New York Baby Tour
When Tali was eight months old we took her back east to see the relatives she hadn't met yet as well as three of her first cousins whom she'd only met once since she was born. Let's be honest: we wanted to show off the best creation we had ever made together.
In Virginia we stayed with my brother, and Tali had a blast being entertained by five of her first cousins, the three who lived there and the two others who were visiting. In Pennsylvania Tali was oohhed and ahhed over by extended members of Richard's family. Things moved at a slow pace, which was perfect for us and our baby.
The next stop was New York City where we paid a fortune to park our rental car and haul our daughter and all her necessary equipment up to my cousins' apartment on the upper west side. Once we were there however, we were treated like royalty by them and their full time housekeeper.
It was when we ventured out in to the city that the trouble began. We took her on the subway, we strolled her all through the streets. We visited with one cousin who was delighted to meet her and one friend who couldn't have been less interested if she'd been asleep during our visit. We went on with our day and Tali was soon lulled to sleep by the city noises and her stroller moving at a quick New York pace.
We were due back at my cousins' for Shabbat Dinner at 6pm. A little after 5 we decided we should find a subway station and head back to the apartment. We must have passed the nearest one just before making that decision because I think we had walked about 15 blocks when we realized we were nowhere near a station. We kept walking anyway, having faith in the city. Finally Richard said excitedly, "There's one up ahead!"
"Oh Thank goodness!" I replied. At this point it was humid and raining and while Tali was peacefully sleeping, I didn't want her to get wet and, I thought she'd wake up hungry any minute. Since she had slept through a feeding at this point, I was getting nervous.
We must have found the back entrance to the station because there was no elevator or ramp and Richard and I had to carry sleeping Tali and the stroller down the stairs. When we got there I put cash in the machine because previously, the machines weren't accepting our atm card. I waited and a message came up saying "This machine only accepts bank cards." I sighed, retrieved my cash and put in my card. After buying our tickets successfully I walked over to swipe my card. The plan was to let Richard through the service gate with the stroller once I went through. I swiped my card and nothing happened. I swiped it again and nothing happened.
"You're doing it wrong!" Richard yelled at me.
"No I'm not!" I yelled back.
He tried doing it the same way I did and had no luck. We looked around and noticed that no one's tickets seemed to be working. After about 15 minutes we somehow got ours to work. I went through and tried opening the service gate. It would not open. There were no transportation employees in sight. I pointed out the obvious by screaming, "IT WON'T OPEN!"
Right next to the service gate was a turn-style gate. We managed to squeeze Richard and the still sleeping Tali through it.
We headed for the nearest train going uptown. We needed to go to 81st street. When we'd been on the train five minutes we heard a voice over the loud speaker saying, "This is an express train to 125th street, 125th street express train." It seemed to be mocking us.
"Great," Richard said, rolling his eyes and shifting his stance since there was nowhere to sit down.
We got off the train at 125th which is in the middle of Harlem. As I absorbed the smell in the station I knew even Tali's dirtiest, smelliest diaper had met it's match. We walked with the stroller to the other end of the platform, carried it up the strairs, strolled it a few feet, carried it down the stairs and walked over to wait for the next train going downtown.
Right then, as if on cue, Tali woke up. Since she was still groggy her cry was a tiny wimper as if to say, "If you feed me now I promise I'll be quiet, but if not this is gonna turn in to one loud scream."
I unbuckled her to which Richard said, "Don't pick her up, the train is about to come and we'll miss it." Through clenched teeth and in a firm tone I said, "My baby just woke up hungry, I am picking her up!" After doing just that the train arrived. Richard pushed the stroller as I carried Tali on and found a seat. I discreetly pulled up my shirt, and undid my nursing bra while at the same time getting her in to a feeding position.
"Don't feed her, we're getting off the train soon," lectured Richard, my loving husband, whom I now wanted to kill.
Not changing the tone from my previous exchange with him I said, "My baby is hungry and I am going to feed her!"
Tali happily ate throughout the ride, having no idea that anything out of the ordinary or annoying had occurred. After all, her needs were being met. As the train pulled in to our stop I gathered her up, still nursing. We exited the train with Richard pushing an empty stroller at a rapid pace and me nursing her trailing as fast as I could behind him. While we should have been relieved that we made it back to the right neighborhood we were embarrassed about being late for dinner.
We arrived at Marion and Bill's door drenched in sweat. They opened it and I said, "We're so sorry we're late. We got on an express train that went past your stop. I know you've been waiting but we have to take a shower!"
Without waiting for a response we headed to our room and I heard Bill say, "Oh, that's happen to me before." He had lived in New York for over twenty years. So much for "lost tourists sympathy," it happens to New Yorkers every day!
In Virginia we stayed with my brother, and Tali had a blast being entertained by five of her first cousins, the three who lived there and the two others who were visiting. In Pennsylvania Tali was oohhed and ahhed over by extended members of Richard's family. Things moved at a slow pace, which was perfect for us and our baby.
The next stop was New York City where we paid a fortune to park our rental car and haul our daughter and all her necessary equipment up to my cousins' apartment on the upper west side. Once we were there however, we were treated like royalty by them and their full time housekeeper.
It was when we ventured out in to the city that the trouble began. We took her on the subway, we strolled her all through the streets. We visited with one cousin who was delighted to meet her and one friend who couldn't have been less interested if she'd been asleep during our visit. We went on with our day and Tali was soon lulled to sleep by the city noises and her stroller moving at a quick New York pace.
We were due back at my cousins' for Shabbat Dinner at 6pm. A little after 5 we decided we should find a subway station and head back to the apartment. We must have passed the nearest one just before making that decision because I think we had walked about 15 blocks when we realized we were nowhere near a station. We kept walking anyway, having faith in the city. Finally Richard said excitedly, "There's one up ahead!"
"Oh Thank goodness!" I replied. At this point it was humid and raining and while Tali was peacefully sleeping, I didn't want her to get wet and, I thought she'd wake up hungry any minute. Since she had slept through a feeding at this point, I was getting nervous.
We must have found the back entrance to the station because there was no elevator or ramp and Richard and I had to carry sleeping Tali and the stroller down the stairs. When we got there I put cash in the machine because previously, the machines weren't accepting our atm card. I waited and a message came up saying "This machine only accepts bank cards." I sighed, retrieved my cash and put in my card. After buying our tickets successfully I walked over to swipe my card. The plan was to let Richard through the service gate with the stroller once I went through. I swiped my card and nothing happened. I swiped it again and nothing happened.
"You're doing it wrong!" Richard yelled at me.
"No I'm not!" I yelled back.
He tried doing it the same way I did and had no luck. We looked around and noticed that no one's tickets seemed to be working. After about 15 minutes we somehow got ours to work. I went through and tried opening the service gate. It would not open. There were no transportation employees in sight. I pointed out the obvious by screaming, "IT WON'T OPEN!"
Right next to the service gate was a turn-style gate. We managed to squeeze Richard and the still sleeping Tali through it.
We headed for the nearest train going uptown. We needed to go to 81st street. When we'd been on the train five minutes we heard a voice over the loud speaker saying, "This is an express train to 125th street, 125th street express train." It seemed to be mocking us.
"Great," Richard said, rolling his eyes and shifting his stance since there was nowhere to sit down.
We got off the train at 125th which is in the middle of Harlem. As I absorbed the smell in the station I knew even Tali's dirtiest, smelliest diaper had met it's match. We walked with the stroller to the other end of the platform, carried it up the strairs, strolled it a few feet, carried it down the stairs and walked over to wait for the next train going downtown.
Right then, as if on cue, Tali woke up. Since she was still groggy her cry was a tiny wimper as if to say, "If you feed me now I promise I'll be quiet, but if not this is gonna turn in to one loud scream."
I unbuckled her to which Richard said, "Don't pick her up, the train is about to come and we'll miss it." Through clenched teeth and in a firm tone I said, "My baby just woke up hungry, I am picking her up!" After doing just that the train arrived. Richard pushed the stroller as I carried Tali on and found a seat. I discreetly pulled up my shirt, and undid my nursing bra while at the same time getting her in to a feeding position.
"Don't feed her, we're getting off the train soon," lectured Richard, my loving husband, whom I now wanted to kill.
Not changing the tone from my previous exchange with him I said, "My baby is hungry and I am going to feed her!"
Tali happily ate throughout the ride, having no idea that anything out of the ordinary or annoying had occurred. After all, her needs were being met. As the train pulled in to our stop I gathered her up, still nursing. We exited the train with Richard pushing an empty stroller at a rapid pace and me nursing her trailing as fast as I could behind him. While we should have been relieved that we made it back to the right neighborhood we were embarrassed about being late for dinner.
We arrived at Marion and Bill's door drenched in sweat. They opened it and I said, "We're so sorry we're late. We got on an express train that went past your stop. I know you've been waiting but we have to take a shower!"
Without waiting for a response we headed to our room and I heard Bill say, "Oh, that's happen to me before." He had lived in New York for over twenty years. So much for "lost tourists sympathy," it happens to New Yorkers every day!
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