that's too bad your brain is so small

A story from my former life:

While walking through Times Square with my roommate (at the time) & her 1 and 3-year-old nieces, I started to sing various nursery songs with the oldest. As it was slightly sprinkling (as it always does when people come to visit you in New York) we started to sing the familiar "It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring…" After the first verse, the 3-year-old looked up at me and said, "Do you know the other verses?" (Apparently there are more.) To which I replied, "You know what, I don't." Then she enlightened me, "That's too bad your brain is so small."

even though i'll never know you again, we'll still be friends!

So I made a friend today while sitting in the park on Wednesday. She was four. Her nanny was attending to her older sister who was freaking out because she was loosing a tooth. They asked for napkins and water. Luckily, I had both. Here are some snippets of my conversation with this articulate and charming little girl: (She is in bold)

"My sister's bleeding and she is very upset." "I know, I can see that. But I think she will be ok, don't you?" "Yes, it's just a tooth, it's not like a robber came and shot you." "You are absolutely right."

"You are pretty. You must be nice." "Why thank you. I think you're pretty nice too."

"I like your earrings. What are they made of?" "I'm not sure. Maybe they are made out of plastic. What do you think? (At this point I let her touch the earrings.)" "Hmm, they look like they are made from the ocean. You know how I know?" "No, tell me." "Well they are shiny and pretty and I recognize them from the ocean." "Oh, ok. They look like they are made from shells from the ocean." "Yep." "You're pretty smart." "I know."

"You must be smart because you're eating smart food." "I'm eating a salad. It has a lot of healthy things in it, right?" "Yep, smart food. I don't like it."

And finally, as she was walking away waving furiously….

"Even though I'll never know you again, we'll still be friends!"

sometimes i forget

Sometimes I forget that I live in one of the greatest cities in the world. And then I look to my right when I am walking to the train stop after work and see this:

I love New York...

a distraction of the best kind

At lunch I like to take a little walk around my neighborhood. I explore different streets, find fun stores, and spy interesting people. Imagine my delight when I happened upon the following:

It was a HUMONGOUS store front window with these lovely pictures of Jonathan Rhys Meyers modeling their clothing. Needless to say it caught my attention...so much so that I almost ran into a pole. Normally, I wouldn't blog about something as insignificant as this, but I actually forgot that this hottie display was on this particular street two times afterwards. And yes, folks, I almost ran into that same pole two more times. Ahhh, all I can say is that I so appreciate distractions like this...

babies, beets, and kidney beans

I’m all about parents providing good and healthy food for their children, but sometimes people can go a little overboard. I was on the train a few Saturdays ago and was standing in the corner. An UWS mom entered the train with her 4 year old son in a stroller. They began to have a conversation. Normally, I appreciate when parents actually converse with their kids instead of ignoring them during a long and boring train ride. But for some random reason, this mother continued to get louder and louder. She wasn’t upset; it was more of a “Look at me. I am talking to my kid. Aren’t I a good mother?” type of a deal. People around her started to roll their eyes.

Moments later she pulled out something from her insulated lunch bag to feed to her son. “Do you want some beets?” she asked sweetly. I’m sorry, did you just say beets? Yes. Yes, she did. Her son nodded his head and she proceeded to place one in his mouth. He appeared to be chewing. “Wow,” I thought to myself, “good kid.” He hadn’t quite finished chewing that one but then she stuck another one in his mouth. A few seconds later another one. It wasn’t until now that I realized that he really hadn’t been swallowing the beets but that they were stuck in the sides of his cheek. The other passengers and I exchanged glances at the poor beet boy.

Apparently she didn’t notice because a few minutes later she pulled something else out. “Do you want some kidney beans?” KIDNEY BEANS!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? Come on lady! He’s four! I just barely learned to like those things! The woman next to her let out a small chuckle and looked to me for validation. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled. The mother pulled out a plastic spoon and scooped up a too-large-to-fit-into-anyone’s-mouth spoonful of kidney beans and proceeded to shove it into her son’s mouth. I say shove, because he still had three large beets in his mouth. At this point, his cheeks were bulging. Was she really not seeing this? I guess he managed to get a few morsels down because she shoveled yet another spoonful of kidney beans into his mouth. Soon her train stop came and she and her son and his mouthful of healthy, left the train car. At that point, everyone and I mean everyone, started to laugh and the rest of the train ride home was spent commenting on this poor child’s predicament. You gotta love the way that New Yorkers pull together sometimes.