A friend here in the city had a bike I could borrow for the time we were here, so yesterday the kid and I took our maiden voyage on this side of the country. I had flown out the bike seat and our helmets counting on the fact that either I could borrow, buy, or rent a bike while we were here, so we were all prepared for riding. I was all geared up and ready to go about one-and-a-half hours into Emmett's nap (he had been sleeping two hours per nap up to this point) and spent the next nearly-two hours checking the monitor and waiting for him to wake up. I actually snuck into his room and checked that he was breathing (something I haven't done since he slept next to us at night) as I was so shocked that he had slept so long. Once awake I gave him a quick meal and we headed into Manhattan about an hour later than I thought we were going to get out of here. We crossed the Manhattan Bridge (bridges with bike lanes...how novel...why can't SF get up to speed on this?) and dropped into Chinatown with a long ride ahead of us to Central Park. We got into the city right about the start of rush hour, so traffic was pretty wild with taxis all over the place and lots of honking horns and were able to make our way to the park without incident and without Emmett complaining even though the ride took a bit longer than I had hoped. The entertainment when we got there was to be the Carousel, but I missed it when we got into the park so we just went to a grassy area and played for a while. I convinced him to get back on the bike and we finally found the carousel and took a spin. Besides my carousel ride in SF a few weeks ago, I don't know that I ever rode a carousel standing, but comparing that and this it was incredible how much faster this one spun than the one in SF. I actually thought I was going to fall over and slide off at one point. Emmett still maintained a face that seemed confused and slightly scared while on the ride (with the exception of the times he would point out the horse he was riding on to tell me it was a horse), but boy was that kid upset when it was time to walk away. It really made me wonder if the ride was worth his getting so upset when we leave, but I guess it is about time he starts learning disappointment.
I should have mentioned how excited Emmett was when he saw the bike seat and the bike all put together when he got up from his ride. His helmet was sitting out and he put it on (well, tried at least) and wanted to go for a ride rather than eat.
The ride home from the Park was equally long even though I thought I had chosen a better path. Emmett was not as happy with a long ride on the way back, but I had filled a snack cup with toastie-o's or something like that and he ate them on the front of the bike while we sped down 2nd Avenue. We crossed the Brooklyn Bridge on the way back which was crowded with lots of foot traffic, and quickly ate dinner, bathed and went to bed. It was nice to get on the bike again with Emmett, but I don't know that riding in NYC is all that fun. Sure there is the traffic thing, but actually it wasn't as bad as SF in some ways because there was so much traffic that cars couldn't really speed around us and it was easy to just take the lane and ride behind a car---breathing all of the exhaust was not pleasant at all, though. My biggest fear was pedestrians who were often crossing on red and not noticing the guy with the kid approaching fast.
Today we rode to Brooklyn's big park, Prospect Park, where we just hung out in the grass. There is another carousel in this park but I decided I would save another lesson in "all good things must come to an end" for another day. The park was on the landing line for JFK airport so approximately once every minute or two a large plane would pass overhead which Emmett would point out and give his best attempt at saying "airplane." I took a video while there where one can see Emmett getting excited at seeing me pull out the camera, approach, and suddenly change course when he hears yet another plane fly overhead:
Emmett's language has been evolving pretty fast it seems. He is trying to repeat much of what we say, and I noticed today that he is often trying to repeat the last word of a sentence that I say. Words that he has added that we could easily discern in context are things like pizza, helicopter, airplane, pasta, boat, truck, banana, train, milk, water, diaper, book, etc. The last couple of days he has also taken to letting me know that he has just pooped, not by saying it but by doing the sign language sign for poop. We didn't really ever get into the sign language thing, but the approximately three things we did show him (all done, more, and poop) he has really used a lot.
I have taken to going to a park that is relatively close by every morning with Emmett and we typically have the place to ourselves until around 9am. I would really like to understand how the park system works since the playground we have been going to is in a ritzier neighborhood and not long after we arrive each morning a city worker shows up who cleans the bathrooms then uses a leaf blower to remove most of the leaves for the play area. Someone had left a plastic tricycle there and the worker threw it away this morning, but the other playground we pass which is closer to our house has many tonka trucks, tricycles, etc. that have been left there and they remain and are used by those who show up...and there seems to be no one showing up to blow the leaves there. Strange.
I haven't been good about taking pictures. We went out to dinner tonight and this was the only picture worth keeping. Enjoy!
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