New York City

This trip almost didn't happen. Asher had been sick on and off for about a month. The week before we were set to leave he went to the Pediatrician 3 times and one of those trips included a chest xray for pneumonia. Call us crazy but after drugs for an ear infection and nebulizer for his cough.....The first weekend of 2011 we traveled to NYC to see my cousins family and celebrate her daughters first birthday!

We planned the trip for a Saturday-Tuesday.

Eliza and Rich took the train up from DC and met us there.

Asher was a typical 19 month old on the plane. Not perfect, but not bad despite his recent sickness, cough and ear infection.

Of course he fell asleep 20 minutes before we landed. We sat on the plane with an asleep child until everyone had deplaned. Later we learned that this 30 minute cat nap WAS Asher's nap for the day. Ugh. We made it to our hotel, The Bentley which was located at 1st and 62nd on the Upper East side. It was nice, but small. Hello, we were in NYC. We set up shop at the hotel and attemped to put Asher down for a nap. He refused the pack n play so I put him in the bed. He fell asleep. During this time Philip ran out to pick up some food for us to eat for lunch. I later found out that he stopped and had a NY slice of pizza. Once Asher fell asleep in the bed (which by the way...he has NEVER slept in our bed or any bed for that matter other than his crib or pack n play). I decided for some IDIOT reason to attempt to do his nebulizer treatment while he was asleep. Parenting FAIL. horrible idea. My sleeping child woke up and nap time was OVER. Never happened. I was exhausted by this point and on the verge of tears.

Instead of having a meltdown we got ready and hit the NYC streets. We walked a few blocks towards Central Park and into a few department stores. We really only went into the stores because it was FREEZING cold and VERY windy. We were freezing.

Then it started snowing. Fun times! We eventually met up with Eliza and Rich at FAO Schwartz. Philip...I mean, Asher was in heaven, but the place was packed. We had to watch him like a hawk. We visited every section of the 4 story store.

They even had a Muppet workshop where you could build your own muppet. Asher was fascinated by the muppet's. As expected they were expensive so we decided not to partake in the fun, but we enjoyed watching those that were.

We adventured upstairs to THE BIG PIANO. This was the highlight of our trip to FAO. Uncle Rich is a pianist. Only one person could go on the piano with Asher so undoubtedly it was Uncle Rich. They had a grand ole time.

Asher was smiling from ear to ear the entire time we were at FAO. It's rare you can get a photo where he is smiling and looking in your direction.

He looks so grown up!

Towards the end of our adventure Asher found a fairly quiet area that had shelves of teddy bears. He decided to pull them down one by one and rolled around with them on the floor.

After FAO we took a cab to our cousins condo and joined them for a homemade dinner. Spencer and Asher played with his kitchen for a very long time. Spencer made us "shakes" and Asher attempted to assist.

My Aunt Doris and Cousin Robin, with Jordana in the background.

Although Jordana's birthday part was the following we date we gave her a cupcake to devour after dinner. She clearly LOVED it. Isnt she so cute??

She absolutely loved the sit a spin and Eliza helped her enjoy it even more. Even Asher tried to get in on the fun!

After our lasagna dinner we threw all the lil cousins into the tub. It was tight but tons of fun. They splashed, laughed and played.

We dried Asher's hair, packed up and bundled him up for our walk home. It was snowing but not too hard to walk the 3 blocks back. We arrived at the hotel and put Asher straight to bed, as it was LATE and way past bed time. We were beyond exhausted. Traveling with a 19 month old isnt easy like it used to be!

Sunday we got up and headed to Jordana's 1st Birthday Part at the New York Kids Club.

Long story but poor Uncle Rich got punched in the lip the night before by some jerk who opened his cab door, punched him and closed the door. Doesnt he look pitiful?

Have I mentioned I love my sissy. I miss her so much all of the time. It was such a special treat to be able to spend time with her during this trip even if it was short.

All of the kids "posing" for the group shot at the birthday party.

They played lots of games, jumped on the trampoline, caught bubbles, ran around the obstacle courses and ate pizza and cake. It was a really nice birthday party and everyone had a great time.

After the party we went home for a nap. Thankfully he napped and so did we. We were exhausted and slept the entire hour and 45 minutes he slept. We woke up having not had lunch and were starving. We decided to get out of the hotel room and journey around the city. We stopped at a small diner and had a quick bite to eat. We headed to 3rd Ave and Bloomingdales caught my eye. I HAD to go in. We ended up making some Asher purchases that were ridiculous deals. Like better than TJ Maxx deals. Polo, Splendid, Joe's etc. I heart Bloomie's! Yay!

The next stop was Dylan's Candy Shop. My friend Jen's sister Bari met up with us there for a quick visit before we headed to my cousins for dinner. We enjoyed so many treats...cupcakes and elaborate hot cocoa drinks.

Everything in Dylans is candy! The tables are filled with gum balls, the stairs are filled with gum balls. They have everything and anything that is candy you could imagine. The store is THREE STORIES TALL!

Asher had a love fest with Bari. She is a kid magnet.

He also made friends with this pink balloon. This balloon combined with Asher's static followed him everywhere. It was hilarious...as you can see it stuck to his head!

I love this photo because the sign clearly says Gum balls are for display only, Please do not touch. Hhahahahah Ops.

After Dylan's we went over to my cousins for a Chinese Diner. Nothing better than NYC Chinese food.

At this point I started freaking out. Charlotte was expecting a snow storm with in 8 hours and NYC was expecting a blizzard in the next 48 hours. We were supposed to stay until Tuesday. It was Sunday night and we had to make a decision. We called USairways and got them to move our flight up to Monday at 11 am. Sweet. We would make it home....or not. By the time we got back to our hotel the forecast for Charlotte looked even worse. In a panic I called back and moved our flight to 8 am the next morning. We cut our trip short 36 hours. It was sad, but worth not getting stuck in our minds. We packed up the room in the dark while Asher slept. We got up extra early the next morning, jumped in the cab, checked the flight status to find out that not only was our 8 am flight cancelled, but so was the 8:30. NOT A GOOD SIGN. We talked to my mother in law and she said everything was shut down and the snow had been coming down since midnight steadily. My stomach sunk. My worst fears were coming true. We decided to wait it out at the airport for a little bit. The 9:15 flight cancelled. We were booked on the 10:05 and everyone was up in the air as to whether it would take off. It was down to the very last minute and IT WAS A GO! YAY!!!!!! Home sweet home, here we come.

The first 30 minutes of the flight were awful. Philip and I wanted to crawl under our seats. Asher refused to suck on his lollipop or eat anything during take off . He was screaming bloody murder for 30 minutes. We had no idea what was wrong with him. He NEVER acts like that. Finally Philip suggested I rub his ears and he immediately calmed down and fell into a deep sleep. Hallelujah! He slept the entire plane ride and yet again we let everyone else deplane and were the last ones off. Thankfully it was not too hard to get our car out of the Long Term Parking lot and they didnt even charge us for parking due to the conditions!

The roads were bad. I wont lie. Even the major highway 485 was not plowed. The snow was coming down heavily. I cant believe they even let us land at the CLT airport after seeing the runways. But we were home Phew!

We enjoyed an extra day home together as a family to recover from the trip thanks to all of the snow. We needed it. We were so glad that we got to go to NYC to see our family, celebrate with my cousins and create some wonderful memories.