Adventure in the City, Part 3

One of our favorite authors, the author of The Little House, Katy, and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, also has a great book about cable cars called Maybelle. We had been reading Maybelle a little bit before our trip, and I'm so, so glad we had!

After our dinner, we decided to take the kids on their first cable car ride. We accidentally took the "wrong" line and ended up on a very, very long ride. I'm so glad we made that mistake. We got to ride all around the city at sunset and watched people coming home and settling in for the evening. Jonathan had asked whether there were any houses in this city, since he hadn't yet seen any, and we got to see lots. We ended up at the end of the line just before dark and had to get off of one car and onto another to get back to the hotel. If you look closely and use your imagination, you can see the Golden Gate bridge in the distance.

(Well, Blogger reversed the order of these images, but I'm going to get this post done instead of making it perfect but not done...)

Jeff got some sweet time holding Grace.

And, back to Maybelle. Jonathan loved, loved, loved the cable car ride. We rode inside the car for part of it and outside, where we could watch the gripman working the levers, for another big portion of it. He was fascinated. It really was amazing to think of those cables running under the city and each car grabbing on to be pulled up those steep hills. He saw a cable car the next morning and was (and is) convinced that it was the actual Maybelle.

This was as close as we could get to a family shot. Oh, well, use your imagination...it was the best cable car ride we've ever had.

One more City post left...but it's not going to get done tonight. Maybe tomorrow!

Down to One Nap...

I finally took the plunge and helped Grace drop her morning nap today. She has been moving in that direction for awhile, and seems ready to do it at 13 mos., just like Jonathan did. I've been limiting her morning nap to an hour or less for a few weeks because anytime it was longer, she had a really hard time falling asleep in the afternoon. We may backtrack and give her a morning nap now and then on days that she needs it, but hopefully not too often. She is taking a blissfully long afternoon nap today. And I'm looking forward to being able to do more fun things mid-morning with both kiddos without having to work around that little nap. Our baby girl is growing up.

Adventure in the City, Part 2

I had to include another elevator picture, because Jonathan loved those zooming elevators so much, and we enjoyed a clear, beautifully non-foggy day!

We rode them twice Wednesday evening as a family, twice Thursday morning before the three of us went out exploring, and twice before the kids and I checked out and went home. He was fascinated by the cables and pulleys that ran them, and he could watch the other elevators working since there are five (I think) running side-by-side. So fun for our little engineer.

After naptime and snacks on Wednesday, Jeff got off of work and we were able to spend some time in the city as a family. Among other things, we went to the bookstore. Kids' books were on the third floor. Even Jeff enjoyed them before he left for the business section.

These Transformers books caught Jonathan's eye, and he has decided he wants to go back to read about more robots and monsters and aliens. I am not a fan of these books...the stories are lame and just market toys to kids. But, he is a little boy, and little boys like monsters and aliens and robots, so I did read one to him. And I will humor him and let him read some more. :)

We decided to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, not only because it was a huge treat but because it's a very loud restaurant, which is great when you're bringing kids. (I have been to a Cheesecake Factory one other time, after dinner with girlfriends at P.F. Chang's, which I told about here.) Here we are up on their patio looking down at the Square. (The people are dancing down there.) Jonathan thought it was pretty neat to be up in the sky behind the letters of the Macy's sign.

A closer look at the dancing in Union Square.

Of course, what makes people hungrier than drooling over cheesecake while waiting for a table? I can't remember whether the legislation requiring restaurants to display calorie counts has already gone into effect, but this restaurant has the calories up already. So, a piece of cheesecake supplies most of the calories a person needs in a day. (Don't count that low carb cheesecake, which we would not eat.) Did that dampen our enthusiasm?

I don't think so!

The food was incredible. Jeff and I shared all our food, including avocado egg rolls. They sound strange but were scrumptious.

This guy wanted some cheesecake.

My Alien

Yes, he made the mask himself. The fingers are gamepieces from "Trouble," which is his favorite board game right now.

Congratulations are in order!

Congratulations to our friends, Gabe, Dorothy, and Liam, on the new addition to their family, River James. He was born April 28th and was 8 lbs., 5 oz., 21.5" long. See his pictures and read his story on their blog. Congratulations!

Adventure in the City, Part 1

Jeff had yet another trip this week, but the destination was near enough that we could go with him. And because it's just how I am but I wish it wasn't, I got all stressed about the packing and preparation when I shouldn't have worried about it. We had a wonderful time together (when he wasn't working!) and we should have stayed longer. And now, the pictures...

We got to enjoy the perks of business travel, like staying in a beautiful hotel that we didn't pay for. I think this is one of the nicest places Jeff has stayed on a business trip, so it was fun that we got to experience it, too. Grace got to eat a snack in her stroller...

and Jonathan got to eat his snack while watching himself in the mirror. What could be better when you're a five-year-old boy?

Both kids were fascinated by the light with "things that look like necklaces," according to Jonathan.

And this beautiful old hotel still had the exposed stairways at the end of each hallway...

but also had the modern, very fast glass elevators with amazing views of the city. Jonathan has not inherited any fear of heights and absolutely loved the "crazy elevators."

This particular hotel seems to host very few children. I think I only saw two the entire time we were there, but we saw dozens and dozens of stylishly dressed business travelers in a hurry. (And I realized how plainly I dress and how thankful I was to walk around the city in comfort instead of a skirt and heels.) So, I don't think all of them were amused by our use of the elevators for our preschooler's amusement, but they all tolerated us, at least. Jonathan was thrilled.

Letting Them Go

When the weather warmed up and the butterflies were ready, we set them free. Jonathan, Grace, and I went outside, I fed Grace an avocado, and Jonathan watched the butterflies. He talked to them and persuaded them, one by one, to fly away. It was very sweet.

I had to talk him into it for a few days, and at first, Jonathan was pretty sad that we had to let the butterflies go. But I convinced him that they needed to fly free and have baby caterpillars of their own. (And from the looks of things a couple nights before we set them free, they were getting ready to have those babies pretty quickly. Ahem.)

This was a super-fun process from beginning to end. I could have written a children's counting book quoting Jonathan's play-by-play as he counted down from ten butterflies to one. I'm sure it's safe to say that there's already a children's counting book about butterflies out there!

I think we'll do this again next spring!

The Pulling Up Pictures

Time to move all these forbidden goodies!

The Lego Mailbox...

complete with mail. Jonathan tells me that the letters are about Baby Micah, Grandma, and kindergarten screening. (Sorry, Jennie, I know he's not a baby anymore, but Jonathan still calls him Baby Micah!)

Pictures of Mom and Grace