Ice Skating at Rockefeller Center

Yesterday the kids had an ice skating lesson at Rockefeller Center. It was really fun! The way they approached the ice is so characteristic of their personalities--once they had their skates on, Jonah went all the way around the rink on his own, holding on to the railing. It took a lot of effort and (involved heavy leaning on the railing) for him as he could barely stand on his own without flailing his feet around. There were two gates on the far side where the railing discontinued and he had a big dilemma there--he had to let go of the rail and take a couple steps without holding on. Both times he was "rescued" by other skaters who helped him traverse the openings. I wasn't on the ice so all I could do was wave across at him and marvel at his fiery little independent spirit. Maya, ever the cautious one, wouldn't go more than a few feet from the opening and she was really worried that Jonah was so far away from us! The teacher arrived when Jonah was almost back to our side of the rink and took them out one at a time. Maya wants to take more lessons, but Jonah says skating is too hard and he wants to wait until he is older. :)

Let's see, in other news...We had lunch with a new friend! I met Terry via email on a parenting group that I have been on for years--she invited us to her apartment in East Harlem for lunch. It was so lovely being in someone else's home. We have really been missing that. She has a 2 year old daughter named Pilar (Pi for short) and we made lasagne and hung out together. She gave me lots of shopping tips and is a great NY resource since she really knows her way around here. It made me realize too, when looking for apartments that they look a lot different when they are cozy and moved in then when they are empty and all you see are the stairs you have to climb to get there.

Also, the grocery shopping wasn't as bad as I thought it would be--we ended up going to Trader Joe's 1 block from our subway stop in NY. Each kid had a plastic bag full of non-bruiseable, light things and I had two enormous paper bags. Really, it was no problem. It might be a different story when it is time to buy laundry soap or dog food...

The trip to Florida is looking like a go. Brett will need to be on this project for 4 weeks minimum, so we are all going to go too. In some ways we are very mobile right now and it frankly sounds fun to go some place with a beach (Jacksonville). So February 4th is our likely departure date and we will buy one-way tickets and leave the return open ended. I guess that puts a little distance between us and the apartment hunt, and we will try again closer to spring time when we return.