A Food Affair

The sheer number of places to eat in New York City is over-

whelming. 

Jay and I always have a hard time choosing one, and even though we have favorites I often feel like I should attempt to try them all simply because they're available.

This Christmas we were given a really neat gift. It's called The Diner's Deck. It's 52 cards, each one describes 52 different restaurants in the city, and each one is a $10 gift certificate. So far we've used 5- we try not to eat out much but we treat ourselves once a week (only because they expire at the end of 2009.) It's been fun to choose a card and try a new place- they're all different kinds of food- vegan, spanish, indian, american etc. in all different areas of the city. Yesterday we went to Union Square and tried a spanish restaurant called "Pipa." It was one of the most beautiful places we've been- exposed brick, exposed hardwood beams, and in addition to being a restaurant there must have been some kind of light shop in the back because hanging from the ceiling was a vast array of chandeliers. They were beautiful, antique looking, some small, some big, hanging at different levels all over the place. I wish I had been able to take a picture, but I didn't have my camera, so maybe I'll have to go back :) 

Okay- that's it... more dining experiences to come. 

(in case you are interested, Manhattan is not the only city they have... check it out www.cityshuffle.com) 

A boy thing?

There are times I think James might be trying to tell me something. For instance, when he tries to push the buttons on the DVD player or pull the books off the bookshelf and I say “James, No” in the most calm and assertive way possible (and yes those are words used by “The Dog Whisperer”) James looks at me with a grin, shakes his head back and forth and stretches his hand out toward me. It wasn’t until yesterday that I took that gesture to mean “stay where you are mom.” You see, typically, I’ll say no once and if he doesn’t leave whatever it is alone I’ll get up and move him away from it. He started saying no (shaking his head back and forth a long time ago) and for a while I don’t think he knew what it meant, but when I say no to him I shake my head, so now he shakes his back at me. He does it during meal time with certain foods, when I drain the water out of his bath, and when I get up to move him away from whatever no-no he’s into. Granted I think it’s funny, but I stifle my laugh and wait until the deed is done before I tell him how stinkin’ cute he is.

Here’s something else and maybe it’s a boy thing, but I don’t know. James dislikes order. I’m almost sure of it. He does not like his toys to be put away in the basket. He does not like his books to be on the shelf, or his clothes to be in the dresser, or the blankets to be in the drawer under his bed. If there is something he can take out of something else, he’ll find it and simply remove it. He doesn’t necessarily want to play with it, or do anything spectacular with it, he just wants it out of place. He also likes to open the kitchen cabinets- all of them that he can reach. Then he just looks at them. He walks from one end to other and just opens up the cabinet doors. Luckily there aren’t that many but still, it’s amusing. On an ordinary day, I will clean up behind him 3 or 4 times. I’ve considered just leaving it, but it gives him something to do and he isn’t really hurting anything. I just don’t get it. Now, if I could just get him to learn to enjoy putting things back as much as he enjoys taking them out I may be on to something. I think I’ll work on that!

On a different note- James is walking! He still prefers to crawl on occasion because it's faster, but he can do it when he wants to. I'll attempt to post a little video... and by little I mean my battery died so I only got 5 seconds.

Prayers are answered

Sometimes people say "I'll pray for you" and while you know they mean well, most likely they won't remember when they get around to it. Over the last couple months when people have said to me, "I'm praying for your mom," I have believed every single one of them because I've seen what the power of prayer can do. In September my mom was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. In just one year she developed cancer in the breast and lymph nodes- it was a rapidly growing cancer that surprised her doctors. Because of it, they decided to do chemo first and those 4 rounds of chemo were harder on her than any of us expected. She ended up being admitted to the hospital 3 times with pneumonia and dehydration. Once that was over she started on a different type of chemo. This was not nearly as harsh and difficult for her, but still had some side effects that leave her feeling not so great. During these 12 rounds they noticed some swelling around the breast and lymph nodes and decided to do surgery right away. So, without much warning she underwent a double mastectomy with removal of 1o lymph nodes under the right arm. She still has a long road ahead of her, but through all of this she is staying strong, has learned to rely on others, and has come out cancer free! That's the report from pathology and even though that's the case she still has 4 rounds of chemo, a month and a half of radiation, and 9 months of another drug which is injected every 3 weeks! 

Prayer has brought my mom through so much, kept her strong, and allowed her to see how much she is loved! I'm so blessed and feel proud to call her mom. 

This time around...

I decided to just do it already and start a blog, everyone else is. Isn't that a phrase we all tried to tell ourselves we'd never give in to :) 

I'm not sure what I'll tell you about- living in NYC maybe, the funny things I see every day on these streets, the not so funny things I think about, or maybe I'll tell you about James. He's 10 months old now and I love him more every day- even when we wakes up with poop up his back. Gross, isn't it! 

There is no telling what I'll come up with for this blog- but I can assure you one thing... it'll be truth, sometimes random and not so interesting, but truth nonetheless. After all, would it matter otherwise?