Timeout Boy at the Reception.

My wife's former co-worker invited us to her wedding reception a few weeks ago.  I was hesitant at first because we didn't have anything to wear and we didn't know any of the other guests.  Mostly, I was concerned about how Timeout Boy would behave at that fancy restaurant.

We got there pretty early.  We were the second group to arrive.  We found our table and waited a while for things to get started.

Timeout Boy sat in a high chair at the end of the table.  He had his friend Red with him, a MegaBlok mini-figure which he played with for a while until he started banging it on the table and we had to take the toy away.  He also had his milk and crackers.

A couple who was at our table commented that he was very well behaved, which kind of surprised me.  I thought, yes, I guess he was.  My son had been a good boy all night.  They said they had a kid about the same age, and he would have been running around all over.  We figured if Timeout Boy knew the people there, he would probably be doing the same.

Here is my son enjoying the music:


The other day before the Jets game, we stopped by Fun Buffet and were seated at a booth.  I sat on one side with my friend, and my wife and son were on the other.  When my wife left to get food, Timeout Boy sat there quietly drinking his milk.  The group across from us stared at him and asked how old he was.  I said two, and they looked surprised.

"Wow, he is so well mannered," said one of them.  I simply smiled.  Yes, he is, I thought to myself.

Funny thing is, growing up, "well mannered" kids seemed to be the norm, if I remember correctly.  Even when I visited the Philippines, I don't remember seeing kids acting out.  I'm not sure why that is.

Maybe it's the culture?  Parents there aren't worried about spanking their kids if they had to.  Or the teachers in school, for that matter.  Maybe it's the economy?  Parents are working more and have less time at thome?  I'm not sure.  I don't know why I'm even going into it.

I must say, though, it's a big relief to be able to go to a restaurant and not have your two year old kicking and screaming like we sometimes see.

Oh yeah, here's some more dance:


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Timeout Boy at the Jets Game

This Sunday night I took my two year old boy to his first ever Jets game.  A good friend of mine gave us his preseason tickets against the Bengals, so after checking that the weather would be partly cloudy, I decided to take them.  Of course, the weather suddenly changed once we started actually making plans.

We went looking for a jersey for the kid, and it took some searching to finally find one.  We tried Target, Babies R Us and Modell's, but none of them had it.  We found a really nice one at Sports Authority, but we didn't feel like spending $60 for something he would only wear a few times really.  We ended up at Kohl's and were surprised to find a Mark Sanchez jersey for $32, so we went for it.

Here is a picture of my kid in his number 6 and me in my Wayne Chrebet 80:

We couldn't find one small enough for Monkey the Bear though, so he had to settle for a bib:

One of my best friends happened to be vacationing in the country, so I figured since we had an extra ticket, he could come with us.  He decided to come along even though he's not exactly into sports.  It took some time for Timeout Boy to warm up to "Uncle", but by the end of the night he was holding his hand on the escalator.  Here we are on the way up the "alligator", as Timeout Boy would say:

We were all the way up in section 340, so he enjoyed a lot of escalator rides:

I would admit I'm not an expert with the whole game experience.  Even though the whole forecast had changed, I guess my wife and I were both a little overwhelmed with the excitement because we totally forgot to bring ponchos, towels or even hats for the rain.  Also, I passed by some tailgaters that I was familiar with via Twitter so I stopped by to say hello.  But when I was asked, "Who else do you know on Twitter?" I kind of drew a blank.  Haha!  O-welles.  Also, we had to change the little kiddo's diaper and his green pants were soaked so we had to find another one and I was worried the extra one would be blue and I would never want him to wear blue to a Jets game and so on.

So anyways, as we settled in our seats all the way up in the heavens, we looked up at the darkening sky and realized, we left the hats in the car.  Timeout Boy was happy though.  He would feel the drops on his face and smile so wide.  We would never let him out in the rain in any other circumstance.  We sat there for a while, but then common sense took over and we seeked shelter.  I told my friend he was lucky that my son was there because if not, we would have stayed all game in the rain.

We went back for a few minutes during player introductions, and my son looked so excited.  He was mostly staring up at the crowds, so I had to point him down towards the field.  He turned around just in time to see Sanchise running out.  And then Santonio Holmes after.  Timeout Boy had such a terrific wide-eyed look of awe and wonder.  It was totally worth it just for that.

We then sat around the sheltered part of the stadium.  We walked up and down some of the stairs, which Timeout Boy totally loved.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that the whole night, he would see the fans in their Jets jerseys and say, "Look, it's Jets."  And, "There's another Jets."

The wife was kind enough to offer that my friend and I watch while she stayed with Timeout Boy.  So I said yes.  But we only watched the first quarter before deciding to leave.  Here is my son enjoying his milk and goldfish as they waited for us:

It was kind of a short night, but it turned out fine because we ended up getting home just at his bedtime.  (Okay, it was about a half hour later than, but still).

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We Are Marshall

The medium is the message.  But for a few cents more you can supersize it.  Or something like that.  That's a quote by Marshall McLuhan, aka Big Mac, according to me.

I'm not realy sure what this means.  But remember when Jerry and George had this idea of creating a show about nothing?  They were asked why people would watch it, and they answered, "Because it's on TV."  So I guess that's kind of what it means.

I won't pretend to be an expert about it like this guy:



I am pretty much McClueless about Marshall McLuhan.

But anyway, to ramble on, I happen to be on Twitter.  And some of those tweets go on like this:

"I have 1000 followers.  Help me get to 2000."

"I'm coming up on tweet number 50,000."

And so on.

Um, so what was my point?  I don't know.  I just wanted to blog about something.

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Timeout Boy at Brooklyn Bridge

Here is video of us at the Brooklyn Bridge after we went to High Line Park:



We had planned on going all the way to Brooklyn and hanging out at DUMBO (Downtown Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass).  There's a park there under the bridge where we could have sat and relaxed and sang "Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Well, I totally didn't expect service changes on the MTA Subway.  I don't ride it that much, and I should have known better that it would be out of whack on the weekend.  So we spent a lot of time navigating, trying to find which line goes to which stop, and waiting and waiting for that next train, trying to stand far enough from the edge so the little boy doesn't run off and fall, yet close enough so other passengers don't cut us off.  And stuff like that.

And anyway, we had to go home and do laundry and other chores, so we just bought Italian ice and called it a day.  It cost $3 for the little cup you see in the video, by the way.  Also, you know those guys who stand there all day selling that stuff?  Well, they have to answer nature once in a while, and do you know where they go?  Yes, right there on the bridge.  But I didn't get that on video.

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Timeout Boy at the High Line

Have you heard about the High Line Park in New York City?  Basically, the city took an old elevated train track and converted it into public space.  It opened a couple of years ago.  I wanted to explore it last year, but we didn't get a chance.  Plus, Timeout Boy was just learning to walk, and I didn't want to push around a big baby cart stroller.

This year, we bought ourselves a lightweight umbrella stroller.  One Saturday morning, we took the PATH Train to 14th Street.  We stopped by Chelsea Bagels and had breakfast.  Then we walked west towards Gansevoort and walked up the stairs easily, since we were able to fold the stroller and carry it up.

It's a nice park.  Here is a video:


It was fun, but it was narrow so we couldn't just let the kid run around and bump into people.  At the other end on 30th Street, there are some food trucks and benches.  However, we decided to walk over to my office and utilize the facilities.  We then ordered from Shorty's and ate at the conference room. 
We then took the Subway downtown and walked over the Brooklyn Bridge before calling it a day.

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Timeout Boy at the Turtle Back Zoo

I used to hang out at West Orange all the time, and I never even realized there was a zoo there.  I only heard about Turtle Back Zoo a few months ago, and recently we decided to check it out.  We heard it was a great place for kids, and indeed it was.

It was kind of hard to find.  There's not a lot of signage pointing to the place.  Even when we got to the parking lot, we weren't sure which space to take because we didn't see right away where the main entrance was.  (We like to come early, and there weren't many cars yet.)

The playground was closed that day, but Timeout Boy still seemed to have a lot of fun.  He liked the carousel and the bear house.  He also liked the wolves, and we stayed to watch them for a long while.  The best part is the bird house, where they sell these feed sticks that the kids can use to feed the birds.  Here is a video:



There's also a train that goes by the lake.  The kids there seemed to enjoy it, but Timeout Boy fell asleep during the ride.  He hasn't had his nap all day, and after all that walking and running around all day, he was knocked out.

Afterwards, we drove around West Orange and Essex County.  My wife and her cousin were a little on edge because I didn't tell them I was planning on driving through South Mountain Reservation.  They were thinking of horror movie stuff and didn't want to go walking through the woods.  Well, I didn't force them to, because it was raining anyway.

And then I took them to Eagle Rock Reservation.  LOL.  I was hoping we could see the New York skyline from there but it was foggy.

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Timeout Boy

Well, I promised myself I wouldn't share personal videos on here, but since no one seems to actually read this blog anyway, I decided to post something that I've been watching over and over.  It keeps making me laugh.  Here is Rocky* one morning in April.  (*It's not his real name. I'm still not comfortable sharing it.)

For some reason, he came up with the idea of putting himself on timeout.  It was a totally random thing that he hasn't done since.  Check out his cute timeout face:

And then he does his little dance in the end.  LOL!

Oh, and by the way, in front of the oven is not his timeout spot.  We just happened to be having breakfast in the kitchen and that's where he did this.

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