Hot Town, Summer in the City…

Yesterday, it quickly became clear that I had to leave my house immediately or lose my mind.

So, I decided to take the boys on a bus and spend the day in the city!

I probably shouldn’t have chosen a day that I could have SWAM to the city because the humidity was so high, but hey- hindsight is 20/20.

Actually, I got a pretty idea of my mistake when I was huffing it to the bus stop pushing Joseph in a stroller with Isaac (read: 30 pounds) strapped to my back.

I really cannot over-emphasize how much I sweated (sweat?) yesterday.  More than I ever have in my whole life.

Ever.

No seriously, EVER.

Sigh.

Anyway, back  to our day (also not many pictures because I was a bit busy.)

The boys were complete ANGELS on the bus and Isaac kept clapping and saying “YAY bus!” while Joseph loudly serenaded the working folk commuters with the Backyardigans theme song.  We think they loved it.

(on the bus.  Black and white so I don’t look as sweaty.)

We met this handsome fella for brunch

and then took the subway (remember what that entails?)

up to Central Park.

When we arrived, Joseph said, “Mama?  Aren’t we lucky to have this forest here to keep us nice and cool?”

Besides being neat because…well.. its CENTRAL PARK, it legitimately has neat playgrounds.

Our favorite has lots of tunnels/moats with about 3 inches of running water in them so that when are walking around and playing, you can also splash and keep cool.

The boys played in the water for several hours

(can we all just take a minute to soak in Isaac’s fatness?  He looooves wearing Joseph’s crocs!)

Then we went to a street vendor and got some popsicles.

Isaac dipped his in bark dust, so he mostly just ate mine.

I should thank him, because he saved my diet, but no thank you, Isaac because it was a Haggan Daaz dipped in chocolate with almonds.

After that, we changed clothes and headed to the Natural History Museum!

We were already at 66th st, and I thought that the museum was at 69th st.

Lo and behold, upon our arrival at 69th street, the museum was actually on 79th street.

At that point several things happened.

1) sweat was dripping into my eyes and off of my elbows.  It (respectively) burned and was disgusting.

2) Joseph started pleading that we go home.  home! HOME!

3)  Isaac’s hair was dripping sweat.

4) I had 10 blocks to go to the museum but also

5) I had 4 blocks to go (plus 2 blocks over) to get back to the subway station.

So, I did what any New Yorker would do.

I took one look at my sweaty, cranky kiddos, I decided to cut my losses, I stepped out onto the street and yelled, “TAXI!!”

(cute moment: I had my hand raised to hail the cab, and Isaac, whom I was holding, raised his hand and started yelling too!)

(Also, Trickier than you might think to hail a cab while trying to keep two kids from getting hit by cars.)

Joke was kind of on me, because the taxi didn’t have a/c, but it was a much shorter trip.

Oh yes, and remember that kids don’t need car seats in taxis for some reason?

Joseph totally hit his head on the partition once, just like in the movies!  But not hard, so don’t fret

And I probably lost about 10 pounds.

Plus I wasn’t bored once.

Win-win-win!

We are waiting for fall before I take them again.

(PS a post on how- and WHY- I do these solo excursions coming up! Probably!)