Heat Wave Monkeyshines

Well, another weekend has come and gone and it saw yet another great visit with our two favorite little people. Daddy stopped by Monkey Central Friday night at 7pm and picked up young Master Zechariah and younger Miss Miranda. We strolled up Ridge Blvd. to Daddy's house and let the good times roll. Friday night was pretty uneventful - just some playing with our toys, some story time and of course we watched some of our favorite videos. The little ones were pretty worked up, so bedtimes were a bit on the late side, but we were up and at 'em the next morning in plenty of time to make it to the Sensory Freeway for Zach's therapy session. Yours truly had one of those unique "Daddy moments" when we arrived at the gym and Miranda's mother informed me that the cute little dress I had picked out for her to wear was really her nightgown - Oops! But really, look at the pictures and see if you would have known. Miranda was happy with the choice so it really didn't matter, but I found it pretty amusing.

While Zach climbed and jumped and bounced on the trampoline (pictured above), Miranda and Daddy went to Daddy's cookie meeting. Miranda loves it when everybody claps (when the list of anniversaries are read, etc.) and enthusiastically claps right along. While at the meeting (we only stayed for a short bit) she enjoyed all of her favorites: bagel, doughnuts and cookies. Once we were properly fueled up, we made our next port-of-call: the pet store, where we said hello to all of our friends - the kitties, the puppies, the birds, the lizards, the mousies, the hermit crabs and the bunny. We also made a new friend which was a chinchilla, and found out just how soft her fur was. The animals all seemed happy to see Miranda and she was certainly happy to see them.


We left the pet store in time to go collect our Zachy and, because of our late breakfast, decided to go straight to the park in order to take advantage of the nice weather. Saturday was extremely hot (in the 90s) and was very humid. We decided that it would be coolest down by the water, so we went to the Shore Road Promenade Park at 79th Street. We made sure to slather on plenty of sunblock, then headed directly to the sprinklers to cool off. While the best sprinklers in Bay Ridge are at Owls Head Park, this is probably the second best place to cool off and even Daddy got into the act. From the sprinklers we went to the swings, with Zachy leading the way. All of the little swings were taken at first, so both children swung on the big kid swings. This was the first time I saw Zach do this - he actually held on and even seemed to enjoy it - unfortunately, I was surprised and didn't think to get a picture of it until it was too late, but I did get one of Miranda.

After quite some time at the park, we went home for some lunch, some story time, an art project and music time. Our art project consisted mostly of stickers from Miranda's big book of stickers (she was nice enough to share with Zach and Daddy) and our growing collection of felt tipped pens. Of course two beautiful masterpieces were created.

After all of that, we went out to take care of a couple of errands (like paying Daddy's rent). Miranda was so worn out that she fell asleep in the stroller ("scroller" as she pronounces it). This gave Daddy and Zach a chance for some special father-son time, which we spent at home playing with his cars and trains

Saturday evening we went to a carnival at Saint Anselm's at 4th Avenue and 82nd Street. It was really cool! We played some ski-ball and were persistent enough to win the blue dog - which Miranda promptly named "Bluedog." Zach went on the Pirate's Cove, which was a "ride" that involved traversing a maze, wading through a treacherous bog of colored balls, climbing a net to the second story of the ride, crossing the rickety bridge, sliding down the gangplank and finally knocking through the punching bags. Zach made it most of the way then decided to turn around and hang out for a while on the net. He ended up coming out the way he went in, but no one seemed to mind. All in all, it was a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday evening.


Sunday was not as nice, but also not as hot. We decided to go to the park early, in order to avoid the rain (which never really materialized). While we were there, we saw the Tour de Brooklyn Bicycle Classic going past - bikes kept going past for what seemed like days and days. There's not much else to report on this park experience - so I wont report it.


We left the park as we found it and walked around for a while. Daddy was trying to teach the little people the names of all the different trees and other plants we encountered and eventually we found our way home. We played in the front yard for a while with Neil and Lydia and some of our other friends, then went inside for lunch and some quiet time.












As the afternoon wore on, the moisture in the air became more and more rain-like, which kept us from going to the big 5th Avenue street fair, but one festival in a weekend is probably enough. We stopped for some balloons on the way back to Monkey Central as a consolation, and both little monkeys were delivered safely back to Mommy by 5pm. Do weekends really get much better? I should note here that I did see the kids last Wednesday (May 30th) for the every other week mid-week visit, but got so busy that I didn't get time to write about it - suffice it to say that it was jam-packed fun! Please check back in two weeks when the monkeys ride again!