Harlan wakes up around 6:30 each day, and is rearing to go by about 7:30. He tells me he is ready to go to the playground by bringing me one of my shoes and slamming it against my foot while moaning. Sometimes he brings me his own shoe and performs the same routine. By about 8:30 I load him into his stroller, pack the bag, and gently push the whole load down the flight of steps onto the street while all the nine to fivers rush past me on their way to the subway. We walk in the opposite direction, over to one of many parks in the neighborhood. On any given day Harlan and I have visited a minimum of three parks city wide.
Conversation from Cuyler Gore park last week: A five year old boy is playing on the jungle gym with Harlan (after school) and Harlan toddles past him commenting, "Doo doo doo doo". The boy turns to me in awe and exclaims, "He said doo doo!" I told him that Harlan is only a baby and that he doesn't really know what doo doo means. The boy looks at Harlan and says, "You don't know what doo doo is little baby? It's brown, and it comes out your butt, and it's disgusting, and it goes in the toilet. There. Now you know what doo doo is."
Today in Manhattan: Union square park at 9:00 AM, I unload Harlan from his stroller and as he runs towards the slide I push the stroller, now draped with farmer's market goodies, next to two women sitting on a bench. One of them is Gwenyth. She is dressed like any other mom at the playground at 9:00 AM on a Monday morning, messy hair, no makeup, sunglasses, a flowing long cotton dress and flat sandals, coffee cup in hand. I look around for a toddling Apple to play with Harlan, but see only a storm of elementary school aged children running amok. Harlan plays alone on the mini jungle gym and eventually a couple of teachers gather up the class and form a line. Gwenyth goes with them and I realize that her "baby girl" is already school aged and she is with the class today for some reason. I suppose I need to keep up with celebrity news in order to be better informed about the ages of their offspring. Around noon in Tompkins Square Park I see my old friend Heidi and her sweet girl Beatrix who is running around barefoot with a ladybug ball (Beatrix, not Heidi). I brag to her of my star sighting and she says that in her neighborhood she sees Julianne Moore almost daily with her adorable son. She also once came across "SJP" at a water park on the west side. All the other moms were in their terry cloth sweats and suddenly SJP showed up in platform heels and a freaking Birkin bag (did I even spell that right?) I guess if you have a bag that cost several thousand dollars you don't mind if it gets schmutzed up at the water playground. Hmmm.
Last Saturday my good pal Ellen, her husband Ed and son Zack met up with me and some friends over in Prospect Park for a breakfast picnic. The allergies were fierce, but the grass was lush and filled with clovers and it was one of those mornings where everyone just feels that life is good:
9 comments:
That's the life. :)
Gwyneth and apple?? how cool but hey thats NY for ya...
your little boy is adorable...love his grey overall suit, like a little motor mechanic!
OK, so after I saw you yesterday (hope you're feeling better, btw!) I read somewhere that yesterday was Apple's 3rd birthday.
Love the image of Harlan and the shoe, tho I'm sure the reality is less charming after the 5th morning in a row.
A-ha, so she must have been spending the day with her for her birthday, or maybe bringing cupcakes in to the class.
I thought she lived in England. These globe-trotting stars, wish I could have homes in many-a continent.
I thought she spent a lot of time in L.A. too. Hard to keep track of globe trotters. What must life be like as a kid when you're travelling more than army kids?
I love the pictures! It sounds like a great morning!
that's one of the things i love about new york - everyone is just living their life, even waiting list purse-toting celebrities.
i also love the coveralls.
those are wonderful photos, i love all the strollers in the background.
i guess going to the park in NY is a more exciting experience for moms. how fun!
i never see celebrities as much as i want to. last time i saw a *celebrity* was al sharpton pulling up in his escalade to run in to CVS, which im assuming he went in there to get some touch up for his perm.
i used to see julia roberts with her twinnies (well, saw them twice) at my old job. she's always (all two times) be hangin out outside of the cosi. but the infamous locked gramercy park was in the same block, so i guess she'd get coffee before heading over there. it's funny, i forget that celebrities have children too, and take their kids to parks.. and have dogs and walk them... i know it must be trippy to have a kid and then see some famous persons kid playing in the same sandbox.
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