NYC Dads - Little Gym

Met up with the NYC dads group this afternoon over at the Little Gym, a place that I had previously been to exclusively for "niece's birthday party" situations. It was fun to bring Billy there and let him crawl around and play with all of the stuff. He hung from a bar but wouldn't do any pull-ups, even when I told him that he wasn't going to get "diesel" just hanging there. Highlight of the experience for billy was, predictably, the bubbles at the end, which stuck in his hair and remained there until we left.

A Behanding in Spokane

This was definitely not the least creepy way to spend a Sunday afternoon, but it was a complete riot. When I (Dan) spent the summer of 1997 in Penn's "London Theater Experience" program (sounds like a ride at Epcot but is, in actuality, a credit-bearing program somehow) I saw "The Cripple of Inishman" and "The Beauty Queen of Leenane." While I don't remember too much plot-wise about either of those plays, I do remember leaving the theater a Martin McDonagh fan.* Of course, Walken's comædic and theatrical chops are unassailable (more cowbell, anyone?). And so it was a no-brainer to go see this play. The plot is simple enough: some guy is looking for a hand some hillbillies forcibly removed from his arm some years ago. He's extremely motivated and not very friendly, but he does care about his mother, which is nice. I won't say much more, but we both definitely laughed out loud on multiple occasions.

Billy, btw, spent the afternoon with a new baby-sitter recommended by Adrian and Joanna.

*I was just reminded that Mer and I did see "Pillowman" a few years back at the Wilma theater in Philly. I also fell asleep during "In Bruges," McDonagh's film foray.

Jazz and Brunch (not in that order)

Saturday was quite the day. We kicked it off with a nice brunch with Heather and Greg at the Landmarc restaurant in the Time Warner building. Of course we would go all the way uptown to eat at a restaurant that is three blocks from us. Despite the lackluster New York Times review, I thought the meal was excellent. I had "eggs en meurette," which is like a steak with red wine, mushrooms, and bacon but, instead of steak, it's eggs. The winner, though, was probably Greg's "pain perdu" (they can't call it "French Toast" in France, now can they?).

After lunch, Merri, Billy and I walked (well, Billy strolled) around the mall for awhile and then headed up to the fifth floor and the Rose Theater for Lincoln Center's "Jazz for Young People" production, which was all about Tito Puente ("El Rey") and Latin music. It was a total blast and Billy seemed to enjoy it too, even if he was a little too tired to dance. Here's a video of Carlos Henriquez (Jazz at Lincoln center's bassist) talking about Tito:

Bubby's, etc.

The Flyers' inability to clinch a playoff spot in a reasonable timeframe made the price of Flyers/Rangers tickets skyrocket right out of my pricerange and so "Hockey Night with Garrett" turned into "dinner out with Garrett and Sarah." Too bad for us, Sarah had to bail because "pregnancy is hard" apparently. After meeting up with Garrett at Puffy's Tavern, we joined Mer and Billy at Bubby's where we proceeded to eat one of the better meals in awhile. My new rule: if you see something called "Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf" on a menu, order it. Now, I know it can't be difficult to deliver on this dish, but it surpassed even my high expectations. The sides might have been good too, except Billy ate all of mine. After dinner, Garrett and I ate some pie (Bubby's is known for its pie) and headed over to Walker's (get it?) for a nightcap. It was good to have some man-drinking time, but I was unsurprisingly a bit foggy Saturday morning.

Another fun storytime over at the Library. I showed up at around 10:40 for a 10:30 class, figuring on another 25 minutes of storytime. Nope. 4 minutes. 4!!!. The woman told me afterwards that she tries to keep it short due to the short attention span of toddlers. If she wants to shorten it to toddler-length, I think she should just cut it down to 38 seconds. Still, can't complain too much since she's working for the library, which is noble and it's free, and blah blah blah. Anyway, we stuck around the library and waited for the 11:30 class to start. I got Billy a library card, though I'm certain he won't be going to the library without me, so I suppose he could have just shared mine. The 11:30 class was actually a little bit longer (I guess kids were paying better attention?) and featured bubble-fail, which is a game where the woman tries to blow bubbles at children but blows way to hard and just ends up dousing them in soapy saliva. Good times.

NYC Dads - Citibabes

The gang all met up at Citibabes, a playspace (is that what they're called? I just call them "Gymboree-type places") in SoHo. First things first - this is probably the nicest indoor playground I've seen. There's tree houses and different areas for large kids and small kids (like the dog park!). We took a music class and the guy playing the piano was legit. I mean he was no joke. I would go see him somewhere. Billy loved the bubbles, natch. He climbed up and down some stairs in the playground, which was a bit of a surprise, since I've never seen him do that before (we don't have stairs here at 111 Worth). There's a grown-up gym and a little cafe. Awesome right? You bet! How much would you pay for the privilege of entering? $2100 per year. You heard me right. $2100 just to walk in the door. You want classes? Extra! You want someone to watch your kid while you're in the gym? Extra! You want scrambled eggs? Extra (plus a 30 minute wait)! The woman actually told me that they were proud of their "country-club-type atmosphere." Thanks but no thanks.

Charlotte

You know how, when people think about retiring and their kids have moved out - they usually get a smaller house? Well, Aunt Rickie and Uncle Ian decided to go in a different direction. "Cornelius Manor" (as I just now decided I'm going to start calling it) is approximately 17-19 times larger than the house in Chapel Hill. How will they fill this large house you ask? Why, with Slawes, of course! The clan went down on Thursday to the lake house (Mer, Billy and I flew - everyone else drove - suckas!) for a weekend full of fun food and family. The kids all got along great (I still relate better to 5 year-olds than to grown-ups) and Aunt Rickie and Uncle Ian were fantastic hosts, even as we ate and drank them out of house and home. First time on a wave-runner? Check. First time attempting to repair a wave-runner? Check.

Shout out to Brian for bringing a 1950's tennis cocktail (the Pimm's Cup) to the modern age.

1-year Doctor's Visit

We took Billy to the doctor today. Mer provides the following summary:

"The appointment went very well. Our doctor - Dr. Zimmerman - is great. In case we haven't told you this already, he is the chair of the NYU Medical School dept of pediatrics and he's been selected as the Best Pediatrician by New York Magazine. The man spends so much time just having a conversation with us each time about child development and answers all of our questions. Billy is thriving. We went over all of the important milestones for his age and he is hitting all them (a lot of them he has been doing for some time). Dan and I were very proud. His height is 29 and 1/2 inches and his weight is 23 lbs 13 oz. This is about the 35th percentile for height and the 50th percentile for weight. Next step (no pun intended) will be walking in the next month or two and he'll get beyond his current three words (dada, mama and no). And he made it very clear for the doctor's office how he felt about going on the scale to be weighted - "no. no. no." I guess all of those "Buford, no" comments have been heard loud and clear. The doctor spoke to us at length about the good ways to extinguish early temper tantrums between ages 1 and 2 years old. We also discussed safety issues. The doctor said that when we travel by plane, we need to get him a seat so he can be restrained in the car seat and not possibly become a projectile object in the event of turbulence. We are going to look into booking him a seat on our Charlotte flight. He is cutting his six tooth, which the doctor said is the average for 1 year. He got two shots and a finger prick (for bloodwork). He is in perfect health, everything looked great. I love to hear how my billy is doing so well!"

Afterward, we took a nice stroll home from 34th street and stopped for a few drinks/snacks along the way (including a cheesesteak from "99 Miles to Philly").