Playground with Papa

On this weekend at Papa/Nana's, Nate hit the big playground. Love these photos.

3 Boys

Nate and his two buddies from school, Remy and Ronin, got together on this blue-sky Saturday for a hang at the playground on Grand Street. Something clicked with Nate a few weeks ago with school; he gets it, likes it, goes happily. At the playground, the boys scattered quickly when they first saw each other, running in various directions.

Then they got into the play. At the end, they were on the jungle gym together smiling and talking and posing for a few pics.

Then they started singing.

Haircut

Nate's bushy wild hair was kind of getting goofy. So he got a haircut yesterday from Lucas.

And so today we went to a drab playground in Greenpoint where we found an old basketball and bounced it around on a basketball court, wandered around on a handball court, slid down a few slides, went on the toddler swings, went on the older kid swings, made friends with Phillip the Polish kid, chased Phillip the Polish kid around for a while and got chased by Phillip the Polish kid, then got on our bike and rode home.

All the while, Nate's hair looked awesome.

Chasing Birds

This is Nate chasing a pigeon at the playground. Except for "duck", he does not yet understand the nuances between the various kinds of birds. But he's fascinated nonetheless. I think this was the first time he made a move towards grabbling or touching pigeons, which peck around the playground nibbling on disgusting things liquid and solid.

Afterwards, Nate met a 16 month girl named Marlow and followed her around from the jungle gym to the small slide to the big slide to the small slide, etc. He's normally quite shy or solitary at the playground actually. But he was into Marlow; there was no doubt. Finally after the two went down the slide 15 or 20 times in a row while I traded stories with Marlow's dad, we all followed Marlow to the swings. Nate didn't want in himself though; he wanted to walk under. So Marlow's dad suggested Nate push Marlow. So I picked him up and he pushed her softly as she gazed back at him sweetly. It was lovely. He was unhappy when I informed him it was time to go home...

Waterfront

On this brutally hot Thursday morning, Nate and I biked over the Pulaski Bridge into Long Island City. We didn't really know where we were going and so we meandered towards the waterfront, where high rise rentals gleam and loom. There, we stumbled into a kind of kid/parent paradise. Seriously. Hammocks and wooden lounge chairs lined the perimeter of a lovely lush lawn, all bordering on the East River and glorious midtown manhattan. Then a bunch of sprinklers awoke, and soon Nate was running around like a suburban kid. I took these photos from the hammock, where I lounged lazily.

Afterwards, we discovered a playground on the western border of the lawn, with funky and innovative jungle-gym equipment -- not your run of the mill NYC playground stuff -- like climbing mountains of ropes, chairs that spun 360 at 45 degree angle, and plastic slides that didn't heat up to 1000 degrees. It was great fun in the sun. Long Island City. Who knew?

Dumbo by Ferry

This is us -- Mama and Dada -- in mid July, 2011.

OK, back to Nate... So a new ferry service on the East River, which travels from Wall Street to Dumbo to Williamsburg to Greenpoint to LIC to East 34th Street, offers a nice option for parents looking to entertain their toddlers. Ferries are kind of fun and weird and motoring on the water in NYC, whether you're 2 or 42, is lovely and often enchanting. For those living near the waterfront in Brooklyn, commuters are taking advantage; it seems like a beautiful way to get to work. In nice weather anyway.

On this scorchingly hot Friday in July, I met Shana and Nate in Dumbo; they traveled on the ferry from Williamsburg and Nate very much liked it. We then hit the playground and watched Nate run through the fountain with 20 Hasidic kids clothed head to toe in Hasidic gear

Then we had ice cream. Nate calls ice cream "Ah-May".

Then, waiting for the ferry home, we gazed at downtown Manhattan. If you see that darkish building second highest towards the right (to the right of Nate's head)... That is the new WTC tower being constructed (it is at approx 50 stories here). This triggered an early memory for me, driving by the Twin Towers mid-construction with my parents. I remember looking at these massive buildings, with construction activity everywhere, frantic, and my folks telling me that these towers were going to be taller than the Empire State Building. This made me sad for the Empire State Building, which must have felt bad that it was no longer going to be the tallest.

Here in 2011, if Nate can muster this memory, he can tell others he caught the new WTC rising too.

Waterworld

As the family dives into summer, a morning pattern is developing. More or less, while I exercise (mostly tennis) Shana has Nate until about 8, whereupon I take Nate out to a playground until about 10, whereupon Nate naps and I go to work. As June already has seen some scorching hot days, NYC's playground's fountains have come to life. Nate darts in and out of the water and mostly gets soaked. One of his words is "weh" for wet.

It is often empty at the playgrounds in the morning, which is why I think I enjoy it so much. It's peaceful and Nate can explore without big kids having water balloon fights around him.

Waterfront

Nate is starting to get comfortable moving around. On this chilly May sunday, we went to the waterfront in Williamsburg, the first time I've taken him there this Spring. Although Nate seemed a bit tentative on the grass, he was left to wander and explore, and that made me happy, to watch him going more or less where he pleased. We rolled a ball to each other some. He got excited as we got close to the water, screaming DUCK! DUCK!! DUCK!!!, pointing to an aloof seagull floating in the water. People were walking by and Nate would look at them and point to the seagull, as if it was just the most amazing thing ever. DUCK! DUCK!! DUCK!!!

There's an industrial kid's playground type of thing, down in this area of the Williamsburg waterfront park, with large objects on which to climb. There was a kid's birthday party going on; children were wearing capes. In this picture, Nate was eyeballing 3 girls on a bouncy wooden circle. Then they were gone. And Nate and I headed to the Brooklyn Flea where we had french fries before meeting Shana for a fun Mexican dinner at Taco Chulo.