As I’m still working on getting all the pictures loaded into the gallery, I figured I’d take a moment and share my observations and tips on riding the subway in New York City.

I’m not a subway expert by any means, and the only other subway system I’ve travelled as an adult is the Chicago subway. I was very pleasantly surprised – I found the NYC subway system to be a whole lot better than the Chicago subway! The subway cars were clean and there were not nearly as many “problem passengers.” In fact, almost every single time I got on the subway, people immediately got up and offered me their seats! I usually had Killian by the the hand and Ellie in the backpack, so I know I appeared to have my hands full, but I did not expect such kindness from strangers! It was very heartwarming! After hearing warnings about not riding the subway at night, I’m also pleased to report that we had absolutely no bad experiences.

So, here’s a few tips for using the NYC subways with kids in tow:
1- get a map BEFORE you enter the subway. I know – duh! – but I just assumed there would be subway maps on the wall to help me figure out which subways to take the first day in the city before I’d bought a map, but there are hardly any maps posted in the subway terminals. There are maps in subway cars, but that is not particularly helpful in helping you figure out which train to get on!
2- With kids, it is CRITICAL that you bring a water bottle and granola bars. My kids are snackers (as many little kids are – they have high metabolisms) and subway trips would have been miserable listening to them whine about being hungry and thirsty.
3- If you have two small children, put one of them in a backpack carrier. It really reduced my stress to only have to keep track of one kid around the tracks and getting on and off subway cars. Plus, the subways are often several flights underground and Ellie couldn’t do the stairs fast enough for us to keep up with foot traffic.
4- Be open minded. I’m very aware and very cautious of my children’s interactions with strangers, and I’ve taught them that they don’t have to do what random adults tell them to (Ellie will say, “You’re not my mama, so I don’t have to do what you say!” to anyone other than me). But, we had some lovely experiences on the subway meeting other people. I loved that my kids got to see a much more diverse population than they get to see in Floyd! On the way back from the Bronx Zoo (a very long subway ride!), a large east Indian family was in our subway car. When some seats opened up, one of the elderly Indian men sat down next to Killian and started talking to him and held his hand while they were chatting. It was very sweet!

I decided I’ll blog about NYC starting with what I liked the best.  My favorite outing was going to the Staten Island Children’s Museum.  It was wonderful!  First of all, to get to it we took the subway down to get onto the Staten Island Ferry, then we took a bus to the museum – so it was an adventure even to get there! On the ferry we got to see the Statue of Liberty, which I had never seen.

The Children’s Museum itself was AMAZING.  I loved everything about it.  There was a hall of giant games including chess, connect-4, linkin logs, and dominoes. Honestly, we could have spent all day there!

Then there were all the different living environments: undersea, nature, the Arctic… my favorite was probably the section where the kids could pretend to drive a dog sled.

There was also a fabulous play area outdoors:

There was also a bug area, a construction area, a theater, a vet area… but my absolutely favorite was the ship/blocks room.  Gorgeous wooden ship and tons of blocks to build with:

Check out the rest of the pictures in the gallery!

New York City (or as Ellie calls it: U Nork City) was a lot of fun! It was also very exhausting… but I hope we have the chance to go up again this summer! David left tonight to head back up there for most of this week and then I think he’ll have a couple weeks at home. Yay!

I will be putting all the pictures in the gallery soon, but I think I’m going to go to bed early tonight and try to get caught up on my rest.

We’re leaving in the morning to spend a week in New York City! The kids and I will play tourist while David works, I have lots of fun things planned for us: several children’s museums, zoos, ANHM, the NY Aquarium… And, of course, the kids are very excited that this week they’ll get to ride a train, the subways, buses, and a ferry. I’m going to try to take tons of pictures and hopefully update during the week!

We have another summer of me being a stay-at-home-mom.  I’m so happy that I didn’t end up getting any of the full-time jobs I applied for – now I get another summer at home, and its lucky it turned out this way since David is traveling for work so much.  Yesterday while we were out and about, Killian asked me why moms do more of the taking care of kids and I explained that’s how it is in our family, but in some families the mom goes out to work and the Dad stays home to take care of the kids.  I also explained that in some families both parents have to work and a babysitter stays with the kids – I’m so relieved that we’re not in that position now (like we would be if I had gotten a full time job).

I’ve decided that the main skill someone must have in order to succesfully be a SAHM (or SAHD) is the ability to multi-task.  The house runs smoothly as long as I make it a habit to:

-always have laundry going in some capacity (in the washer, dryer, or on the line)

-keep up with the dishes every day

-have the next couple day’s meals planned out – have whatever I need thawing, marianating, in the crockpot, etc

-make a habit of picking up/straightening up as I walk from room to room all day, every day

-have a schedule of activities to keep the kids learning and entertained throughout the summer.  I think our schedule this summer will be: Monday-library and then the pool or the lake, Tuesday- kids go to Galax in the evening (if/when it works for Grandmommy and Pop-pop), Wednesday am I work then go pick the kids up from the Woods and maybe get a bikeride in during the process, Thursday- piano lesson and we do childcare at the gym, Friday – dinner with my parents and sometimes go to the Friday Night Jamboree.

Of course, there’s also other household chores like taking care of the pets, paying bills, and gardening… Altogether its easy-peasy to take care of, right?  I’m being somewhat sarcastic – I’m not perfect at keeping all these balls in the air all the time, but I try.  My weakest point is general picking up the house, I don’t mind sweeping/mopping/vacuuming but I hate picking up!  I’m going to try to work on that the next few weeks. Any other SAHM/Ds have goals to work toward this summer?

We’ve been having a wonderful week at the beach!

Its amazing what can happen in six years’ time!