Uncle Day in NYC
So yesterday I spent the day in Manhattan with my four year old nephew and I'm frickin exhausted today.
I woke up around 8:00AM to get to my brother's office to pick him up. Then we did the following:
First we went to the Central Park Zoo. This was kind of cool but we went to the grown up zoo first and I think he was a little bored. To be honest I was a little bored too. They have polar bears in there which is cool but you can't pet them in stuff. (there was an 'incident' back in 1989 when Giant Polar Bears were part of the petting zoo and some lady got mauled- so now they're behind glass.). Anyway once you see them sitting there on the rock after a minute or so you kind of go... ok there's a polar bear. Next. So we went through the grown up zoo pretty fast.
Then we went to the Tisch Children's Zoo which is also in Central Park and it was way more fun for me and him. They had stuff you can climb on and in. I kind of got stuck in one of the turtle shells and hurt my back trying to get out. We fed goats and llamas. We named the llama Bob cause he looked like a Bob. I told my nephew that there a packs of wild llamas running free alongside the highways in New Jersey and that they live near IKEA.
Then we went rock climbing on the rocks in Central Park. This is where the paranoia clicked in because I was being a 'responsible adult'. I taught him the word 'foothold'. And told him we were doing some 'serious climbing'. He asked me how the rocks got there and I was stumped. Then I wandered away for a while and let him climb on rocks. I bumped into an old friend of mine and we chatted it up. After 15 minutes or so I remembered about him rock climbing and went back to find him.
Then we drank Hawaiian Punch and looked at the ice skaters.
Then we went to lunch at Jekyll and Hyde's which is this scary scary theme restaurant. The service was terrible, the food was terrible, the entertainment was ok but they charge a '$1.75 entertainment charge per person' which I thought was a cheap shot. He had a great time though. I told him that if he's really good for the rest of the day that the Frankenstein monster will visit him tonite.
Then we went to the Museum of Natural History and went to the Butterfly exhibit which is this hot room that has tons of butterflies in it. He got upset because a butterfly landed on my shoulder and not his shoulder. So I took a butterfly and put it in my pocket and told him I'd give it to him later.
Then we went to see the IMAX film 'Shark Attacks'. It had some really great closeups of sharks eating seals and attacking guys in cages and stuff. He covered his eyes for the most part. I told him that sharks are mainly attracted to blood but they like to bite legs if you're swimming around. I told him all about how invisible sharks live in swimming pools and you only can see them right before they bite you..
Then we walked around in FAO Schwarz and played on that piano on the floor from the movie 'Big'. It's a big disappointment because it doesn't light up and it sucks. I was pissed so I told him that if he wants any small toy he should just take it. I told him how if you take something and get caught it's called 'stealing' but if you take something and get away with it it's called 'free'.
So that was pretty much the day yesterday and I am frickin exhausted. My knees hurt and my back hurts and I did something to my neck. It's frickin non-stop non-stop running running, protecting, teaching, doing, buying things... it's crazy tiring....but then again it was like one of the most excellent days I've had in a while.
ok bye!
tOdd