and we’ve been trying to save space in our little apartment are the reasons that we had a TON of stuff to buy for him.

So today the kid, the husband, and the in-laws, and I all got into the car (with semi-working air conditioning on a 95+ degree day, fun) and went to the Babies R Us in Union Square.

The Babies R Us in the city is both a blessing and curse. It’s great to have a place to go to buy baby staples and giant boxes of diapers. Plus they have a nursing room so it’s a haven to breastfeed in while hanging out in the area. That nursing room makes going to another part of the city so much less fear-inducing. I mean, I would feed him anywhere, but I don’t generally like to make strangers uncomfortable with my naked breasts and Brady loves to flash Mommy while he’s eating.

But Babies R Us is also a HUGE hassle. It’s always crowded, the elevators take too long, you can never find an employee to help you, the air conditioning doesn’t really work (a theme today it seems), and the line is always SO long.

So usually, it begins as a nice trip out of the UES and becomes me huffing and puffing and sweating and waiting and generally going insane.

But we all survived the day and now Brady has a carseat that is safe for his huge butt to sit in, a brandy new highchair, and diapers to last at least a month! Yay!

Babies R Us in Union Square – I love you, but I still HATE you too.

Ooooo filming

Yesterday they were filming something in Carl Shurz Park where Brady and I take our morning walk. I just love coming across sets. It’s one of the nice little perks of living here in NYC. I’m a good New Yorker…I behave. I never gawk or go up to celebrities or shout things out when I see cameras. But when I see those signs up on the parking meters, or the tell-tale cables running everywhere, or those TomCat catering trucks, my heart speeds up just a little.

I can’t help it. It’s sort of exciting to see something that people all over the world will watch being filmed in a place that you think of as mundane and everyday. A place that, to you, is home.

It’s especially cool when a neighborhood you are so familiar with gets transformed into someplace else. I’ll never forget the day that I rounded the corner on my way to work to come face to face with 26th St after the apocalypse. For a second I was really scared. All the cars were covered with dust, litter lay in the street, and for some reason old Christmas decorations were hanging from the street lights. Then I saw the sign telling me that it was a Will Smith film and reveled in the movie magic.

Yesterday they were filming a kid’s show. But I still sat with Brady and watched. It’s just one of those little things that I love about this city.

I heart my BlackBerry

At the end of June my mobile contract finally ran out and my husband and I got a family plan, which – with his corporate discount – saved us enough money for me to get my very own smart phone and data plan.

Last Friday my shiny, silver, little BlackBerry Pearl arrived and it took me about an hour to become completely addicted to it. Now I can surf the internet while sitting in the park, message my husband from the grocery store, and reply to emails while I play with Brady on the floor in his room.

Not only can I do all of these super-fun wonderful things, but my BlackBerry gives me something else. In my world of pushing strollers, changing diapers, washing clothes, and singing silly songs my BlackBerry makes me feel like someone legitimate again.

For some reason, as I push my green Bugaboo around the streets of the Upper East Side, my BlackBerry makes me feel like I have something to do, somewhere to be, things to accomplish – even if I don’t. And even if I don’t, I don’t care, I like feeling like I do.

Construction Disruption

I do love living in the city, but one thing I could really do without is all this damn construction!! As you can see from the views from our balcony, there are currently three buildings going up in the immediately area. And…I…hate them!

It is so loud. ALL THE TIME! They start around 7am and quit around 6pm. I swear to you that it sounds like they are building the first railroad all over again outside my window.

Unfortunately, the balcony is off Brady’s room. See we live in a one-bedroom apartment so we put up a temporary wall to create a nursery. But our bedroom was too small to split and due to fire codes the wall has to partition off an area with a window so the only way we could put it up was to give Brady the balcony. This also means that Brady gets all of the construction noise and that everyday he wakes up halfway through his afternoon nap and will not go back to sleep in his crib. So everyday I get a 45 minute break and 45 minutes of a child sleeping on my chest. It’s nice the first few times, but it gets old.

The other problem I have with the construction is what they are constructing. All of these buildings are luxury condominiums. Not only do they have the most obnoxious names – The Brompton which apparently is stylishly proper, The Lucida where you can live smarter, and of course in light of who you are The Georgica – but I really want to know who will be shelling out the 1+ million dollars that these places cost. Honestly, living here in my one bedroom with a pressure wall nursery that I can barely afford, I’d really like to know just how many multi-millionaires there are who need stylishly proper living.