Things I Learned in New York City

We just got back from a nearly two-week trip to New York. (Hence the sparse posting of late.) I have lots of great stories to tell and funny photos to share, but I also have a looming deadline at the end of the week. So for today, which happens to be a day that the kids are in daycare, I'm offering up this list of ten lessons from our city trip, with the promise of more stories to come.

1. Keeping control of two energetic children who are often too busy to pay attention to boring directions like "hold my hand" is particularly nerve-wracking while on narrow, crowded subway platforms facing oncoming speeding trains.

2. New Yorkers do not deserve their reputation for being snooty or brusque. Every single time I got on a crowded subway with my two children, someone got up and gave me a seat so that I didn't have to try to keep both kids from flying through the car when the train took off. For the twelve days we were in the City, people held doors, directed me to restrooms in Central Park, and brought extra plates so the little one could share my food.

3. When you grow up in a place where "walking" means meandering through suburban residential neighborhoods without sidewalks or traffic, you are not quite street savvy enough to be an NYC pedestrian without some training. For the first two or three days, my kids had no real concept that if they chased that pigeon right off the sidewalk and into 5th Avenue at rush hour, there might be bad consequences.

4. Pigeons are insanely fun to chase.

5. A three-year-old is not only NOT too old for a stroller; she still desperately needs one if the family plans on walking miles and miles every day.

6. A five-year-old can be an incredibly good walker. But when he's tired, he can be an even better whiner and fighter-over-the-stroller-er.

7. You really can eat absolutely anything you want, and as much as you want, in the Food Heaven that is NYC without gaining any weight at all. As long as you are walking miles and miles each day and spending some portion of that time carrying a 34 pound toddler on your shoulders or giving a piggy-back ride to an exhausted 50-pounder.

8. New foods are more appealing if the process of eating them becomes a contest. We had a competition to see who could eat the most new foods on this trip (eat = taste it, chew it, swallow it, and ask for at least one more bite). Son won with 17. Daughter had 9. Their lists are pretty impressive and include things like sweet and sour fish at a Chinese banquet and Cuban empanadas. I also let them count the giant pretzel from the street vendor and the rocket pop from the ice-cream truck in Battery Park. It only seemed fair. Those were new too.

9. You can manipulate children's bedtimes like nobody's business if you just take them out to dinner at 7pm or feed them ginormous bowls of hot fudge sundae at 5:00. It won't always be easy in restaurants, but you can turn them into night owls if you want.

10. Turning them back ain't so easy.

We are all still a little tired and half the laundry is still grungy. But we had a great trip, got to see lots and lots of family, and did so many fabulous city things (including meeting Marinka for a drink -- oh, yes I did! and more on that later...) that we'll be telling and retelling each other stories for weeks. Now, if only I had a few days to rest up from my vacation!