Doubletime Monkeyshines

Due to an episode of unilateral decision-making, the format for Monkeyshines has changed. We began this past weekend, and will henceforth be visiting with our favorite little people on a bi-weekly basis. That's the bad news - the good news is that these visits now encompass the entire weekend, from Friday evening to Sunday evening, as was the case this past weekend - let me elaborate:

Please note that there are twice as many pictures on this post as usual, due to the fact that the visits are now half as frequent - so savor them slowly, they have to last two weeks. We began our weekend visit Friday night at 7pm when Daddy picked up the monkeys from monkey central. Miranda was already in her PJ's but was very excited to be off on a big adventure.

We packed up the double-wide cruising vessel and headed off into deepest, darkest Bay Ridge. We made a couple of brief stops then followed the moon to Daddy's house - let me explain: by some quirk of astrophysics, on each late day or evening that we strolled back to Daddy's house (before or after dusk), the moon was out, bright and directly over my building - Miranda pointed this out, so now we say that you follow the moon to Daddy's house.

We had our bedtime snack (milk and cookies) and watched a quiet video then got ready for bed. Zach was burping a lot and at one point took my hand and put it on his stomach - I knew that this probably spelled trouble, but there was nothing I could do for the little guy. Sure enough, at 1:30am I heard a cough from the bedroom and bolted in just in time to see him barfing on his pillow. We hustled to the bathroom and finished the barf-o-rama in there, but the damage was done. I gave him a quick hosing off and put him to bed in my bed then spent the next 45 minutes on vomit patrol - ah the joys of parenthood. We all slept in, since Zachy's sensory gym session had been cancelled, and all seemed healthy and in good spirits for the nicest Saturday weather of the year so far.

We spent more of the weekend outside than inside, which was really nice, and made it to three different parks, which is what park connoisseurs do. As part of our Saturday morning adventure, we went to our favoritest of all - the Shore Road Park. Our intention had been to do some kite flying, but Miranda had fallen asleep so Zachy got a chance to really strut his stuff and show of his playground prowess. We hit the swings, the slide, the monkey bars, the restroom - we did it all!

By the time we got done, walked around enjoying the day some more and got back to Daddy's house, Miss Miranda had woken up and was ready to make up for lost time. The courtyard in front of Daddy's house was teeming with kids, so we decided to join the fun. Our new friend Neil was blowing bubbles for everyone to chase and James and Barry had some cool toys that they were willing to share, the ice cream truck came by (we didn't partake, but it was fun to watch everyone go running) Miranda even made friends with Vivian, the little girl who lives across the hall from Daddy's apartment. We had great fun! Daddy chased the monkeys all around the mulberry bush, which is now a tried and true standard activity. When exhaustion seemed imminent, we said "see ya' latter alligator" to our friends and headed indoors for lunches and naps.

It was too nice to stay in, so properly refreshed and fully rested we ventured back out to our next port of call: Owl's Head Park. This time we actually attempted to get the kite in the air, but the park is very sheltered from the wind by all the trees and we didn't have much luck. So we just played instead.

We made a few more stops on our way home, then had a nice dinner and spent what was left of the evening doing our art, reading books and playing games. Both little people crashed early and we had a nice night with no vomiting or other disturbances. We slept in again, had a nutritious breakfast, then went off to the park at 75 Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway to watch some of Daddy's friends in a hotly contested softball game. This is where we encountered the amazing car pictured at the top of this post. Miranda thought it was the most beautiful vehicle that she had ever seen - it had Elmo on it and Dora and Swiper, etc. It was pretty exciting! We watched softball for a little while and played in the drinking fountain (always a source of fascination) then headed over to the playground and another attempt at kite flying.

We played at the park for a while then strolled home to eat a late lunch. We played out front some more and watched a couple of afternoon offerings from Noggin. At 4:30 it was time to saddle up the stroller with all of our stuff and say "goodbye Daddy's house - see ya soon!" We headed back to monkey central (Miranda passed out after 2 blocks) and arrived precisely on time at 5:00. Stay tuned for our next exciting episode as the adventures of Monkeyshines continues.