We thought we'd try the red-eye flight the way there which left at 10pm the Sunday before Memorial Day. Max slept about 1.5 hrs and was awake the rest of the 4.5 hr flight. So much for thinking he would sleep. At least he was so lethargic he wasn't running up and down the aisle. Needless to say Mike and I were exhausted and glad that his Mom watched Max so we could nap for a couple hrs when we got there.
We had a wonderful Memorial Day party at the Braun's (good family friends) & GG & Pop's friends and family came to visit. Max had a blast pushing the Braun's grandaughters shopping cart around & going down the "slide board". It must be an East Coast thing cuz I even heard Jon from Jon & Kate plus 8 say it on their show yesterday. On the West Coast we just call it a slide. I think Max may have even developed his first crush. He's never willingly hugged anyone before but hugged Sarah Braun repeatedly.
(how many people does it take to help Max down a slide?)
On a rainy Thursday we drove into NYC to meet our friends Paul & Sarah Melotto for lunch. We were glad we got to see them since they are moving to London for 2 yrs & Paul was heading off for a business trip to Saudi Arabia for a couple weeks. It cracks me up cuz this guy hates to fly. He even changed his flights after our wedding to stay an extra 2 days because he heard it was raining in NY. Max loved being out of the car after the hour drive and playing with their son Thomas & his toys. Thomas is 5 months older but Max is a little taller and a good 6 lbs. heavier. Maybe it's time to cut back on the whole milk?
Because they live so close, we walked up to the World Trade Center. Mike & I worked at MortgageIT together which is 2 blocks from the WTC. We were both there on 9/11 & were interested to see how construction is going. Still a ton going on, but it actually doesn't look much different than when we were there 2 yrs ago. Although like 8 floors of it is underground with a subway train running through it so I imagine that's where they put a ton of effort.
(in front of Ladder 10)...................... (WTC view from the WFC)
After checking into our hotel on 52nd st & Max being totally entranced with staring out the window we met some other friends for dinner. We used to work with Mike & Casey Deutsche at MortgageIT. In fact, I'm the one who told Mike to take Casey out. The married a couple months before Mike and I did, and had their son Jude 1 month before Max was born. Casey is now pregnant with their 2nd child due 1 month after our 2nd child is due. Crazy. We met them for dinner right around the corner from Dylan's Candy bar (which is also dangerously close to Bloomingdale's from my former shopping days). Dylan's is a ridiculously over priced but delicious candy store that has just about anything you can think of. My favorites are all the sour gummy treats and Mike loves the white chocolate covered pretzels. The tummy aches later that night from all the candy was worth it!
Friday we tried to clean out the H&M maternity section in the 34th street store but apparently they won't be carrying maternity anymore and had zip-zero-nada as far as selection. At least my trip to Saks was not as disappointing and the shoes I got in the pre-sale should be here any day :) I had to take a quick stop at my happy place (Bergdorf's shoe department) just to wander around before taking Max to the Central Park Zoo. In typical Max style he had more fun running around and climbing stairs than paying much attention to the animals. He did however enjoy the sea lion exhibit. We were tired and had sore feet so it was time to drive back to Philly. I'm glad we visited NYC even if it was quick and I didn't get to eat lunch at the Saks cafe.
A couple video clips for the grandparents :)
