Central Park

Last year we visited Central Park for the first time. I knew when I left the park that there was so much more I wanted to see! So, with the weather conditions just right this weekend, we headed in again. The first time we entered the park at Columbus Circle and saw the sights there. This time we came in near the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I had visions of some hackeysack playing on the great lawn, bubble blowing at Strawberry Fields, and relaxing while eating some ice cream. What is the saying? 'The best laid plans.....'

Parking proved to be a problem although we had been lucky on another occassion - $53 later that was solved. We enjoyed our time at the Diana Ross Playground.

The huge rocks all around the park always slow us down because the kids want to summit each of them, but they provide such great photo ops.

Belvidere Castle was very cool and gave us aweseom views of the park, particularly Turtle Pond.

I enjoyed watching Gavin scale the castle wall and listening to the comments from onlookers!

We ambled through the Shakespeare Garden and saw the statues Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest.

It was right around this time that Ethan's incessant pleas for pizza and our 'differing parenting styles' got the best of us. I felt that Ethan was really getting to Dennis and he responded with frustration and a general amount of grumpyness. He felt that I was ignoring the whole situation and therefore making it harder for everyone. We had a full-fledged argument in the middle of the road in Central Park complete with swear words. I won't say who said them to protect the guilty.

Ethan has this persistence that has the qualities of a cinderblock wall. He will say the same thing over and over and over and over and over...and if you tell him to stop - he says it again. He's like a terrorist. When his demands aren't met, he takes the whole situation hostage. Which means, if you are trying to walk, he sits, if you are trying to sit, he walks, if you are trying to talk, he talks over you, if you want him to answer a question, well then, suddenly he's silent. He gets very 'stuck' in a loop of ideas that seem to be nearly impossible to shut off. You can either drop what your doing and fix his perceived dilemna or have a family meltdown in public.

We paid a little homage to John Lennon and enjoyed the sights and sounds of Strawberry Fields.

Then we left the park to get some pizza...because we had to.

It actually occurred to me leaving the house that morning that we have had a streak of successful, harmonious family outings and that I was owed a 'not-so-good' trip. Yes, it really works that way. So the trip only garners a '6' on the daytrip scale. Although the weather was a '10', we lost some points for the bickering - and I still have a whole lot of Central Park to see!