Some serious shopping and playing

Another day in NYC while the group goes to the 9-11 memorial ( don’t want to be screamed at by some guard that we must maintain respect and dignity) and MOMA.  John and I are going to meet up

when they’re done to do the night bus tour of NYC that everyone else in the group got to do on day 1.  But this morning we got to have breakfast together at the Dunkin Donuts across the street because MOMA doesn’t open until 10:30.   So, Oscar and I take off for lower Manhattan because I’m on a quest to hit the Lion Brand Yarn Studio while I’m here.  I mean, my stash is 90% or more Lion Brand yarn, I have to go.  So, I plan little places to hit on the way, like the Empire State Building.  $34 to go up, but Oscar is free.  Gee, thanks, I’m pretty sure that my kid

would probably freak out from the height and I’ve been up there before.  How many people pay that kind of money to go up in a big building in a town full of big buildings?  I’m sure that one day, we will have to go up there because it’s the Empire State building and that will mean something at some point, but it’s not worth $34 now.  So, we move to Madison Square park and there is a very nice playground here, but it’s so windy that I even with coat and gloves on, I’m thinking that we’re going to have to come back later when

  it warms up in the day.  So, on to 15^th Street to find see a “closed” sign on the door of the yarn studio.  Are you kidding me?  They don’t open until 11:30….what kind of hours are those?  I see an awning down the street that says “Kidding Around” and decide to see 

 what it is because what do we have to lose at this point.  Luckily, it turns out to be a great toy shop.  Oscar is enthralled with everything from the very beginning.  Stuffed animals have to be looked at by the door, then dinosaur and animal figurines two feet from the door, then he found the tower of cars by the cash register another two feet in from the door.  At this rate, we’ll make it to the back of the shop by the time it closes at 5pm.  He picks up every type of car, checks the doors, checks how it runs across the floor and then 

 repeats this process over and over to the point that I finally say, “let’s go see what else is in here” and point out something that gets his attention.  I’m thinking when we enter that it will be hard to get him to spend enough time in here to allow my yarn shop to open, but it turns out that I have to cart him out screaming because he has found a train set that he wants to stay with.  Great store, lovely people putting up with my kid and others playing with their stuff and a changing table in the 

 bathroom (these are the new finds of the trip).  But after an hour and a half in the store, we had to leave and then I had to go into my yarn mecca.  Another bad hit to the debit card, but so worth it as there is yarn there that is not 

available in Michigan and I can’t resist that.  Oscar thinks that the yarn I did buy is a ball and proceeds to carry it around in the stroller like he has found a new toy.  We finally head out of there with instructions on how to get to the clearance warehouse in New Jersey if I want John to kill me and head to Union Square park.  Union square park which has the greatest playground we have found to date.  It’s huge and there are more kids and strollers and nannies in it then I have ever seen in one place before.  It’s sunny and I sit on a bench and soak it up with jackets off for the first time on this trip practically while Oscar gets pushed around the playground by bigger kids.  I realize that the kids I’m looking at now are different from all the others I’ve seen and realize that their parents are probably pretty powerful people in the city or celebrities or something.  You can tell by their clothes and their haughty dismissal of their own nannies that they know that their worth is more than other mere mortals.  You can see this at age 4 people and it starts that early and is visible on an egalitarian playground where anyone can walk in….what hope do we have against that?