I just did a fairy entry long entry and lost it because of a 'connection problem.' Damn technology. Can't redo it tonight. Have a wonderful steaming hot summer night.

He was a thumb-sucking toddler when he walked (or carried) in to SOY nine years ago. Yesterday this little boy was already like 5-foot tall and I had to tell him to stop taking growth hormons. It's just too much! After all these years, he still worships my ginger lemonade, soy croquettes and salmon nameshi, and still eats his croquettes mushed up and smeared with generous application of Bulldog sauce.

Oh, yes, Taiyo already knows the taste of it. This sauce we love with many fried food, can be described as thick Japanese Worcestershire sauce. In eastern Japan 'Bulldog' is the brand, vs. Otafuku, in western Japan. When Taiyo doesn't have appetite, or isn't crazy about the food, this Bulldog sauce would completely change the scenario. Must have in a house, especially the one with a boy like Taiyo.

Today, though, he didn't need any bulldog sauce. As we approached Boubouki in Essex market, Taiyo clapped his hands, "Yeaaaay!" He just loves her spinach pie to death. Today he chugged down the whole piece and didn't even want me to cut it up; he simply didn't want to share! She also has wonderful sweet delights like almond cookie or pear cake. Taiyo elegantly enjoyed the cake, which didn't like to hang around on a plate too long, either.

I got ambitious this perfect sunny sunday morning, and decided to head to Brooklyn Children's Museum in Crown Heights. Over the bridge Taiyo was so excited to see the train tracks and passing subway cars. He shouted out possibly some obscenity (or words of wisdom) in baby language through South Williamsburg, then fell asleep. While enjoying a leisurely bike ride through the streets of Brooklyn, I was worried; he's going to be so cranky the rest of the day if he doesn't take a long enough lap. But his head was bobbing against my back, and he can't be so comfortable anyway. I passed the museum and went down to Eastern Parkway. I stopped at the bench under the trees, thinking he can just sleep a while in the seat. It was also a perfect time to trim his nails. Yes, I usually carry a baby nail clipper in my purse. Unfortunately he woke up soon and we headed back to the museum.

Before entering the museum, he munched on an onigiri rice ball I made before we left. It's a perfect little lunch or a snack to take along anywhere- and for me it's easier than a sandwich, and perhaps healthier, too. You can find seasoning packs at Japanese grocery store - mix them with rice and make tasty rice balls. Wrapped in nori seaweed, they are perfect food to eat by hand.

The museum was fairy empty when we went in- this beautifully designed amazing kid's museum is often overcrowded in winter months. Taiyo had the sandbox play area in tot's room all to himself for a while. Then we caught a rock concert by StarFish, and he jumped around to some rock music. Then there's so much more to explore at this place- Taiyo went crazy driving a bus, riding on a scooter, going shopping at the grocery store, and making imaginary pizza. Finally when I lured him out with a thought of getting some food hours later, it was steaming hot outside. Within a few minutes he fell asleep again to my surprise- he hasn't taken a second nap in 6 months. After 45 minutes of slow bike ride, he woke up on Delancey Street on our corner.

After a long road trip, we decided to go very local, and just went down the street to Antibes. Only a few doors down from SOY on Suffolk Street I often get my cappcino there, so Taiyo says it's a coffee place although we've dined there as well many times. It was actually the first restaurant he went at two-week old. Entry could be a little tricky with a stroller, since there's two steps down from the street inside the door. But there's also a few tables outside with very easy access. They do not have high chairs, but some room for a stroller to park. The servers usually know Taiyo already and they are very friendly to him. They had the winning food for him on special: carrot soup. This totally kept him in his seat, which was my lap, and he also enjoyed some risotto. Asparagus salad went almost unnoticed, but he saw enoki mushrooms and decided to try some. He wanted more but I was already finishing the plate. He chased the waitress cryhing when she took his finished soup bowl, and they gave him the second serving, which he also ate pretty much all of it while doing his victory runs around the restaurant. Food was delicious and beautifully presented, and they are very nice people I think they generally torelate company of young people. Althogh there's no obvious perks for kids or babies, moderately recommended.

Just shy of two months, Taiyo is seriously in the terrible-two's territory. He was in quite funky mood all morning, getting into fits everytime I turned off "Dora," refusing to change, fussing over milk, exploding when he couldn't put his croc on by himself. I managed to get him to the laundromat, and while doing the wash, went around the corner to Pause Cafeon Clinton near Houston. I said to Taiyo, "Let's go get 'oishi juusu(delicious juice),' then he chanted, "oishi juusu, oishi juusu." We always get a warm welcome there and the friendly owner gives him a baby size cookie. So it's pretty kid friendly, but stroller access is poor. There's a rather high step up from the street, and there's no room inside anyway. They also make nice sandwiches there, but today Taiyo's mind was set for juusu. We got apple, beet, carrot juice and he drank most of the 16oz on the outside bench. Then later we hit Hester Street Fair.
There's some food options available like pulled pork sandwich or lobster roll. We settled for a pork empanada by La Sonrisa. We had to wait for a few minutes since it was to hot, but this was another winning food. Not messy, and pretty tasty (although a bit too salty.) It's basically a large fried dumpling! But he refused to bite into it. He had to break off a little piece and eat it. He kept asking for more- so that was the verdict: a winner! There's usually not much room around the picnic tables at this popular Saturday market, but the co-op next door opens up their gate to a lawn area, and there's a plenty of outdoor eating area. There's bunch of interesting handcrafted stuff to browse around the market, from clothes, jewery to stuffed animals, and there's a nice spacious Seward Park for kids to run around afterwards. There's also an escalator up close to the ground at the nearby East Broadway F train stop.

Sometimes the simplest thing is the winner. Fresh asparagus yesterday morning was the thing for him. He didn't even bother to try my miso-mayo-tofu dip. He just kept munching on the steamed asparagus. Tougher bottom ends that I took off before cooking also provided him entertainment- he enjoyed snapping them for a while. After a long nap it was avocados. When he wandered into the kitchen I offered him a piece of avocado. He just couldn't have enough, living up to a moniker I gave him a long time ago: bottomless Taiyo. He kept asking for more, and ended up eating a whole big avocado. It's still hard to figure out what he may eat- some days he would spit out avocado I offer him. But today, it was the thing to die for.

This morning Taiyo let me take out a jogging stroller I haven't been able to use for a few weeks because he would protest it. He was a good coach trying get me back into shape- he called out, "Hashi, hashi (run, run)" everytime I slowed down and walked. We went to the Union Square market for some beautiful blueberries. On the way back we stopped at Chipotle at 14th Street and Irving Place.

This relatively new joint is spacious and clean, with lots of room for a SUV stroller we had to manuver around. This is definitely a better option among fast food, but to my suprise Taiyo showed no interest in colorful Burrito Bowl with chicken, corn salsa and extra topping of guacamole. He just kept drinking the apple cider from the market. I got him to taste a little, but only thing he liked and wanted was cilantro-lime rice. Meat was little spicy for him anyway. The little stool was low enough for him to climb on, and comfortable enough to sit on, and overall it was pretty good experience.

While he took a nap, I couldn't wait to cook up another prize from the market- beautiful golden chanterelle mushrooms. I sauteed with butter, little salt and soy sauce, and sprinkle of oregano. It was so delicious and I couldn't wait to have Taiyo try them, but when he woke up what he wanted was Chinese dumplings on Clinton Street: Prosperity Dumpling at Clinton between Rivington and Stanton. They make decent dumplings, and they are usually ready to be served. It's mainly a take-out joing, with limited seating area along the wall and the window, and there's no bathroom. Although I think the best dumplings in the neighborhood is found on East Broadway at a hand-pulled noodle place near the post office, Taiyo still loves this place's dumplings. It's pretty good deal: four dumplings for a buck.

Beautiful summer morning- the air was still cool and dry when we left the house. Since there was no uptown train at Delancey street, we hopped into a cab to the Central Park. Our first stop, an African drum and dance workshop at Tavern on the Green. It was just fantastic 'little' event, since main participants were little people. They practiced playing djembe drums and doing african dance moves in relaxed and intimate atmosphere. This was just a great place to hang out, because there were nice food trucks right behind. There, I found mommy's dream food.

Pera Turkish Tacos at Tavern on the Green
Among the few 'gourmet' food trucks there, this seemed the most interesting. Turkish tacos? They even offered alcoholic beverages! We had eggplant kofte & squash taco. Taiyo sat down at a table, and immediately began to devour the taco. It was the perfect size for him to hold, and when I realized that he wasn't let go of the taco, I went back to the truck and told the guy "I have to get another one, because he's eating the whole thing." This was magical food. It was delicious, healthy, not messy plus we were outside. Then we enjoyed more music wondering around the park. He really liked the lady with the violin.
On the east side we came upon this great band with fabulous name: The Dirty Urchins. Being an urchin himself, Taiyo very much enjoyed the music. Line was too long at the zoo and we gave up on the idea of seeing the penguins. We passed by the amusement park at Wollman Rink, but didn't investigate because they charged fee just to enter the park. Taiyo was too tired anyway. He was fast asleep by the time we left the park.

Evening outing on the bike: we headed to the west side and decided to stop in at Merchant River House. I was pretty sure this can be moderately kid-friendly because of the location. Surely, they offered a high chair immediately, although Taiyo refused to sit in it, and gave him a packet of crayons. We did like our table right across from the kitchen window. Most of the plates coming out looked nice and fresh. Our waitress wasn't very firendly, but this place seemed quite adequately staffed, things were pretty smooth. Our dinner: Merchant River House Pizza, and warm spinach and artichoke dip. The cheezy and rick dip was a big hit for Taiyo. He fussed having to have to wait a bit since dip was piping hot. He didn't care to touch pizza, which was a sad item. It was edible, but totally overbaked and crunchy. Taiyo was shouting jibblish in between, but staff were busy enough he went pretty much noticed. Then he began to run around a little, but his behavior was well tolerated and the manager trafficed the waiters off the little urchin runing by their feet. Overall it was fairy positive visit. I would just not order pizza next time. The rest of the evening, Taiyo seriously ran around like a bouncy ball here and there across Battery Park City for two hours. Finally I put him back into the bike and we biked through Battery Park to admire fireflies. Then he was fast asleep again.

It was already the last day of our 5-day staycation. It feels like all we did was to get on the bike, eat, hang in some park, sleep, and do laundry. At least it was nice not to cook for a few days, especially with this weather. Another very warm day, and we were out in a beautiful neighborhood Seward Park in the morning. There was another kids' event there this morning presented by SummerStage- they had larger audience, but the hip-hop dance performance was pretty lame. We headed to the library and Taiyo went crazy over books. When we left the library, Taiyo pointed at his favorite cafe across the street. It's time for lunch.

Lunch: Cafe Petisco at East Broadway and Jefferson. Fairy kid friendly, although they have no high chairs and some of the staff are not really kid friendly. Maybe because of the location where we don't have many other similiar dining choice, there's always other parties with kids and or babies there, which makes it look kid friendly. That maybe another reason Taiyo feels comfortable- there's always other kids. Today we ran into Carissa, my long-time customer at SOY, and the service was much better than past visits, with a friendly waitress who talked to Taiyo a lot. She also brought us extra napkins- which surprisingly is not a common treatment we get in many restaurants. Other times he liked cous cous, but todeay we went for a plate of falafel, which Taiyo really liked to enjoy with ketchup. He didn't like hummus although they are also made with chickpeas. He's generally a very good eater, but it's still very hard to tell what he may like or not. He didn't touch my coconut chicken burger, which was really good. Another plus about this place is that we always meet kid-loving older people there. Taiyo charmed older man sitting next to us, and he also loved attention.

In the afternoon Taiyo practiced his hip-hop moves at the laundromat. His nap was later than usual I knew we were going to miss another perfect swimmming pool day.

Dinner: SobaKoh East 5th Street between 1st and 2nd Aves.
I was thinking of their cold noodle for a while, and it was the first visit with Taiyo. At 7pm the place was pretty busy already, and two empty tables were reserved. Taiyo couldn't understand why we were not allowed at the table and protested by kneeling down with face down on the floor. He was not comforted by any of the staff. We settled at the end of the counter, which was fine with me. The owner already finished making his soba for the night, it seemed, and I had no entertainment for him. But when tamagoyaki (egg omlette) arrived, he was happy again. He also enjoyed goma-ae with broccoli rabe. After that, we waited for our soba a little too long. He became restress and cranky, and started running around the floor, but didn't get any response from other patrons or staff. He eventually began screaming that he wants to go outside, but I didn't want to just walk outside during our meal. He kept fussing for quite a while but we were very much ignored. Finally I asked the young waitress if it was going to be a while before the soba in Japanese, without realizing she wasn't Japanese, and she said, 'sorry,' and didn't say anything to our waiter. So after another long five-minute of seriously fussing Taiyo, I walked up to the waiter, less than 10 feet away, and asked if it's going to be much longer I should take it to go. "It's coming right now," which it did, after two more long minutes. Taiyo did settled back into his seat and ate half of the noodle. But we were very much ready to go after the meal. The food is excellent, but recommended with a little one? Not really, although the floor is fairly spacious it feels quite accomodating with a stroller. It just didn't give us a good-feeling dining experience. There's no high chair available.

To make ourselves feel better, we stopped at an empty little playground at Houston and Christy. An older guy was working out, doing push-ups and jogging around the park. Then a lady with a kid with a red do-rag walked in. I smiled and said hello to her. The kid went to say hello to the guy who was working out, and the woman and the man exchanged some words in - sign language. Then another older man walked in and he started signing also. I remembered about one night when I went to a bar on Essex with a friend, and it was packed and full of people talking loudly in - sign language! Taiyo hit it off with the boy, who was 4-years-old- I think that's what his grandmother told me in sign. We all hang around until the parks employee came to kick us out because they had to close the gate.