We took the kids into New York City on Tuesday (the 14th) for a summer day trip. Our reason for heading into the city in the first place was to visit NYU's child development lab where Toby was going to participate in a language study. But our appointment wasn't until 4 in the afternoon so we we down early and took in the Bronx Zoo first.
The day before we went down Toby figured out how to spell 'zoo' and wrote it all over our front steps in sidewalk chalk. (One of the words is still there, despite all the rain we've had since then.) He was excited to see the zebras. (Notice the trend with z? It's his new favorite letter, after t "for Toby") The weather was perfect and the zoo wasn't too crowded. We saw lions, zebras, a camel, monkeys, the Mouse House, and even the Madagascar House (which he liked because of the movie "Madagascar"). We also saw sea lions, polar bears, and a huge tiger that came right up to the window where Toby was standing. (The weirdest thing I saw was a mom with 5 kids who was walking around the zoo in stilettos--only in the Bronx, I guess.)
From the Zoo we drove into the city and down to Greenwich Village, where the NYU campus is located. Toby's language study went really well--it wasn't a test or anything; he was just a participant in this study. He did the study while we watched from the other room. He was really cute and would say the funniest things to the researcher, such as "In two weeks me and my dad are going camping" (what?) or "I have a bike I like to ride" (yep!). The study was on homonyms and how 4 year olds can figure out their meanings based on context clues. I wasn't surprised that Toby didn't know the difference between "moose" and "mousse" and that he knew the difference between a baseball "bat" and the animal "bat."
After the study we walked around Washington Square Park and the fountains and then drove uptown to a restaurant near Central Park. It was Bastille Day and the French soup restaurant we found said they were totally kid-friendly but their idea of kid-friendly was sticking us in a corner, giving each kid a balloon and then telling us that their only working high chair was already in use! Oops--apparently Bastille Day is not the best day to bring your kids to a French restaurant (it wasn't a super fancy one, either). But once we got the kids fed they did a pretty good job of letting us enjoy our meal.
From there we walked up to Central Park and let them play in this huge playground area. Toby made some quick friends and played happily for a long time while Norah tried out the swings and the slide. It was a beautiful night and there were tons of families out. After bribing Toby with ice cream to leave the park we walked back to the car (past the famous Plaza Hotel) and drove home. Both kids passed out pretty quickly and slept in extra late the next day!
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