The rest of the exhausting weekend

Saturday was another warm day, and I loved the mellowness of this holiday weekend. We took a bike ride down to the Imagination Playground at the South Street Seaport. I didn't notice before, but this time the air quality was so noticeably bad most likely from all the tour buses idling near by. But of course Taiyo didn't care. He got very focused in the sandbox scooping up sand into a bucket. I brought a bucket and a scoop just in case, but this is another very nice thing about this playground-there's always plenty of tools to play with in the sandbox. Older kids were building some very interesting structures on the other side with large form blocks. Later we met a boy about a year older also named Taiyo, also half Japanese with a Japanese mom. When I heard her calling his son Taiyo, I had to exclaim, "Your son is Taiyo? Mine, too!" His mom said she never met a boy with the same name. Well, I hadn't either. Taiyo followed the other Taiyo, calling, "Taiyo, Taiyo!" but he was pretty much ignored. On the way out we saw caroling older men by the tree. It's Christmas all over town already.

We stopped at Keg No. 229 on Front Street for lunch. Among the few establishments on Front Street, this was Taiyo's choice. It was like a stylish sports bar, that didn't look kid-friendly, but we were offered a high chair immediately, and Taiyo gladly settled in one. Bench with nice cushy pillows was comfy, too. It was three in the afternoon, but it had a small group of young people gathering at the bar. The ambiance was kind of loud, which wasn't a bad thing for a toddler who wants to scream for no reason from time to time. The bathroom was the darkest one Taiyo was ever been to, and he was a bit scared. It was also scary for me too since I really couldn't see how clean the bathroom was. The food was pretty good- crab cake eggs benedict with breakfast potatoes. Potatoes were seasoned enough but Taiyo carefully dipped some ketchup to eat them. Eggs benedit was tasty although I wished the crab cakes were thicker. They have nice list of beer and the staff were very nice and friendly to Taiyo. Recommended.

In the evening we went to the New Victory Theater in Times Square for "Untapped!" It was Taiyo's first real theater experience. In the elevator an old lady asked me, "Isn't it a bit late for him?" The show was on at 7pm. "Oh, no. He's up until midnight regularly." Oh, yes, he was so excited to be seated right by the stage. They offer a booster for little people in orchestra section. The show was actually recommended for age 6 and above, and we were the only stroller parked downstairs, but Taiyo was of course totally into it. He loves tap dancing himself! We watched five cute aussie boys tapping(too bad they are gay, I was thinking), mixed with beat-boxing and rock music, and Taiyo screamed here and there, which made the performers chuckle sometimes. First 30 minutes weren't too bad, but the next 30 minutes got a bit more stressful for me. Taiyo started jumping from his seat onto me, then climbed back onto his seat, and started all over again. He also turned around and tried to get attention of the boy behind him, who ignored him. I asked him if he wanted to leave, but he shook his head. He also kicked the man next to him numerous times, who didn't seem to mind too much- he got three kids next to him. Anyway, we survived the show and ushesr by the door said, "He was so cute!" Well, this was the theater for kids, and his behavior was all acceptable. We'll be back for more.

The restaurants around there were too crowded after the show, and some had only revolving doors indicating "no strollers." We weren't going to wait for a half hour for a table at Ruby Tuesday, so we went to Burger King instead. He was happy enough with the bourbon burger with sweet sauce. At least we got very fresh french fries, and of course Taiyo dipped them carefully into ketchup. I said we are taking a cab! after that, and Taiyo went yay! The traffic was everywhere and it wasn't easy trip. Taiyo was so hyper jumping around. We were stuck for a while on Houston and I realized that I should've told the driver not to take the Second avenue down to Houston- he doesn't live in the neighborhood! Taiyo was still jumping around when we got home and I was truly exhausted. So the next day spending most of the time at home wasn't so bad for me. You can't see it in this picture Taiyo took at the laundromat. Do I look kind of tired? Or I'm just getting old.