NY Pizza

I figured I should write about my trip to NY before it was too far in the past. I am back home now, and it was a great trip. Things started out with our flight to NY. I booked a red eye on jet blue, direct flight, left at 9:30. I assumed Holly would drink a bottle and be off to sleep for the next 5 hours. HA ha. An hour in she was done playing in the empty seat next two us. Two hours in she was screaming, wiggling, and crying, refusing to sleep, refusing a second bottle. Three hours in we were walking the isles, and then I saw a stewardess get ice for someone and it perked Holly's interest. I got her a glass and we sat back down. She began to suck on the ice and play with it. Mouth to glass to mouth and within twenty minutes she was asleep. Sensory thing? Teething? One will never know, but by then I was so afraid to move and wake her that I was never able to fall asleep myself.
We arrive, its 6am I had no sleep, Holly had 2 hours and my mom phones to tell me that the airline won't give her a gate pass, so sadly Holly gets woken up and we make the long hard trek to baggage. Luckily at Baggage mom and dad were waiting with a stroller so we could put Holly down, I hoped she would fall asleep, but she was so excited to see what was going on she stayed awake at the airport, the ride home, for breakfast, until around 10:00 in the morning. I was able to get her to fall asleep in the single bed of our guest room and then transfer her to the crib so I could take a nap. We had about four hours. When we woke up we had a few minutes to have a snack and then my mom, Holly, and I went to run errands with Elise, the bride's mom (Stephanie). Holly was such a good girl. She was happy to be in the car seat, she enjoyed looking around. She enjoyed the stroller, was happy to be out and about, but not too eager to run around as she had an overwhelming day. We picked up the wedding dress at Macy's, Holly explored the bridal store, she enjoyed all of the mirrors and looking at the pretty dresses. When we got back home Elise showed Holly a bunch of toys she had around the house left over from when she did evaluations of special needs kids, and Holly had a blast. Beads to string, blocks to stack, books to read, dolls to put shoes on, it was wonderful. She played in the living room a bit, but there were three near by stair cases and it wasn't easy to keep her contained. Jim had some old baby gates left over from when Jason lived with them (Scot's son) and they used them to contain her in the living room, but they didn't work so well. They weren't affixed to the wall so it was easy for Holly to push them over. We ordered Chinese for dinner and put Holly in the highchair. She snacked on the food and then played. We gave her blocks and she was happy to sit in and enjoy the conversation while we talked at the dinner table for a few hours. She had a Thomas the Train plate and bowl from my dad, and the blocks she was playing with were a train set with several spokes for the various shaped blocks to stack onto. Then Elise received a call from Stephanie who was checking the dress and veil and found out the store gave us the wrong veil. Chaos! In the end it worked out, but included a plan where we needed to get the wrong veil from Stephanie's place and then be at Macy's at 11:00 to pick up the right one, and then by 2:00 my mom had to head back to Stephanie's to help her get ready for the big event. The next morning we headed out early to go and pick up dress shoes for Holly. This was a big debate, as my parents think she should be wearing shoes more often, and with more support, harder soles, ankle support. I told my dad I would take a look, keep an open mind, and talk to the sales clerk. I had to laugh when the clerk told my mom that for little kids it is best to keep them out of shoes for as long as possible, and then go to the soft soles, like Robbies, or the next step up Pedipeds. For my dad's sake I did try a pair of Sneaker's on Holly she was a size 5 wide, she looked very cute, but was very off balance, and did not like them one bit. We ended up getting two pairs of the Pedipeds, one in 12 month size that were black and shiny and for the wedding, and another brown Maryjane style in 18 month size for her to grow into. I have several Robbies that holly got from granny, in lots of larger sizes, so I think Holly will be good for shoes for a long time. Right across the street was Franks Pizza. It had been maybe 8 years since I had NY Style Pizza, and probably 20 since I was at Franks last. It was only 10:30 AM, But I had to stop for a slice. My mom ran in to get one to go while I strapped Holly into the car, as we were on our way to Macy's. When I bit into that slice of pizza, it was like heaven. I had been dreaming, craving NY Pizza for years, you can;t get it anywhere else, and I had come to believe that I must have built it up so much in my head that there was no way it was actually as good as I had been imagining and remembering, but when I took that first bit, I swear it was even better. Words just do not describe. Once we got back with the Veil my dad found out that we had Pizza for breakfast. He was not a happy camper that we had some without him, it was about 12:30 and my mom needed to go and start getting ready herself. We needed gas int he car so Holly and I decided to join my dad for Lunch. We headed back to Franks and had another slice. This time we ate inside and Holly had her first taste of NY Pizza! Yum Yum! More to come in the next post.