Appreciate the Arts

When Ryan and I went to Paris a couple years back, I remember being proud to announce that we 'did the Louvre' in about an hour. We grabbed a map, hit the highlights and were on our way. When you're running on a time limit, you do what you can!

Looking back though, I feel like it was such a shame for us to not spend a little more time taking in the art and finding pieces that interested us instead of just crossing things off of a list. The Louvre after all is one of the most famous art museums! Who are we to down grade it's importance???

So, when making my 101 list I decided I wanted to actually walk through a museum and appreciate the art. When asked if I wanted to go to the Philadelphia Art Museum, I thought it was the perfect chance! Well, one thing led to another, the morning was rough after Jude hardly slept and when my company bowed out, I figured I too would take advantage of the rainy day and sit at home. But at that point, we were dressed, lunch was packed, and we were ready to walk out the door. So, I for in the car not sure where I was headed. Would we detour at the mall for story time? Meet Ryan for lunch? Try out the Children's Museum? Go to Philly alone? Once on 95 we were decided on the Children's Museum. However, getting off the exit to the riverfront, I passed 'The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts'. Then I saw the big 'free!' sign and decided to stop.

Aparently DCCA is ALWAYS free and has regularly changing exhibits! They also have program for young kids in a children's classroom! All of which was very interesting to me!

Jude and I browsed the 5 or so rooms of different collections. I pointed out colors, laughed at the asking price of some of the pieces and was puzzle by what some consider to be art. Some of the stuff was really neat though. One exhibit had a tape playing, where someone had take a photo of JFK and somehow moved his eyes and lips so it looked like he was talking... And had him giving a speech. That was jude's favorite. He also liked this plush wall of polyfilled colorful fabric.

I'm pretty certain my favorites were some oil paintings that had some geometric/optical illusion stuff going on and a series of digital prints. I'm sure I love to visit a museum of just photography after that one room. It's amazing what one can do with the camera.

All in all we were there about an hour before Jude decided it was time to go. I think it is something I'll keep in the back of my mind as a place to visit on other rainy days.

New York Trip: Part II

Original Day Two Plans:
- Wake up after sleeping in a little for breakfast and to check out of the hotel
- head over to New York again for ice skating in Central Park, tour Time Square, stop off at Ground Zero and whatever else came to mind.

Revised Day Two Plans:
- Ground Zero
- Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty

Actual Events:
So, we woke up the next morning unsure of what we was going to happen. Ryan had a rough night and I wasn't about to push it on him. He seemed to be doing alright, so we check out of the hotel and decided to grab a light breakfast. He still seemed to be doing alright and so we went on with our plans - slightly altered.

View from our hotel window... the city skyline

We decided to skip Ground Zero and so there was no real reason to go back into the city. Instead, we decided to take the ferry to Ellis Island from New Jersey. This saved us a bus ride into the city and having to figure out transportation to the bottom of the island. All in all, it worked out great.

Since our plans were slightly altered, I was checking up on ferry times from Jersey on our way there. We were about 10 minutes away and the next ferry left in roughly 15 minutes! We really tried to make it, as the next ferry wouldn't leave for another hour or so, but as we were running up to the security check with tickets in hand, they told us the ferry was pulling out.

The ticket area for Liberty State Park was in this awesome old train station. The area where trains at one point would have pulled into was very "Life After People"

an old train...

ahhh... so we are in the right spot...

I really thought the train station was cool... so with some of our free time...

Here's the boys in line for tickets... at this point we weren't aware we'd missed the ferry

The Statue of Liberty ... from the ferry.

from Ellis Island...

I think "cruises" is a bit extreme..

With our extra time, I went back to the car to feed and change Jude and we walked around Liberty State park. The time passed by pretty quickly and before we knew it, it was time to board the ferry. Time passing quickly became a theme for the day. Because we were at the mercy of the ferries, we had to keep an eye on the clock.

Jude was a trooper the whole trip...

The statue of Liberty didn't let people in past a certain time, so in order to get to Liberty Island (from Ellis Island) in a timely fashion, we needed to get off the ferry and get back on the next ferry. This left us (I believe) roughly an hour and a half on Ellis Island. Of course, we didn't get through all of the exhibits... but there's always next time. What we did see was all very interesting and really displayed nicely. I had never been and so walking through all the different rooms - which once served as examination rooms, luggage rooms and much more was all very... interesting... amazing... etc.

As with present day airports, etc, passengers coming in had to exchange currency...

samples of the graffiti walls...

Katy is checking to see if Jude and Ryan may enter...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this wall... it was a bunch of faces from one angle and a flag for another.

My girl...

The luggage room had a bunch of trunks and stuff... it was probably one fo the coolest rooms. These folk sure didn't travel light...

Like I said after Ellis Island was Liberty Island. We had a little more flexibility on Liberty Island and so upon arriving we grabbed a snack in their cafe. I am under the impression they're doing some heavy renovations and so the place was kind of a mess.

Next we headed for the Statue itself. Did I mention that you needed to go through security JUST to get on the ferry? Like airport security (minus taking off your shoes)? Well, you did. Not only that, but you needed to go through another mini security to go into the base of the statue. No bags were allowed, so I was thankful that I had just changed Jude's diaper before stowing our bag away in a locker. Also, I made the assumption that one could just go on up to the crown. Well, you can't. You need special timed passes and you need these passes MONTHS (yes, the security guard said MONTHS) in advance. He even said that at this point getting summer passes might be getting slim. CRAZY! But either way, we continued the tour.

For anyone who hasn't been, you enter through the back of the base of the statue. You go into a room which hold the original torch and then follow some steps up to the museum portion. Everywhere you went said that it's basically a one way tour. Once you pass a certain point, there's pretty much no turning back. The museum itself was pretty interesting. There were live-size replicas of certain parts of the statue, lots of pictures, facts, etc. Then you have to climb up a number of steps to get up to where her feet are (that's as far as you can go w/out the timed passes). inside was pretty cool, because you could see "up her skirt' into all the inner workings of the statue. The structural support, etc.

Yes... and the elevator was broken.

Life-size replica of her big toe.

The original torch.

The highest spot you could get to was not exactly the most desirable. There's a pretty poor view of the statue... and really... that's what we were there for.

As we were climbing down, we realized that we were minutes away from the departure of the next ferry. Even though Ryan had toughed it out through the day, he was ready to go. We made sure to get the pictures we wanted and finish everything we had been there to do and then raced back to the ferry. We made it just in time!

It was then back to the car, back to Delaware and back home. We had a busy two days and two busy days of work ahead of us. It's Tuesday already and I'm still trying to play catch up.

A Day At The Zoo

Jude and I were invited to spend today at the zoo. The person who invited us was/is a member, so we were fortunate enough to get in for free! At that price, who could resist? There were three other mothers there, all with babies of their own so as lame and I sound, it was nice to be around other people with kids. Jude was however, the youngest of them all.

Being that Jude was so young, he only understood so much of what was going on. Every now and then he seemed to be looking at the animals, but I can't be too sure. But it was still a good time and got us out and about!

I think later, when Jude is old enough to understand what's happening we'll be going back with Ryan. Ryan seemed slightly bummed that he'd be missing Jude's first trip, but agreed that it'd be better to go with him when he can understand what it's all about.

Photos:

Looking at the Lions (which I compared to "really big Buddy's" because they were laying around like he does)

Looking at the Gorillas, which is becoming one of my favorite animals. I just loved them in Animal Kingdom and even though this one wasn't as active, he's still pretty bad ass looking. This is so cute because Jude is holding himself up and stand against the glass.

A little photo op:

Jude's first carousel. He sat on there all alone like a big boy (of course I was holding on to him)

The sloth. Not as cool as when we saw them in their natural habitat in Costa Rica, but this one had a baby which was pretty neat.

I will also add that I (of course?) carrier Jude is his carrier all day. Carrying him was not a problem, but it's annoying not having anywhere to stow my diaper bag. Luckily one of the ladies there had a stroller that was being used specifically for diaper bags. I need to learn to pack lighter.

Red Raspberries

One time Ryan and I watched a discovery channel type program about "food miles" and how buying local is so much more environmentally friendly (pretty obvious, but the program really showed just HOW much moving food impacts the environment!). In addition, I'm all about "buying local" for the sake of the local economy. Helping local farmers and small store owners, etc.

We're pretty lucky to have a pretty nice orchard/farm type place a few miles away. Milburn Orchards grows a selection of berries, cherries, peaches, grapes and apples. Starting at some point in June with cherries they offer "u pick" fruits through the fall. You have the ability to browse through their orchards and select your own fruits for a reasonable price. In addition, during the fall, they have a children's play area, the best cider donuts and plenty more fall fun!

This year I had hoped to go cherry picking again, but missed it by about a week :(

However, when I got a phone call from Meghan asking if I wanted to pick raspberries, I was all about it! I love raspberries. We headed out around 10 o'clock on Saturday morning to beat the heat, but it was still pretty warm. Carrying Jude around in his sling, I was worried he'd over heat. Lucky for us, we got a good row at first and were able to pick quite a few berries rather quickly.

After we got our fill on raspberries we approached the blackberry bushes. Neither of us had eaten blackberries before, so we tried one right off the vine. Surprisingly, they were pretty good! pretty tart, a little sticky tot he touch and similar to a raspberry, but much larger.

Once I got home with our fresh picked goodness, it didn't last long. I set the berries out on the counter and in a couple of hours they were gone. Good thing is that they berries are in season until the first frost, so I hope to head back at some point for more!

Given my love of raspberries, I hope to find a recipe or two to make one of my seasonal desserts!

Our Friday at Home

Friday Ryan and I had big plans for an adult day out. We had gotten tickets to the Daily Show and were going to spend the day in New York (we me secretly pumping in changing rooms and bathrooms along the way).

Well around Wednesday we realized our "August 14th" tickets were REALLY "August 6th" tickets ... and we missed our show. Ryan was really bummed and I was super bummed for him. He contemplated working anyway but decided we'd enjoy the day together. We had a few plans, either head up to New York anyway, go to the beach for the day, etc.

Jude surprised us both and slept in until like 9am and by the time we got up and running, it was much later than we had expected. At that point we both decided we'd skip the beach and a day trip and just stay home.

It kinda sucked that we had built up so much excitement for the day, but really, it was nice to sit around and be moppy for the day.

Guilty

I'll start by saying that yesterday was a BIG day for Jude. Typically he sleeps a good portion of the day and then on and off through the night. More recently as he's growing, he is spending more time alert and awake, but still sleeps regularly through the afternoon.

Yesterday I took him down my dad's house to visit and it was a whole new environment for him. He left his normally fairly calm home and went into chaos. Not only is it significantly louder, with more people but my dad's house also means: grandparents and kids! Before I even pull into the driveway I get a over protective phone call to 'pull in the garage it's raining, you don't need to have Jude out in the rain'. Then, before I can even get out of the car, they're in the car in his face, making just way too much noise and going crazy - you'd think they never saw a baby before.

The rest of the afternoon continued much like that with everyone in his face, fighting over who gets to hold him singing rediculous songs, stretching out his arms and legs (my parents insist that babies need to do their 'exercises' to get them out of the fetal position more quickly ??) and tossing him back and forth. My stepmom even said at one point that "babies need their stimulation!" (and she wonders why I won't let her watch him when I go back to work). When we finally got out of there, he passed out on the car ride home as expected. Being that it was only about 3:00 or so, I thought for sure he'd sleep for a good few hours and then end up being awake all night. But I was wrong!

He did his normal wake up/eat thing until he ate around 7:30. After I fed him, he of course when back to sleep. I held him in my arms while watching TV until about 10:00 when I was getting tired. I contemplated waking him up to feed him before I went to sleep because I kept thinking "he's going to wake up any minute now". I didn't have the heart and wanted to see how long he'd sleep so I went up stairs and climbed in bed.

Here's the 'guilty' part: I brought Jude in bed with me. While I was pregnant or even before I started thinking about having kids, I knew for certain there were things I would "never" do as a mother. For example taking a shower with my son, and bringing my child into my room with me - putting him in my bed was very high on that lis! However, as I transition into motherhood, I'm finding that it's not uncommon at all to do things you never imagined you'd do.

Even with a million people telling me about the risk of SIDS (apparently EVERYTHING causes SIDS - beds, stuffed animals, bumpers, crib mattresses) and suffocation if you sleep with your child, it's something that Ryan and I do on and off. Since we started doing it, it's been almost taboo. Because it seems so socially unacceptable we both seem to just not mention that it happens in conversations with other people - and when the doctor asked the other day where he sleeps, I didn't even THINK about mentioning it.

The other night I came across one of the first people who openly asked 'do you sleep with him?'. Ryan and I exchanged concerned looks and said a very guilty "yes...". His response: "We slept in bed with my son all the time!" Why we felt guilty admitting it, I'm not sure - I think it's just because our society has made the AAP the final decider on what's best for baby and have thrown our best judgement as parents to the wind.

But the truth is, when he's laying next to me he sleeps so much more soundly. Regardless of what anyone says, even when I'm asleep I'm aware he's next to me and even the slightest noise he makes has me awake (even though he makes much less noise when in bed).

Being that he was so peacefully asleep on me last night I didn't have the heart to plop him into his crib. I knew the second I did he'd be back up and alert. I really thought he needed the sleep. So we all climb in bed and fall asleep. Around midnight I wake up because I'm aware that Jude has not eaten since 7:30. I look at him and he's still peacefully asleep next to me. I'm of course wide awake at this point and think to myself "this kid is a sleeping machine!!". I reposition myself and in doing so he starts to fuss a little. I assume I woke him up, but the second I settle in, he goes right back into a sound sleep. Not until quarter to 4 this morning (about when Ryan wakes up for work) did Jude wake up! Even though he's been a pretty good sleeper since he was born, last night was without a doubt the best night's sleep we've had!

While I try to avoid having him in our bed, if it gets me rest like that, I'm all about it! Still, being the worried and concerned person I can be I did a little rooting around online and came across this article which is also from the same guy who understands a parent's concerns about vaccines and came up with the alternative vaccination schedule. It helped comfort me that there is someone out in the medical field who seems to support what we're doing and even seems to recommend it! As someone once told me, there's so much information out there about parenting. You'll get a million different people's opinions and advice and really you just need to filter it out and use the advice that works best for YOU as a mother/father.

A Visit with Great, Great Grandmom

Today Jude and I planned to spend the day at home (well, I planned... he just always agrees). We slept in a little this morning (feed, sleep, feed, sleep) and by the time we made it downstairs, I had a few missed calls. One of them was from my grandmother. Her boss lives across the street from me and he received a package at his house that was intended for our little Jude. Apparently he brought it to work for my grandmom to give it to me (instead of just dropping it off at my door??).

So, I met her at work to pick up the package. She works in a doctor's office off main street. She was thrilled to see Jude and took that opportunity to show him off to her office friends. Right next door is a retirement home where my great grandmother lives (Jude's great, great grandmother!). I couldn't be that close to her without stopping in to show the little guy off.

Walking up to the main entrance there were a collection of older ladies hanging out who saw a baby and started to swoon! One even asked "is that a real baby or a baby doll?!" At the time he was in his sling so I GUESS I can understand the confusion?

Either way, my Nana buzzed us up to her apartment and was so excited to see Jude. She had seen him at the hospital when he was born, but didn't have a lot of time to hold him with everyone coming in an out. We sat and chatted for about 2+ hours and she held on to him the whole time. It was precious. She even had to call down the hall to one of her old lady friends so that she could show Jude off. The woman already knew so much about me and Jude, so it's obvious that she was raving about him before we even showed up.

It's not every day that someone can meet their great, great grandson!