It was muggy and hot 4th of July. I was unable to convince Taiyo to get on the boat to go to Governor's Island, but after a going around the block on his ride-on bus, I managed to put in on the bike seat to head out. There was no baseball game going on at the East River Park, since everyone was out for a cook-out. We settled for a near-by attraction of South Street Seaport. Taiyo danced around in the square, then walked up on the pier, lounged with on the chairs watching and waving at the boats going by. He seemed content, but I was getting bored. So we walked into the food court.
Today's Dining: South Street Seaport Food court
He immediately spotted the arcade rides before I did, and went crazy riding them. A car, a train with Barney, a helicoptor, an ice-cream truck; he didn't need any coins to enjoy them. I went down to the closest food vendor "Simply Seafood" to get our lunch- seafood pasta, fish & chips, and a small beer for $13, which wasn't a bad deal. Taiyo continued to ride the incredible vehicles, while I was able to enjoy a slow meal. Too bad not many restaurants have an arcade ride so parents can enjoy some quiet eating time. Downside would be that it maybe harder to get the kids to sit down to eat.

Eventually he came down for a while to munch on 'fish & chips,' because he is Taiyo. He can't just forget about eating. He thought tartar sauce with the fish was rather tasty. Later we stopped in at the christmas store, which I've never walked into. He behaved quite well, not touching too many things although this big store (actually much deeper than you'd expect) was literally filled with millions of fun looking ornaments and other little goodies of every kind. Just one downside of the Seaport pier is that their bathroom- many stalls, but overall they were nasty. We didn't hit it that day, but there's another great attraction for a little one across the street: Imagination Playground it's a beautifully designed little playground with lots of foam blocks and fantasctic fountain. Today he was fast asleep as soon as we hit the road.

After a long nap, we head out to West Village to visit Orly and Jed's lawn party. So many of their neighbors were having a gathering around the courtyard and Taiyo was adored by adults and kids all across the yard. More eating 'out' that's so great for me; I don't have to clean up after him. Little food crumbs he was dropping here and there wasn't a big deal. On the way back we saw an amazing sky behind us on Houston.

We watched fireworks on TV but he was not terribly impressed he asked me to put on 'Elmo.'