NEW YORK, NEW YORK!

As an 87th birthday surprise for a dear family friend of ours, Isabelle, Poppy, Grandmama and I flew to New York last Tuesday to join in for the birthday celebration. Michael had to stay home since the show he was directing (Of Mice and Men), opened Friday night and they were in tech all week.

I will have to say, 3am came around very quickly that morning as we got the 3 of us and our half asleep little one together and onto a 6am flight out of LAX. Being in New York for only a couple of days, and with the weather being so nice there was no need for bulky clothes, wouldn't seem like it would call for a lot of things...boy were we wrong! Knowing we didn't want to check anything in, into the airport Grandmama, Isabelle and I went (Poppy was on another flight) with 2 pieces of rolling luggage, my computer bag, a diaper bag/backpack, a stroller, a "snack & entertainment bag", a car seat and of course....Isabelle! Can you get a visual on that one? Luckily we had three seats on the plane so they couldn't stop us from bringing everything on and it was a direct flight there and back so we unloaded once and when Isabelle fell asleep, it was uninterrupted :)

Alex (the birthday boy), Judy (Alex's wife) and Isabelle The dreaded 5 hour flight with a 17 month old turned out to be wonderful! Isabelle was in her car seat a majority of the flight or in Grandmama or my lap. We/she read books, played with some little toys we brought along, ate, slept and watched her Elmo and "Mamimals" (the Baby Noah DVD from Baby Einstein that features all kinds of animals) DVDs. We decided that unless she looses it and nothing else would soothe her, we would keep all of us confined to our row and not walk Isabelle up and down the aisle. Our thought was that it only takes one time for her to realize that she wants to do it the whole flight and neither of us wanted that job for 5 hours :) Thank goodness she was in good spirits the whole time. When we landed we waited for everyone else to get off the plane and then schlepped all of us off. Poppy met us with a car waiting to take us to the hotel to freshen up and get right back out for Alex's birthday dinner...the second part of the trip that I was dreading.

Isabelle "cheers"-ing Judy (Teta)Since Isabelle didn't have a nap and had been couped up on a plane for 5 hours, we were all a little unsure on how she was going to behave at dinner. I brought a few books, a magazine that has kid products and Halloween costumes in it (that she loves-I should laminate it!) and stuff to munch on in case she didn't want what we ordered her at the restaurant. Low and behold, she was awesome! This was the first time Alex and Judy got to meet her so a lot of the conversations that were had included her, literally. Judy (who we now call Tata) enjoyed chatting with Isabelle, looking through the costume magazine with her and she even shared her dessert with her! That night Poppy also taught her "cheers". She got the biggest kick out of that! With a day like that, when we got back to the hotel and got her ready for bed, she was out cold within 5 minutes and slept all through the night.

Alex, Poppy and Isabelle The following morning we were "up and at em" to head out to see the Big Apple. We had breakfast with Poppy before his flight to Orlando and then the three of us (Grandmama, Isabelle and I) started our journey through the city. We both LOVE New York (actually the whole family does) and are very familiar with where to go so we walked over to Rockefeller Center and then to Times Square to let "the monster" loose in the 3 story Toys R Us!

Grandmama and Isabelle at Rockefeller Center Mom and Izzy in Times SquareWe must have been in there for a little over an hour just walking around looking and playing with toys and books, making a mental Christmas list for Isabelle and we rode on the Ferris wheel. Isabelle was pointing and saying "I see" to pretty much everything that came into eyesight. However one of the biggest things, literally, that caught her attention was a HUGE Jurassic Park mechanical dinosaur that was breathing and moving it head around and every 10 minutes it would let out a loud ROAR! She thought it was the funniest thing. Grandmama bought her a new puzzle with pieces shaped like "New York things" (the Statue of Liberty, a taxi, a big apple, etc.), a "Melmo" (Elmo) book and her now most favorite thing of all times...a "Maow", a little orange and white stripped, stuffed cat.

Grandmama...I want that Barbie elephant, please.Mom....is that for real? The huge Jurassic Park dinosaur at Toys R UsMom and Izzy on the Ferris wheel at Toys R Us

We headed back to the hotel so Isabelle could have a nap, stopping in at McDonald's to get her a Happy Meal for the walk back. When we got back to the room, she was wired! It took her almost 40 minutes to finally fall asleep and she only slept for an hour...guess she didn't want to miss a thing.

Dining out on the corner of 54th Street

Isabelle and her "Maow" going Nah Night after a very busy day

Thursday morning we were up and out of the hotel by 10am, knowing we had to be ready to go to JFK by 4pm and that we had a day of fun ahead of us! After a quick breakfast we took a walk to Central Park to see the horse carriages, people watch and most of all, go to the Central Park Zoo. On our way to the zoo and being that it's Central Park, there were a few transients asleep on benches and as we walked by each one Isabelle would say, "Nah Night". It was pretty funny.

Entrance to the Central Park Zoo

Once we got through the gate, and knowing we have a 5 hour flight and probably an hour drive to the airport in rush hour traffic, we let Isabelle out of her stroller to wander around. The very first "mamimal" we saw was a seal. Isabelle was fascinated by him and kept wanting to follow him as he swam around the tank. She would giggle as he popped his head out of the water when he went passed us.

Her favorite animal at the zoo-the seal

Isabelle looking at the seal through the tank Besides the seals and although the zoo is not that large, we saw a good variety of animals. Everything from birds and reptiles to penguins and polar bears and, the zoo was very well kept and clean. A lot of folks had the same idea as we did on such a beautiful day. There were lots of other families and a ton of nannies with kids there but it wasn't crowded by any means.

Heading into the Penguin and Puffin exhibitPenguin denIsabelle wanting to check out the polar bearsSee the one in the corner?After about 2 hours at the zoo and on the way back to the hotel for Isabelle's afternoon nap, we stopped and checked out the horse and carriages and also popped into a little restaurant called Serendipity. Mom had read about this place in either OK or People (one of the gossip magazines) and how stars bring their kids there to celebrate their birthdays and such so she thought it would be fun to stop in and hopefully bump into someone famous or if anything enjoy one of their famous treats...ice cream sundaes! YUM! They actually have a HUGE sundae that you have to order 48 hours in advance AND it costs a measly $1,000! All I have to say is that there had better be some gold treasure buried in that sundae!

The horse and carriage rides at Central Park We got back to the hotel and Isabelle did not want to sleep (imagine that) so she watched cartoons while we packed everything up. We arrived at the airport with her wide awake and ready to go and as we were standing in line at security, Mom took Isabelle out of the stroller and held her so we could get everything up onto the belt and within a minute of her being in Grandmama's arms, she passed out cold. Thank goodness we had an hour before our flight left so she was able to get in a little nap which will prevent her from turning into a grouchy butt :)

One pooped-out kid waiting for her flight home from JFK All in all, the trip was wonderful and although I was dreading it, I am sooo glad we went. Another one for her scrapbook!