Crain’s New York Business featured Savvy Mommy this week in the New York, New York section. I don’t think any other events from today can top that. 
What a nice way to start a Monday.
May 2006 Archives
Last Summer I sat out taking Natalie to Sesame Place eventhough she could be Grover’s biggest fan because her brother was not even 2 months old when she had her birthday party and I didn’t really want to travel with him in the car for hours unless we really had to.
So I’ll admit I definitely wasn’t prepared for what I saw today while at Sesame Place. It was supposed to start with a calm lunch with the Sesame Place characters. Oh, who am I kidding.. Natalie was so excited to see Elmo, Cookie Monster and Zooey she didn’t eat and refused to let Elmo leave the picnic area.
Poor Elmo sat with her and drank water with her until she calmed down. (And then a Sesame Place staff member went and got her milk with a straw because she was afraid to leave Elmo and get one herself.) It clearly was a dream come true to be surrounded by the Sesame characters and I think next time she will not be as excited because she will know what to really expect.
It rained a bit towards the end of the day but the Sesame Place parade still went on and as Natalie sat on the sidelines and watched Oscar, Bert, Telly and a character or two that I don’t even know. I could see she was very happy to be at Sesame Place and was really enjoying the parade, the different activities and even let me take a few photos of her in front of signs throughout Sesame Place. (I video taped a bit of the Sesame Parade with my Pure Digital Camcorder and I’ll put it up on the site when I get a chance.) After the parade, she finally wanted to eat so we went to one of the many restaurants selling Elmo containers of chicken fingers and fries and chocolate milk and she ate a late lunch.
When we were ready to leave, after a quick stop in the gift shop for Sesame Place crayons, lunchbox and an extremely lifesized Grover doll, she met her favorite Sesame character — Grover. He was about to go in for a break but we managed to get a photo with the Canon digital camera and the Sesame photographer took one of her as well which we of course bought so she could have an official photo of her first Sesame Place visit.
I’m sitting here thinking about her 3rd birthday… if I can get a weekend off from work, I’m thinking of taking her to Beaches Turks & Caicos so she can see all her favorite characters again otherwise we may just head back to Sesame Place for another day trip.
Luke and Natalie accompanied me and their Nana to the annual Kids for Kids Family Carnival for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation today. I don’t even know how to describe this event so you can fully understand it.
FOOD:
One minute your being handed a plate and are standing on a line to taste nibbles (and not so little portions of food) from dozens of restaurants including Bao Noodles, Super Dogs, Citrus Bar, Better Burger, Dos Caminos and Serendipity 3 and the next minute you are looking for a table to sit amongst Steve Schrippa. Speaking of the food, beverages and snacks offered… it was endless from cheesecake and vegamite sandwiches (no I’m not kidding) to burgers, pizza, dumplings and fruit. I took Natalie around to see what she wanted and besides the Frozen Hot Chocolate and a bite of pizza she wasn’t interested. Natalie didn’t want to miss a minute of the fun. She did take my quesadilla (from the bite I had, I can see why. Really good.) and enjoyed a little Elmo Surprise ice cream from Max and Mina ice cream which I think was vanilla, strawberry and coconut. It mostly melted on her Limesicle tee from Loopy tees. Ironic, I know. An IZZE beverage tent was outside so she picked a grapefruit blend and drank it without a straw. Seriously, today was Natalie’s day to tell everyone she was a big girl. She had a snack bag from Kashi but didn’t understand why I was holding a big pink poof on a stick.. so the cotton candy was trashed after she just wanted to ball it up in her hands.
FASHION:
The wings. Everyone was decorating wings (or capes reminiscent of Super Grover’s cape). Natalie decorated hers (pink ones with glitter and other pretty additions.) with Nana while I took Lukie to the Forty Weeks Giggle lounge. The Forty Weeks Giggle lounge was a space I would have never found if Gina of Forty Weeks wasn’t walking around hanging lil dipper wipes out to moms. Luke was cranky (yeah, I know that doesn’t seem right huh) and it was the perfect space to take him. He was lounging on the changing table and I took off his shoes (which I left there!) so he was a little more comfortable. It really was a shame that the Forty Weeks Giggle lounge wan’t placed in a better area because it was really the ideal space to calm down from the fun.
FUN:
Storytelling by Whoopi Goldberg (who left immediately after she was done reading), themed games with Chuck Zito (when I think kid’s event, I think Chuck Zito don’t you? Oh let me shush before Charlie’s Angels come after me.), Carson Kressley and Allison Stewart were playing a game where you roll a ball from the top and try and get it into the right spot (I must have lived a sheltered life… anyone know the name of that game? It’s not skeet ball. It’s more like Pliko that Price is Right game… Yes, I watched Price is Right when I was little and at my grandmother’s house.) Power Rangers walked around and stopped for photos with the kids but Natalie didn’t know who they were so she kept going. Face painting and picture painting opportunities were all over. Aida Turturro, Edie Falco, Miss Universe and Elizabeth Hurley were around doing their own thing. Every few feet you walked you saw a celebrity and a few reality stars were walking around enjoying the day. I’m not exactly sure what Jason Patric was doing because everytime I saw him he was with his celebrity escort but he was there and he looks 1,000 times better in person.
And when were leaving the each of the kids got an orange Kenneth Cole gift bag full of product and a choice of any toy from the Target toy area. Toys were handed out by Helena Christiansen.
It was a really nice day for kids and a great cause to support. I was hoping to be able to check out the LA event in June (different celebrity heros and activities) but I’m not sure if my schedule will have me out there the same weekend.
It’s out. The issue where Luke, Natalie and I are shown next to a blurb about my whopping 45 pound post pregnancy weight loss story. (And for those of you wondering, I gained 61 pounds total. Jenny Craig helped me get from 143lbs to 129lbs, my current weight.)
Anyway, that photo and quite a few others were shot back in February. Seems like light years ago. I do remember that photo was my idea though. It’s very much like how you see me with Natalie. Always with piggy back and Luke in the other hand. I held both of my babies weighing a combined amount of almost 60 pounds for a few rolls of film. Occasionally Nat would instead run behind me or stand next to the wall for a shot. (She wasn’t exactly on her best behavior that day. She refused to wear the white sandals the stylist picked for her. But that’s just the behavior of a 2 year old sometimes.)
For those of you who know me and have already emailed me surprised to see me in such a brightly colored dress, white wedge sandals and yellow gold earrings�. Please note: I came and left in my v-neck sky blue sweater, jeans and brown shoes. Enough said.
