Three years ago when I started this blog, I was so excited with possibilities. He was just beginning to eat all kinds of food, and actually enjoying them. He was open to try anything, and was always excited to eat. I thought in a year or two, we would've covered even fine dining restaurants all over town. Well, development doesn't always happen in one direction. Often only food he ask for is pizza or pasta on weekend. He probably heard me complaining to someone; he declared the other day, "I like boring pizza." But we tried a new restaurant this week, although it feels like regressing a bit- IHOP on 14th Street near 2nd Avenue. At 12pm on Sunday, the waiting area was already full. The hostess told us the wait is about 15 minutes. I never want to wait for a table, but Taiyo wanted to wait. He would wait for that bit stack of pancakes. The wait was just about 15 minutes. The service was efficient and fast. They gave him a coloring/game sheet and crayons. So it was not so bad. Of course the huge stack of pancakes with banana, strawberries and whip cream on top was like an amazing lunch for Taiyo. He went at it, without stopping, and chugged down 90% of it. My chicken crepe was not bad. It was just about what I expected. As much as I hate to admit it, since it's just another chain restaurant, since it's like going to MacDonald's, since it's way too predictable, since it feels cheap to be there, it was not a bad experience. We may go there again. Better coffee, at least stronger, would help.

Then on Veteran's Day, we did something neither of us have done. We visited Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows Park. The beautiful steel Unisphere was so gorgeous under the sun and that sight itself was worth the long train ride. It was a family day for the museum which just reopened after renovation. The place was happening but not terribly crowded. We had to check out "Panorama" of course, the architectural model of NYC five boroughs that includes every single building from 1960s. Taiyo was quite impressed, but he kept asking me where Japan was. "It's too far away. You can't see it." He didn't want to accept the answer. Then we walked over to Hall of Science and played a while in their "Science Playground," another thing we've never done. Then we made super-giant bubbles inside the museum for a while. We always love this museum. It's always worth the trip- but it is far. Only if we could fly.

Halloween came and went. My little muscled superhero (Captain America this year) did enjoy dressed up and go trick-or-treating briefly. He tested his strength against other superheros he encountered. But he is my kid. We are not so mainstream after all. Usually one hour was his limit on wearing his disguise. Yes, having a child you realize how important this holiday is, but this is another super commercial mainstream holiday- we really couldn't care less. I told him, "We are going to go trick-or-treating maybe only three places." He was fine with it. We went to two restaurants and a deli, and he still scored enough candies we were done for the night. Maybe because of the mild weather, we had more trick-or-treater traffic this year. Or maybe we really had to make it back for the lost time last year for Sandy. Oh how dark it was a year ago!

Then Marathon sunday came and went. This was the most important day of the year for me for ten years before Taiyo. It still pains to watch the race. But it is really nice time to look back fondly. It was big enough and crazy enough with half the field; I really can't imagine running with 50,000 people! I don't think I can do it again, but I surely miss it. Every time was like triumph and defeat at the same time. It's really, really hard at times and still so much fun other times. You run through five boroughs. It's just an amazing race. I couldn't convince Taiyo to go across the bridge this year, so we just watched it on TV at home. It was still very emotional experience for me. Maybe I'm crazy enough to do it one more time one day.