Christmas in NYC

Last weekend we headed to NYC to visit my brother and sister-in-law and celebrate Christmas with them.  It was great to be able to finally make it work!  I am ashamed to say they have lived there for 3 years?  I think?  And we've never gone up.  But we piled into my parents' car early on Saturday, and made our way to the city.

Now this is going to sound crazy, but thank goodness for construction vehicles!  Traffic was actually very light, and we made it there in record time, but there were plenty of trucks along the side of the road for Robby to gleefully shout at.  So, driving went smoothly, kid was happy, all was good.  We stopped at a park on the way to brunch, and Robby had a ball, as it was the perfect size for him.  AND we saw a bunch of trash trucks on the walk over.

After we went out to a delicious brunch where Robby was NOT so good (stealing everything on the table and screaming at frequent intervals), we had tickets to go to Ground Zero.  Sara volunteered to go back to the apartment with the little man, to see if he would take a nap.  This was the most brilliant move ever.  While the memorial is truly sentimental and beautiful...it was POURING rain and quite cold.  We didn't spend all that long there admiring it.  Robby never went to sleep, but they had a good time.

After hanging around their apartment for a bit, where gifts were exchanged, Robby incredibly generous and indulgent aunt and uncle told him we were going to go to FAO Schwartz where he could choose any toy he wanted.  (This was AFTER he had already opened gifts!)  Not surprisingly, lil man found himself in front of a wall of trucks murmering, "Wow...wow...wow..."  I just about died laughing.  He chose another trash truck, and they have been on constant rotation ever since.

The last stop was a DELICIOUS Chinese restaurant, Joe's Shanghai.  Robby actually did pretty well here, even though he had been up since 6, not napped, and it was already 6 again.  He pigged out on absolutely everything, and was less picky than his father.  ;)  Really, the only difference was that Robby loved the dumplings, where-as they're not really Chris's thing.  We wrapped up dinner around 7:15, made our way to Penn Station, and caught a 7:50 train back to Philly.  And...Robby still did not sleep.  We got onto the train, and he started to MELT DOWN.  I'm sure the passengers in our car were entirely not thrilled.  Fortunately, it only lasted about 5 minutes, and then he was good the rest of the trip.  But, it did mean he watched a lot of Curious George on the iPad.  At 9:15 he FINALLY passed out across both our laps for 45 minutes.  And then screamed the whole car ride home from the station (about 15 minutes).  We were so nervous that he would be up when we got home, too, but he fell asleep quickly...though it was 11pm!  It was a LONG day for a little guy, and he really did very well.  Thanks Jim and Sara for a great trip!

Oh, and it's my birthday.  :)