A New York weekend

Philadelphia is a nice city. Decent cost of living, 2 hours from NY, 3 hours from DC, 2 hours from the shore, driving distance to the mountains, Niagara Falls. We've been to all these places, but NY was always hectic and not very enjoyable. Always in a rush, always either very cold or very hot. We were always overwhelmed, but never truly enjoyed it. We kept on saying we'll stay overnight once to be able to take our time visiting, but we never got to it. Until recently.

Marius had training seminars for a week in NY and he really wanted us to be with him for a while. We decided to join him for 2 nights! Saturday morning we all hoped in the bus and, NY here we come!! We checked in fast at a cute hotel in the theater district and we started walking around.

 I won't lie, the picture is not representative of what was happening. Catalina was in a foul mood. She did not want pictures, she wanted to stay in the hotel to watch movies on my phone. We promised her a trip to the American girl store, so we got some smiles...

Lots of smiles came in the store.

To be fair, the girl did not ask for much, but mommy and daddy were in love with everything in the store. So, our cute little kiddie got plenty of unjustifiable expensive doll stuff. But so, so cute!!
Next stop: fancy, yummy food. Catalina was once again ready to go back to the hotel. Just until we told her we can go to see Kevin's park (a.k.a as Central Park)

 Catalina wanted to climb all the rocks in the park. She worked hard and got up there on her own. My kid, taking over NYC!!

It was a long day we all went back to the hotel for a nice warm shower, some TV watching and some playing with the American Girl stuff we bought. After some resting we got outside again...seconds from Times Square there was no way were going to sleep early! Catalina was impressed with the lights and the screens, mommy and daddy were impressed with how free she was scratching all sorts of her body parts :))

 Pictures with some characters in the square, visits to the Hershey store and to the M&M store to stock ourselves with delicious calories. And then it was really time to head back to the hotel for a good night sleep. We wanted to make sure we are rested for the next day!

 Next day:
After fast (and once again expensive) breakfast we hoped on the subway and went to see the Liberty tower. Impressive architecturally and historically, we were speechless. Not Catalina. She wanted to know everything that happened THAT September 11.

 The views were impressive, like we knew they will be.

 Everything is done in good taste, high technology to offer the best experience possible. If only it was also possible to erase how and why the tower got to be here today...

 Catalina REALLY wanted to visit the 9/11 museum. So we waited in a long line and got inside, among scary history. Catalina asked a lot of questions about all the people who died in the airplanes, in the buildings. She wanted to know how many escaped, but somehow I only know how many had died.

She was impressed, curious, but not scared. I was so proud of all the questions she asked, of how she processed everything. I was very honest and I did not downplay the tragedy of those days. I did tell her however how the very big majority of people are very good and helped a lot, it's just that sometimes a handful of dark minds can bring a lot of suffering and destruction. But love and unity can conquer fear and hate.

With our minds a little shattered we decided there is no more time to visit the Statue of Liberty. We had tickets for a Broadway show, we were tired and hungry so we decided very wisely to head back to our hotel. Pizza lunch and a short nap and we were ready to have fun!

The show was magical! The costumes breathtaking. The actors were funny, the sound clear so everyone can understand. It was the best way to finish our NY weekend. It did put us in a NY state of mind. We'll come back, that is for sure. So many more things to see and do! Maybe when the littlest girl won't be so little anymore. Maybe before. One thing is for sure: we know now that this city can be fun and enjoyable, that if you give yourself time and patience you can feel the taste of greatness, of history and art, of everything blended in a beautiful whole.

Domesticating

We take many trips, we love adventure, but we also love our little house and our growing family. After coming back from Romania I vowed not to leave anywhere for a while, sort of to get my thoughts and life back on track. And also, to have some minutes to enjoy the little swimming miracle in my belly.

Catalina asked for fish for a ling time. Daddy said yes, so mommy had to agree. We got the tank and Catalina sort of picked her favorite fish before the holiday. But we told her nobody will be home to feed the fish, so she understood she needs to wait. Once we came back we rushed to Petsmart, just to be told that the water needs to be pre-conditioned before fish can survive. 2 more weeks of waiting, adding chemicals to the water every other day.

And the day finally came. Introducing the new "members" of our family: 3 gold fish, one is golden, one is black and one is metallic. They are pretty, but a lot more work then I expected. Also, because our tank is a lot smaller than what most fish like we need to do maintenance work more often. Catalina loves them and she remembers to feed them every day, so it's all worth it in the end.

Aside from that, there was a lot of love shared in our household. Catalina is very sweet talking about her new baby sister. She hugs me, when I take showers tells the baby to bring her umbrella, when I eat she tells the baby yummy food is coming her way. If mommy and daddy tell her she's our biggest happiness she reminds us there is one more biggest happiness in my belly. We are luck to have two girls, that's for sure!

Next chapter: school. While daddy was in NY for a training Catalina and mommy had a week together. It was tough. Mommy had to tech late evenings and several deadlines at work, Catalina had a big project at school. But we made it somehow, even fitting in some little fun. Catalina's project was the best part of it! Kids had to represent the four seasons using all sorts of crafts they want. Daddy came up with the tree idea, mommy drew the tree and Catalina did the rest.
So proud of my daughter!

I am sure there are way better looking projects at school, maybe more imaginative, better shaped. But this one had minimal input from mom and dad. My daughter is confident in her abilities and she is proud to show HER work. Smart and gorgeous, good thing I produced one more girl, I feel I am contributing to society in the best way possible :).

The silly never ends with this little one of mine. She can be extremely mature, just to hide under the blankets and pretend she disappeared. Often, at bed time she goes under the covers when mommy or daddy are in the bathroom and we have to pretend to look for her. She's been doing this since she was 4yo, so it gets pretty annoying sometimes. Te other night I was in the bathroom and I hear her saying she'll have a surprise for me. I assumed it's the same old story...I come back to bed and nevertheless I see a BIG bulge underneath the covers. Unpatientlly I tell her to get out and remove the covers, just to see some pillows. Fine...Catalina and dad tricked me. I look around the room and she jumps out from her little house, dressed in my PJs. She slept like this and we had lots more fun till we actually fell asleep. Somehow, I still don't think people tell the amazingly funny things that happen once you have kids.

Wearing mommy's clothes again (just the hat this time...)

Superbowl 50. Catalina was very much into the Cowboys (they were not playing, but she heard about them from a boy in school), so she decided to be one. Daddy was the horsey :)

And here we are now: waiting for spring. The groundhog predicted early spring and I hope he's right. But, as Catalina told me the morning of this picture: we might need a new groundhog, this one doesn't know what he's talking about...Less than a week after the blizzard we got snow again!