Living in denial...the day before surgery

February 18th 2010
It was a brisk and blustery day in Manhattan but this trio from Upstate had big plans.....to put all worries aside and have an enjoyable, memory-filled day in the City.
With our city guide in hand and a fear of attempting a cab ride, we walked from RMDH to Central Park. 

This picture looks like William thought we were out of our minds for these plans (or maybe he felt silly being in NYC with socks on his hands as mittens)!

The Park was picturesque, serene...

 

except William missed much of the sightseeing.  After falling asleep on the ride, we devised a clever stroller cover with his beautifully handmade blanket and a couple toy links.

From Central Park, we ventured down 5th Avenue in search of lunch.  What our guide book failed to mention was that this very swanky area of NYC does not have toddler-friendly (or even "average-Joe welcoming" restaurants).  And so, we walked.... and walked in search of something....

We considering attempting street food, but William's expression made it clear he was not in favor of that idea.....he needed a full lunch feeding for himself.

After seeing a golden sign for "Trump Ice Cream Parlor" we figured we could have ice cream for lunch if it turned out to be the only thing we could afford at Trump Towers. 

We ended up enjoying a wonderful lunch at The Atrium in Trump Towers, surrounded by posh and classy-dressed professionals.  The location was perfect...we had a place to change William's diaper, I could nurse him and our pale, bald William was content his pajamas.  He even thoroughly enjoyed some green beans!

William had his first trip to FAO Schwarz!

~ lots of smiles ~

By the time we finished at the toy store, the reality that surgery was approaching in just a few more hours started to set in...big time.  I felt like I could have sprinted back to Ronald.  Let me tell you, we made it back much faster than the walk to 5th Ave!

We gave William a nice bath....he just played and played!

 

Our night of fasting from midnight on was what we expected - sleepless! Grammy had taken the first shift.  William was content snuggling with her in his swaddler. 

Fortunately, Daddy and Poppie's train arrived on time so Poppie took over William-entertainment from 1:45am until 5am (when Poppie had to be relieved to shower and get ready). William slept only 20 minutes on Poppie's shift but was kept generally content walking the halls of Ronald. We kept him out of sight of Mama the entire time until we were all ready to walk to the hospital.

We left for the hospital at 5:45am, but by then, our little trooper was getting h-u-n-g-r-y and definitely over-tired.