We're finally catching up this weekend on all of those little things after being away for the last three plus weekends (ok, technically we returned on New Years weekend but most of that time was spent taking down Christmas decorations). We are now really, officially, back in our routine and it feels good. It's too early to call it spring cleaning so we'll just say that in the spirit of a new year I'm making a mental list of all those things around the house that don't get attention very often such as baseboards, window sills, and bottom cabinets. I've been so busy this week that I haven't even looked at the pictures I took last weekend. Hopefully by the time I finish this post at some point tomorrow I will so I can include a few of them.
Seeing the city from the perspective of a four year old sheds a new light on things. It was all new to her, all amazing and everything needed to be touched (thank God she was wearing mittens), checked out (where do those grates in the sidewalk go?) and explored. The subway was always just the subway to me, nothing to terribly exciting, kind of smelly and dirty actually but to Katherine it was an adventure on the "underground train". She even met a police dog named Taylor at Grand Central Terminal on Sunday morning and got his card. And the rat running along those tracks?...WOW!

Of course, those little legs can't go very far, especially in the cold, so we did limit our journeys. The American Girl store took up most of Saturday, as planned, but she also dined while watching the skaters at Rockefeller Center with the highlight being the Zamboni whipping around the rink. Saturday night was dinner at Aunt Colleen and Uncle Sven's in which she promptly fell sound asleep on the couch as soon as she finished eating her spaghetti. Doll shopping is hard work. She was a trooper at what turned out to be one very long baptism, so much so that we took her back to the American Girl Store Sunday afternoon to pick out another outfit for Julie.
It will probably be a few years before we do any kind of full fledged visit to NYC to hit all of the tourist attractions. I think from now until then she'll be content with periodic surprises from the American Girl Store and short visits to Aunt Colleen and Uncle Sven from time to time.