All day solid rain. We spent much of the time indoors. We've been doing so much in the past few days both Taiyo and I didn't mind the slow down. This morning he was up before 7am and discovered that Barney was on PBS. He let me sleep in another hour. It has been so hard to fight with a cranky angry toddler, so I decided to surrender today. I decided to tend to his requests as much as I can. He asked me to pick him up, before I feel fully awake, and I did. He fussed that no pants were good to wear, so I let him go out with no pants. Eventually he decided overall was cool to wear, and I was able to go to the laundromat with him clothed. He was happy to ran around the quiet laundromat- what better to do on such a miserable day. He scored three candies from Agnieszka, his favorite lady at the laundromat.

He knows that a rainy day is perfect for riding the comfortable jogging stroller that gives him nice space under cover. So later we got out and went for pizza, per his request, at Rosario's at Orchard and Stanton. It's a plain old pizza joint with no frills. Many people claim that this is the best pizza in town, and I surely am glad to have this place in the neighborhood. Their plain slice is just delicious, and Taiyo agreed. He fussed if I didn't tear him a piece quick enough. Not the most nutritious meal, but super casual easy dining option, and terribly easy to your wallet. No high chairs, but entry is easy with a stroller. Recommended.

Taiyo is swiching gears lately- he's getting up significantly earlier, taking less naps, and as a result there's often cranky toddler for me to deal with. Although he still makes me laugh a lot of times, there's numerous moments throughout the day when I really want to shoot myself. But I don't have a gun to shoot myself with, so I have to come up with something to distract him. "Let's go outside." He nods. "You want to go on a subway?" "Yes," he nods.

First stop: High Line. We got on High Line at west 16th Street- the elevator was out of order, but Taiyo happily walked up the stairs. You see many strollers up on High Line, but stairs are steep and you need two adults to rig up one with a child in it. 23rd street and 30th street elevators were working. It is a really cool park but there's nothing more than to walk around. Artsy environment and interesting perspective to the city is definitely interesting. It's also very white, I found. If you're in a minority group, sometimes you feel that kind of environment. But it's still so beautiful and cultural: it's a dilemma. The new upper part of High Line was just a walk, anyway. I think the lower portion is more interesting to do. Before we hit 30th Street, Taiyo was asking for gohan(food) again. We came down but the beer garden underneath was not open yet. I couldn't find anything decent inland, and Taiyo went for an early nap. I kept walking. Reminiscence on 23rd Street, a must-stop with a kid, was unfortunately closed. They have great selection of little toys that won't hurt your wallet.

I entered Madison Square Park, since I thought he would have a ball under a giant white sculpture of a obscured head. This is a very kid-friendly park with a nicely designed kid's playground. They also hosted many free kids concert which we missed through the summer.

I walked through midtown, Times Square, then he finally woke up near 8th Avenue. Since he asked for gyoza, we stopped in for lunch at Yum Yum Bangkok on 8th Avenue between 45th and 46th streets. There were three Yum Yums almost next to each other- you think they must be pretty good to have three locations. The entry was easy with a stroller, and they immediately offer us the darkest back corner away from the crowd. Dining with a baby, they often treat you as a third class citizen, but I take it as they expect us to be noisy and messy. Fine. But Taiyo behaved so well, using his plate, and although it was so dark to access the food, Taiyo liked the plates we ordered- curry puff, steamed dumplings, and pad thai- and they tasted all right. But curry puffs were greasy and mushy, and so was pad thai. Kids would still always like the sweetness of Thai food. You have to beware that some dishes can be spicy. The waitress warned us our first choice, seafood soba, was spicy, which was a nice consideration. It was an easy choice of dining, but food-wise, there must be better choices around there.

Then we hit Intrepid, a museum where I may have never visited if I didn't have a little boy. Even a little girl would enjoy getting on a little helicoptors and boats, and seeing all kids of military planes on the upper deck. It's a small museum, and the tower is hard to deal with since they don't want the little ones to touch things up there, but the exhibition space has good number of stuff to get on and mess with. It was still a hot summer day, and after Intrepid, we jumped on a Water Taxi that was just docking outside of Intrepid. It was hop-on, hop-off boat tour ship, although it was too late for us to get off the boats- they were almost making the last loop. Taiyo loved running around the lower indoor area, which was nice and empty because most of the people were on upper deck. The guide on the upper deck was pretty lame, but this was a tourist ship after all. After one loop we continued on to their final stop at South Street Seaport and Taiyo was freaking out again because I won't let him push the stroller around the floor. I let him scream for a while because this is a tourist ship after all- don't they expect tourists to be noisy?

When we got off the boat, of course it was time for "Gohan." Taiyo urged us to stop at Johnny Rockets at the Seaport. When I was 18 working in Tokyo, Johnny Rockets was a cool hangout with old-fashioned American decore and yummy hamburgers. They let Taiyo pick a talbe- which was a little table by the window for two, appropriately. He got a pack of crayons and a paper to color. A casual restaurant in busy tourist area cannot be kid-unfriendly. They have a kid menu like a mini hamburger, but I knew he wouldn't care for it so just ordered one for myself and sweet potato fries, which was done right, nice and crisp. He was totally happy with that, beside the napkin dispensor and the old-fashioned little juke box with buttons to press and panels to flip on the table. Run by mostly minority teenagers, the service was a bit slow, but they all liked Taiyo, and it was nice experience and my hamburger, Rocket single, was pretty good. Recommended.