Eat Play Nap Adventures

We're getting towards the end of winter and we're sick of being inside. The weekends are long if we don't get out of Brooklyn and staying in the apartment is a recipe for disaster. So on this date, we did what we're calling Eat Play Nap Adventures. These involve about a 4 hour excursion to a different part of town, involving something fun for Nate to do, pizza or the equivalent in kid-friendly food, and shopping for some delights that such neighborhood has to offer.

On this Sunday, coming home from a day and night spent on Long Island with my parents -- my foks were mostly out of town but that did not deter us from invading their house -- we thought we'd do Greenpoint. We consulted www.idreamofpizza.com, our favorite pizza blog and were reminded of Paulee Gee's, a top 10 in NYC pizza and near to Nate and Shana's favorite play center, Play. Nate napped in the car as we drove towards Play. As we hit Greenpoint, Nate was still sleeping. There's no way we were going to wake him so we kept on driving around, kind of aimlessly. Didn't we hear stories of our parents driving us around for no reason? Were we really doing this? We drove around Eastern Williamsburg. Then we drove to South Williamsburg. Then we headed to Long Island City. An hour later, after driving through an industrial area where bodies were likely buried and toxic waste dumped, we went to Play where Nate, well, played. But Paulee Gee's was only open for dinner. Damn it! So our pizza dream had to be exchanged for Greenpoint's famous Mac and Cheese place, Brooklyn Mac.

After, I phoned my buddy Dave Herman -- he lives in Greenpoint and seems to know every excellent thing to eat in every friggin' neighborhood in New York -- he directed us to a polish market where he shops regularly. Polaski Meat Market. Shana was delighted with this tip and we headed there in the cold. We bought soups, pierogies, bread and other polish essentials. Nate came home happy and enriched; he did Greenpoint well.

We will go back to Greenpoint though and get us some of that Paulee Gee's pizza very soon.

Nate at the Farm

Nate visited the little animal farm/plant garden store in Huntington. He squealed with delight as we got up close with roosters, ponies, chickens, ducks and goats.

Those roostes are no joke though, what with their loud bossy cockadoodledoo's. Who the hell do they think they are anyway?? Shut up!!!

Brooklyn Library Rock Concert with Aunt Margot

On this Saturday, we piled into the Prius and headed towards Prospect Heights to see the Idy Biddy's, a folky-clever-nerdy-kid-friendly 3 piece band (Shana is friends with the bassist (upright!) Saskia) at the Brooklyn Library. We'd never been there and it was kind of excellent, what with it's grand elegance and multitude of handicapped ramps. Margot met us there for the show.

After a tune or two, we brought Nate to the front of the stage and soon he found himself in a scrum of kids all dancing and carrying on in a kiddy mosh pit. He looked kind of bewildered. He balanced himself on the stage and peered up at the musicians. Chaos collided all around him. He didn't say much.

Indeed, Nate was kind of like that creepy music fan who plants himself in the front and doesn't react or sway or anything. Except Nate would try to grab one of the chords snaked on the stage. We think Nate had fun though at this point it's hard for him to convey when his vocab is essentially "Hi", "Dadda", "Mamma" and "Bye". It was good to hang with Margot though and for Nate to mix it up with his Aunt.

Bath Freedom

Nate was done with the bath seat -- he was squirming and escaping -- so we put a grippy tub mat down so he wouldn't slip and slide. He seems to like his new bath-freedom and it's cute to see his little naked body moving around the tub. There's lots to do in the bathtub when you have mobility, like take your toys and move them from the faucet-side to the tray. Then, wait, now that your toys are on the tray, you need to dump them back into the water and push them to back to the faucet side. And so on.