LEARNING THE ROPES

So after our first successful venture on the subway, I may have gotten a bit over confident because I went from being brave to just plain stupid.

Yesterday, we'd been cooped up in our bite-sized apartment for too long so we just headed our around 3:30 in the afternoon. I thought we'd hit up FAO Shwartz, ya know, thought it be fun for the kiddos. I took off with a general idea of where it was. Lessons learned from this outing:

1) Know exactly where you're going. Just know the address and take a map, because I'm here to tell you, not all blocks are created equal and if your plan is just to weave through streets with your "general idea" you could be walking around with two babies for a very long time.

2) Traveling on the subways is much, much, much easier in the mornings when there are less crowds. I knew I was in trouble when I had to sheepishly squeeze my and my stroller on at 3:30, let alone 6:00 (which is when we went home). My saving grace was that Penny got all sorts of charm on on our way back home.

3) Check the weather. Rain isn't too big of a deal, but it doesn't help when you've got the previous two items going on.

Luckily, today I was able to put my new found lessons to good use. I met my new friend, Claire (who's husband is doing a finance internship at Amex), at 66th and Central Park West. Our plan was to explore a little of Central Park and to check out the zoo. We got to the carousel and Ryder and I couldn't resist. So Claire graciously watched Penny and took photos of us as Ryder and I took a ride.

 @ the carousel

 For the first couple rounds Ryder was a little nervous and had to keep a hand on my neck as if any minute he needed to jump ship, he could :)

The ladies, Norah and Penelope

We attempted to go to the zoo next, and probably would have been really cool had we found it. We got a tad bit turned around (it's harder without the street signs) ended up taking a nice stroll through "The Mall". At this point, lunch seemed like a fantastic idea while Ryder and Claire's cute daughter, Norah, took naps. We spent the rest of our time playing and running around and I made sure to start our journey back home before 3:00.

 Here we are walking "The Mall". Below is cute Clair with Norah and Ryder

A much more successful and fun outing. Most likely, it was due to our cute company, which is a good thing to know as well :) It's funny though, because it's like we're all like babies (well, most of us are) where we get home and we're all suffering for so much stimulation overload that all any of us can do is stare at the TV with our mouths open or do this:

Three cute things about this photo: 1) how she used her teething toy as a pillow 2) how she always throws her feeties on my lap 3) Penny

Oh...and Phil...remember him? He's around here somewhere. Last night he was found here, enjoying a little Mets baseball:

Luckily, the weekend is upon us which means we get to go do something all together. Wahoo!