Henry's Potential New School

Earlier today we had a virtual tour with Henry's potential new school in Germany.  It was fantastic meeting face to face with someone I had been emailing with a bit, and seeing the beautiful school building! It's a newer building with big classrooms, bright spaces, science labs, technology labs, and a big gym.  They answered lots of our questions and we just got a better feel for everything.  We will definitely be applying once the visas come through and it's all more official!

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade & the American Museum of Natural History

On Wednesday afternoon I surprised Henry with something...

We were going to...

SKIP HIS NAP!

And instead we went and saw:

The giant Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons are blown up on 77th and 81st Streets in Manhattan, the streets that surround the American Museum of Natural History, so we went to the museum in the same trip!

The beautiful origami tree was up

 

We walked through the human science exhibits, which Henry took a strong interest in.  He was fascinated with the human bones.

 
After a few missed calls and lots of walking around, we eventually met up with Henry's buddy Jack to see the dinosaur bones.

Joe was also off work by this time and joined us.  We naturally found ourselves in the space exhibits, we all really enjoy this part of the museum!

 

The next day, of course, was Thanksgiving.  Joe went into Manhattan pretty early to try and snag us a decent spot for the parade and he succeeded!  We had a nice spot in Central Park where we could SIT (*key with a 4 year old!), see the balloons and much of the happenings on the ground as well.  And it wasn't too horribly packed!  All in all, it was a very good spot.  Here are a few highlights.

 

 

 

It was very neat to see these giants float down the street!  After the parade we made our way back to Queens, got lunch at a local restaurant and had an enjoyable lazy afternoon.  Dinner rolled around and we ate random leftovers and peanut butter sandwiches and scurried out the door to go see The Muppets in the movie theater...which was FANTASTIC!!

All in all, it was a non-traditional Thanksgiving.  Not one bit of turkey was had, but we were together, and we enjoyed it...and that is what matters most!

My Henry has a First Name...

Henry has been getting increasingly good with his letter writing, he's been doing H for a very long time. He just recently started interest in all the other letters without me prodding, in particular those in his name, so we've been focusing on those lately.

Well, today he wanted to make a picture and write his name...this is the first time he did it ALL by himself, I didn't touch the crayon at all to assist! Yay Henry!

Taco Truck

Before we moved to Astoria I read numerous message boards about living in New York City, raising kids in NYC, and Astoria in general.  On the Astorians.com message board I read many, many rave reviews and reports of the "Taco Truck".

Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like.

A truck that sells tacos out of the side of it.  If you've been to NYC, you'll have an idea of what it looks like.  Street meat is a normal choice of goods around here.

At one point this summer the said Taco Truck disappeared off the streets sending hundreds of Astorians into a panic - and even causing a local food blogger to blog about "Taco Truck Alternatives".  It turns out the owners permit for selling food on the street had expired and had to renew it - they were not gone forever, much to the relief of the local community.

I knew this type of eatery would be right up Joe's alley (and mine!), so I told him all about it and we even had Henry talking about the Taco Truck before we moved here.  We were ready to experience the goods!

However, no matter how much we spoke about it - we never made it down to the area during the evening to dine at the curbside eatery.  Months passed by and we had yet to try it.

One glorious night I was on my run and I passed by a new food truck right off our street, just a few blocks down....it sure smelled good...oh - and wait!  What is that I see?  "El Ray Del Taco #2" graced the front of the truck in red, white and green lettering.

This was not just any Taco Truck, it was THE TACO TRUCK!

That same night I logged onto Astorians.com and quickly read about the "#2" truck opened by the family being parked right here on Ditmars.

Joe and I rejoiced.

Tonight we finally had the chance to dine at the lovely Taco Truck.

2 beef tacos.
1 cheese quesadilla.
1 chicken burrito.
1 chicken huarache.
and $21 later we were stuffed, with huge smiles on our faces.  I get it now - I understand the outrage and concern when the Taco Truck disappeared.  This is a gem!  Sooooooooooo good.  Like, I'm-gonna-crave-it-every-single-day good!

Directly after our meal Henry started to sing, "Taco Truck, Taco Truck!" while dancing around the house.  He and Joe were playing Legos and before I knew it...

They built a Taco Truck.

How many kids play Taco Truck?!?!

:)

Oh, and I forgot to tell you...they deliver...via bike!

Ear Lowering

My poor child has been a ball of sweat since we moved here.  It has been in the 90s nearly everyday (until very recent).  He would sweat all day long due to his long hair...so the obvious was done.  He HAD to get a haircut.

Before:

After:

Each time you cut a child's hair they grow up some, don't they?

Sigh.

Moving - by henry

Grammy and Poppa dropped us off at the airport.  Mommy, Dada and Grammy were all crying.  I didn't quite understand why everything was so sad though.  I waved goodbye and we went into the airport.  We passed by a cool playground, but Mommy said we didn't have time to play - maybe later.  Dada and I sat down and watched the iPad while Mommy went and got coffee and snacks.  Dada took me to the playground, but I only got to play for a few minutes, Mommy needed us.  I played around the waiting chairs and watched the planes instead.  It was fun.  Then it was our turn to get on the plane.  We waited for a long time, but Mommy gave me my camera that Grandma Dar gave me and it took REAL pictures!

A guy.

Mommy didn't like the waiting.  She was being silly.

We started to move a little bit.  I beeped when the plane backed up.

A Ba-Mo! (Mommy's edit: ba-mo = motorcycle.  And this isn't a motorcycle at all, but a scooter.  Close enough for a 2 year old though!)

We weren't allowed to watch the iPad yet and I was bored.  But look, Mommy had ANOTHER surprise for me!

It's BUZZ!

 

When the plane took off I said, "Bye Grammy!" and I blew her a kiss.  I played with Buzz and some stickers for a while, then we were allowed to watch the iPad.  I watched Monsters Inc.  It's funny.  Then I wanted to take another picture.

My pants.

The plane started moving up and down, up and down.  I got tired and closed my eyes.

 

Mommy must have taken that one.

When I woke up,

  

the plane was stopped.  Mommy and DaDa were eating.  I was hungry, but really tired.  Eventually I ate.

 

It was yummy.  Ham sandwich.

DaDa liked his too.

I was really happy after I ate.  Mommy gave me fruit snacks!

 

The plane took off again and we watched more on the iPad.  It was fun.

Planes are big.

When the plane stopped again I asked Mommy if we were in New York City.  "Yep" she said.

DaDa was being really funny.  I think he was tired.

We waited for our suitcases.  Mommy changed my diaper too.

No suitcases yet.

My pants.  Again.

My suitcase!

 

Pretty soon we had all our suitcases and we walked to where there were lots of taxi cabs.  DaDa and all the suitcases got in one that looked like a van.  Mommy and me waited for the bus.

We had to wait a looooooooong time.  I wanted to run around, but Mommy wouldn't let me.  It was hard to sit nice.  The lady sitting next to Mommy liked me.  She was nice.

 

I wanted to play with Mommy's phone, but she wouldn't let me.

 

The bench we sat on had some letters on it.  I told Mommy which ones they were.

A bus did come.  We got on with lots of other people.  Mommy had to stand and hold me.  I held onto her very tight like a good boy.  Then the bus driver stopped very quickly and Mommy told the bus driver to not do that.  She wasn't too happy he was a bad driver.  A nice man near us stood up and we sat down.  People said some not so nice things about the bad bus driver.  I looked out the window and saw lots of things.  I saw a digger!

Pretty soon we got off the bus and walked for a little while.  I took a nap.  When Mommy took me out of the stroller I saw all the pretty flowers outside of our new house.  I got out of my stroller and went inside, there was DaDa!!!  Mommy started to take pictures of the new house with her camera, so I did too.

 

 

This is the floor in my bedroom.

 

I'm not sure what that funny thing in my bedroom is.

 

Mommy kept saying she was tired and hungry, but she was smiling a lot.  So was DaDa.

 

Here is Mommy and DaDa's room.

We went to eat pizza across the street.  Mommy got something with sausage, but I didn't like it.  DaDa's was better.  We stopped the grocery store and bought me some tube yogurt (Mommy's edit: GoGurt).  Then we went back home.  It was time for sleeping.

 

DaDa unpacked some of my clothes for bedtime.

 

Here is Mommy's suitcase, she got her jammies on too.

I fell asleep very quickly.  I slept in the same bed as Mommy and DaDa.  They have to move me a few times during the night.  I'm not sure why.  I think I heard Mommy tell DaDa that she almost fell off the bed.  DaDa said something about me sleeping horizontally.

In the morning DaDa was all dressed up like he was going to church, but Mommy said he was going to his new big office and he'd be back in a little while.  He went and got coffee and donuts first though!  I had a chocolate one!

 

After DaDa left Mommy and I watched a movie on DaDa's computer.  She said soon my toys would be here.

 

We read some books and played a bit.  I wanted Mommy to take a picture of me in my new room.

 

I like it.

 

Mommy in my room.

 

Mommy took these.  They are out my windows.

 

Very pretty.  It smells good.

 

I went back to Mommy's room and watched a little bit of Cars.

Then a guy came and did something with some cords and a box.  He went outside.  Mommy said something about the internet working now so I can watch my cartoons if I wanted.

 

 

 

But instead of watching more cartoons, I wanted another picture in my room.

 

And I took one of Mommy in her room!

Then DaDa came home and Mommy said the movers would be here with my toys very soon.  I ran to the door when DaDa came.

 

My toys came very soon after DaDa was home and three guys brought in all our boxes and stuff.  It was neat.  They carried stuff on their backs.  I was so happy to have my toys!!  Mommy, DaDa and I ate lunch after the guys and the big moving truck went bye-bye and then I was very tired, it was nap time.  Mommy and DaDa worked on unpacking the boxes while I slept.

I like my new house.  I like New York City.