We took Collin on his first trip to the Big Apple at the end of April. I had a work conference on Monday & Tuesday, so we added on a family long weekend in advance of my business trip, and Collin got to meet aunts, uncles and a lot of cousins.
Collin did great on the plane other than a complete nap failure for him coupled with a nap success for Cas. It was just wrong when my two year old was wide awake with my thirty-year old sleeping soundly in the next seat over!
Cas' cousin Steve picked us up Friday evening and became Collin's instant buddy. This best buddy status ran through Monday when they spent all day together in Manhattan. Steve was the one who offered Collin this light saber inside his parents' home. Their home was full of breakable things and my blood pressure went up quite a bit, but Collin miraculously managed to avoid destroying his Aunt Anisja & Uncle Victor's belongings.
I wish I had taken a picture of the incredible meal Anisja prepared for us - complete with homemade cheesecake - a great way to start off the trip! The next morning, Collin played with his cousins' stash of toys, racing cars with his Uncle Victor. And pushing the stoller, but making it more macho by filling it with trucks.
Snacking on a Croatian breakfast pastry - we don't get these in Houston!
Next we headed for lunch with more family - Cas' Aunt Zdenka, Uncle Faust, and their younger son Anthony. Zdenka kept Collin entertained, giggling away as they rolled balls down skateboard ramps. And then we headed outside for Collin's first skateboard ride with some help from Daddy -
We walked to the playground near their home, and Collin was delighted to get a ride on his Great Uncle Faust's shoulders.
Zdenka deserved a back massage after pushing Collin in the skateboard up and down the sidewalk.
Great Uncle Faust, Cas & Collin, Great Aunt Zdenka & cousin Anthony -
To our last stop of the day, Cas' cousin Lina & Al's home. Lina and Al have 4 kids, so their home was a toy wonderland for Collin. Not to mention that Collin fell in love with his cousins. In the weeks since returning home, he continues to ask if we can fly in an airplane to Sabrina's or Coco's house.
Here's Collin playing with the three youngest as we waited for big brother A.J. to return from a soccer game. That's Nicolas (Coco) on the scooter, Sabrina and Collin on the motorcycle, and Victor on the bike -
Sabrina was so sweet with Collin, helping him with the scooter and lifting him so he could be captain of the ship -
Their friends' boat was parked in their driveway when we arrived, and it became another toy as we played inside (and posed for a photo or two) -
Nicolas and Victor cracking us up on the boat -
As we tried to get everyone to dinner, Collin was quite serious about making a trail of automobiles (and this was probably 10% of the toy cars available to Collin - definitely toddler wonderland) -
The kids - Sabrina, Collin, A.J., Nicolas & Victor -
Even though it was Sabrina's birthday, she gifted everyone with one of her Lindt chocolate truffles. Collin was thrilled with her generosity -
Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday - there's Steve at the end. And Collin looking on, drooling over the chocolate cake -
What fun to not only introduce Collin to his NYC cousins, but join in on a family birthday dinner.
Lina and I are the only ones looking at the camera - the kids must still be focused on the cake!
These are some of my favorite images, not for the photo quality, but just for the sweet moments with his cousins. Sabrina sat at a doll tea party table with Collin and shared a bagel. And because Collin takes after his mama in the slowest-eater-in-the-world category, Victor and Nicolas joined him later at the table. The sweet cousins, down on the ground eating their breakfast, spending time with their two-year-old cousin from Texas (who may be playing with a my little pony) - LOVE it!
So this was Sunday morning. We finished our bagels around 9:30am-ish and I had great confidence in our plan to meet my cousin Leah for brunch near Harlem at 11am. We're all in pajamas, enjoying the lazy morning and delicious breakfast. And of course, we couldn't pack until we saw the magic show performance by Victor. Collin was enthralled -
And then we watched Victor crush Cas in a dance-off (he was so good Cas forfeited) -
Finally, a little after 10, we headed upstairs to pack, get ready, and of course, take a few more pictures -
Steve once again picked us up and took us to our hotel. We pulled out of Lina's around 11:00am, still hopeful that we could meet Leah around 11:30am. How silly of me to think there wouldn't be traffic in Manhattan on a Sunday morning! After a subway ride from almost one side of Manhattan to another (Wall St. to Harlem), we met Leah and her boyfriend Matt for brunch at 2:30pm!
Ironically, I had requested the 11am brunch to plan our day around Collin's nap. And instead, we arrived at the restaurant 1/2 hour into his normally scheduled nap. Leah and Matt picked this incredible brunch spot called Kitchenette where I had the best turkey sausage of my life, and all our food was tremendous. Collin, on the other hand, was not tremendous. He hung in there (and by hanging in there, I mean whining to get out of his seat, banging spoons on the table, rolling his car off the table), but at the end, Cas took him outside for a stroller ride while we finished and paid. Poor Collin was exhausted. We walked to a park watching our son's slowly blinking eyes, but instead of dozing off, he caught a second wind in time to pick dandelions with Leah.
I realize this picture is blurry. This is because in a moment of insanity at brunch, we briefly let him out of his high chair, which enabled him to throw down his backpack and stand on it - with the camera inside. Cas somehow fixed it later, but this is the quality of my photos with Leah and Matt even though it was a beautiful afternoon prime for excellent pictures -
We tried to walk back (which would have been like 200 blocks) but after about an hour, we conceded that Collin just wasn't going to fall asleep in the stroller. So we took the subway back and finally put him down for a nap around 5:30pm. We had plans to meet my boss and his family for dinner in Little Italy at 6:30pm, and fearing another repeat of the brunch restaurant performance, he graciously agreed to push dinner back, and in return for the scheduling flexibility, Collin acted like a typical two-year-old at dinner rather than an overtired monster.
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