Turkey day before and after

My Thanksgiving tradition started Wednesday, making a trip to Union Square greenmarket to pick up some fresh herbs and vebetables. Taiyo slept through the whole trip in comfy sports utility jogging stroller. Late afternoon, we met up with Lynne and headed uptown to see the balloon inflation for Macy's Thanksgiving parade. We saw Snoopy, Spiderman, Hello Kitty, and some other bunch. It was so crowded we had enough just going through one block, half of the event.

We stopped at Cafe Con Leche on Amsterdam between 80th and 81st. It's a cute small latin joint. We were offered a table in the back with a bench, which was of course great for Taiyo. They also offered us a high chair, but Taiyo was already stretched out on the bench to check its comfort level. Taiyo's mind was all set for rice and beans. They brought his water in a paper coffee cup with top with a straw, which gets high points for being a kid-friendly restaurant. I settled on pork stew. It tasted pretty good, but pork was too cruncy and chewy for stew- the lighting was too dark to decide it was actually grilled pork with sauce or meat was simply dry and tough. But otherwise, service was friendly and Taiyo was happy with his rice and beans. He also chugged down more than half the plate of plantains Lynne ordered. The restaurant is pretty small and tables are close together- strollers may have hard time manuevering or finding a spot, but over all nice place to dine with a kid. Fairly recommended.

So it was Thanksgiving day. My plan was to do much of the cooking while Taiyo takes nap- we walked out early afternoon to pick up a few more things from a store, and he seemed pretty much ready for a little napping. But after half an hour I realized I'd better get back first and put my turkey in the oven. Then Taiyo was super upset that we didn't stop at the supermarket. While I threw turkey into the oven, he sat in the stroller in the doorway and kept screaming "SOOOOPER MAAARKKEEETTTT!!!!" into the street. Finally we rolled out again but Taiyo was super upset and kept screaming. When we got to the Chinese market on Clinton, the guy at the fish deparment gave him some chocolate and finally Taiyo stopped screaming. He held two chocolate, one on each hand, and sobbed for a while then fell asleep. I ran back thinking that I got two hours to get most of cooking done. So I thought. But only one hour late Taiyo woke up, and he was very needy. He had to sit on my lap, and wouldn't let me get up and cook. So until Mark and Steve arrived to distract Taiyo I wasn't able to get much done and it was a bit stressful after that trying to get everything ready in two hours. But all was well in the end with roasted turkey, cranberry sauce, my famous stuffing with cashews and sausage, garlic mashed potato, caponata, roasted zucchini and turnips, pumpkin and corn salad, and yuzu-tuna wrap. Taiyo made a mistake stuffing himself too early with cheese and crackers, but he still enjoyed turkey and cranberry sauce. Then he went totally high after green tea cheesecake and went running outside, taking hands of my guests one by one.

We enjoyed sleeping late today. It was a beautiful warm day and I took him out to Guitar Center on 14th Street. This place is a heaven for him with all kinds of music instruments! He went crazy in drums department, then we picked up a new uklele (on sale for $30!). Last one was broken after being banged around in his rock'n roll action.

We lunched at Japonica on University and 12th St. The bench was confortable with a pillow and Taiyo immediately jumped on it for a while, but he decided to take a chair on the other side of the table. They brought him a plastic cup and a straw with a tiny pinwheel, which was of course a high point for a kid-friendly restaurant. It kept him in the seat for a while. There was too many things on the menu, but I settled on lunch special box with eel and avocado donburi and shrimp tempra roll, and steamed shumai appetizer. The box was not quite impressive with mixed green and pinapples, and I felt there should've been just a little something like hijiki instead of edamame, but overall it was a great value. Taiyo immediately cleared eel- he couldn't wait for his fork to arrive and started grabbing it by hand. Then he of course enjoyed nice big shumai and finished all the pinapple. Dining room is fairly spacious and strollers should be able to find a room to park. Recommended.