Immunizations? Fuggedaboutit!

After several months of standing in lines, waiting for processing, wondering if we should have just shelled out the 6 G's Columbia wanted for health insurance, and watching Rhys turn 9 months old without having had his 6 month immunizations, Rhys was finally accepted to Medicaid. Hooray!

I thought it was a little weird when I learned that they just assign you to a doctor but I was so happy to finally have a pediatrician I called to make an appointment right away. But, as with every other gosh dang business in this city, the phone just rang, and rang, and rang. No message, no way to leave a message, just eternal ringing. Honestly- how New York can consider itself progressive and efficient I will never understand! After a few hours of this, I decided to look up the address- only to find the office is located just around the corner from us. So I bundled us up and strolled down there.

Posted inside the darkened office, and behind a locked security gate was a cute little sign that said "Office Hours: Monday-Friday 10 am to 5 pm." It was 2:30 pm on a Monday. I couldn't believe I'd waited 3 months to get a no-show pediatrician without voicemail.

So today on a whim I decide to give the phone number one more try- totally expecting to listen to a ringer on repeat again. To my surprise, it was answered on the first ring. Here's how the conversation went: (you'll have to add in Dr. Vitale's strong New York Jewish accent on your own- think Woody Allen mixed with Mel Brooks and make it really fast and really loud)

DR. VITALE: (so loudly I have to pull the receiver away from my ear) Hall-o?
ME: (rubbing my ear while recovering from the shock of someone answering) Umm...is this Dr. Vitale's office?
DR. VITALE: Yah- that's me. Whaddya want?
ME: I need to schedule an appointment for my son.
DR. VITALE: Why? He sick or somethin'?
ME: No, no. He just got approved for Medicaid and he...
DR. VITALE: Oh yah and they assigned you to me huh? Alright, here's whatcha gonna do. You bring him on a Friday or a Monday at 10 am and bring his shot record. You won't wait long, 'cause I'm outta here by twelve, see? So you can't wait longer than that. How old is he?
ME: 9 months.
DR. VITALE: A little guy, eh? Well that means we gotta have some blood. So you bring him on a Friday 'cause I've got a good girl in here on Fridays. Real good at gettin' blood from those little ones. Okay?
ME: (starting to stammer again) Um. Okay. Well, we just moved here recently and I haven't had a doctor until now so he hasn't had...
DR. VITALE: Just moved here huh? From where?
ME: Utah.
DR. VITALE: (with incredulity) Utah? You Mormon?
ME: Yes, I am...
DR. VITALE: Oh, well that's okay. We take care of Mormons here too. The doc who trained me was Mormon. Cheap guy, real cheap. He told me a lot of stuff about the Mormons. All that 10% stuff and what-not. Anyway that's good. Well, we'll see you soon okay. Let me give you my home number so you can call me after hours. (rattles off his number) This is my home number, and I'm married so I'm there all the time, you know what I mean? But don't call me too late unless it's an emergency 'cause I'm OLD, see? Alright, buh-bye now.
(hangs up before I can finish telling him Rhys is 3 months behind on his shots)

So. There's really no point to this story. I just wanted to write it down so I can laugh about it someday and so you can laugh at it right now. It's just another great example of what it's like to live in New York City.

What the heck happened to January?!

It's probably obvious from my serious blogging neglect over the past month that we were having way too much fun in Utah to spend time on the good ol' www. We seriously had a blast and we're so grateful to both our families for putting us up for such a long time and babysitting Rhys so frequently- it almost felt like a 2nd honeymoon! I don't have much time- so I'm just going to post a recap of some of the highlights:

* We went sledding with my family before Christmas. It was a blast! Rhys was in desperate need of a nap (this kid clings to his schedule with a vice grip!) so he wasn't too happy about being plopped down into cold wet white stuff for the first time... but he came around and went down the hill with us twice and loved it (even though you can't tell from these photos).

*Since Rhys goes down for the night around 7, we were able to frequently leave the monitor with and innocent bystander and take off for a date. It was heaven- I got to satisfy most of my food cravings, we saw all the movies we aren't willing to spend $13 bucks a ticket on in New York, we got to visit several good friends, went laser tagging, and most importantly, got to feel like just David and Heather again. Our first date of the vacation (also our first since last August) was dinner and a movie. We saw the new James Bond movie (lame-o but entertaining enough for date-starved us) and ate at Olive Garden- yum! During our amazing dinner, I literally felt layers of stress lifting off me- don't we look happy and relaxed?

*Christmas was awesome. It was so nice to be with our families. We got to see my friend Jeremy play Fred in A Christmas Carol a few days before Christmas. It was a beautiful production that made me tear up several times- it really captured the true Christmas spirit (something both David and I find more and more lacking with each passing year amidst all the Santa Claus shtuff--thanks again Jeremy!)

Rhys got to be baby Jesus (albeit a very rambunctious one) for my family's Christmas Eve nativity scene. Low lighting + wiggly baby = no good pictures to share of the momentous occasion :(

We also somehow ended up with quite a lot of awesome presents for all of us--even though we made everyone promise not to get us anything since we wouldn't have room to bring it back. It's going to be like Christmas all over again when the UPS shipments come!

* And of course, the best highlight of all was spending time with friends and family! It was REALLY hard to leave at the end but we're so glad we got the time we did!

I'm totally out of time now so I'll just post a bunch of pictures of Rhys getting smothered with love and attention from everyone and milking it for all it was worth:

Hodgepodge

Since David is burning the candle at both ends trying to get through finals- I'm here alone with my thoughts tonight. And since I'm doing my best to avoid doing the dishes, folding the laundry, and starting to pack for Utah I might as well send some of my random thoughts out into the universe.

First, I can't believe how fast my little boy is growing up. I know every parent says this but GEEZ! In the past two weeks he's gained 2 lbs, grown 2 teeth, gotten taller, started crawling for real, started pulling to a standing position, gotten a fat lip and a bruised shin from pulling to a standing position while I'm not looking, started to laugh at his own "jokes", outsmarted or outclimbed every attempt I've made at keeping him away from stuff like the radiators and the cat food, and doubled his food intake-DOUBLED!! Now I know why people are crazy enough to have a 2nd kid...you're so in love with how much cuter they keep getting and how proud you are of them for learning, but you also miss that itty bitty little ball of immobile baby so much you can hardly stand it!

Second, I'm really excited for our trip to Utah. In addition to satisfying all those food cravings I mentioned earlier, we've already got plans to go ice skating, laser tagging, sledding, and skiing. Did you know that ice skating at Rockefeller Center costs $30 bucks a pop! Bless Provo and its endless bargain date options!

Third- we met some really interesting people yesterday while waiting to have our temple recommend interviews with the stake president. The girl who sat next to me is here working as a costume designer for Law and Order. The girl next to her told us that she works for the United Nations and is married to Sierra Leone's biggest rock star, Daddy Saj who is seriously like Michael Jackson there (no kidding- look him up on google or wikipedia). So now they live in our stake, hang out with Wyclef Jean, and help the former President of Sierra Leone write his autobiography. The guy next to them was a dentist. Ever since we got home last night, I can't get the Sesame Street song "Who are the People in Your Neighborhood?" out of my head.

And finally, for a couple years now I've been decrying the Facebook phenomenon and refusing to have anything to do with it. Much to my chagrin, David set up an account a while ago which he mostly uses to keep in touch with his mission friends since they don't have a very good website running-although he's definitely gotten sucked in a lot more than he originally planned. Now I have a confession to make. Sometimes I sneak around in David's account and look people up when I'm bored. It's weird and I'm so ashamed. It's like a car wreck though. I can't help it. And then I can't help feeling a wee bit jealous that everybody else is on there being so witty in thwarting the infamous "is" status, and racking up 4 million friends. And then I start wondering how many friends I would have if I joined... And that's when I throw up in my mouth a little and come to my senses and realize why I must stand firm in my decision not to enroll in a virtual high school. At least not until I come up with enough witty statuses and artsy profile pictures to make me the most popular girl there...

But for now, I'll just stick to my blog and my hopes that my posts will get tons of comments so everyone will know that others love me and find me interesting, while I continue to feel sorry for all those Facebookers who need so much social validation =)

We'll be home for Christmas!

I just realized that we leave for Utah in less than 2 weeks and I don't think we've told everyone we're coming! We've been feeling a little homesick lately, so when we found out that David has a month long break before the next semester starts we decided we'd much rather spend it at home with family. So we'll be there from the 18th until January 15th. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

Here are the things I'm most excited about:

#1 Having a whole month to spend time with family and friends. I miss everyone like crazy and Rhys adores everybody there- he will be so happy to get smothered with love and attention! My mom and sister and I already have more things planned than we probably have time for!

#2 Enjoying all the holiday trimmings without having to worry about how to do it in this tiny little place on a tight budget.

#3 Seeing A Christmas Carol at the Hale. My wonderful friend Jeremy (who is playing Fred this year) hooked us up with tickets to see a matinee of the show a couple days before Christmas. Now, anyone who knows me well knows that I usually suffer from severe CTADD (community theater attention deficit disorder). But he talked us into seeing this show a few years ago, and I LOVED it! Plus, with Jeremy in the cast, I would rather see it than anything Broadway has to offer =) God bless him, everyone!

#4 Eating out as much as possible! We already have a running list of all the places we want to eat at...Have I mentioned that we've been sorely disappointed in the New York fare? We have NO fast food chains near us, only 2 places (pizza and subs) near enough and "cheap" enough to eat at if I don't feel like making dinner, and the ethnic food near us is TERRIBLE! We spent $40 to share two tiny Indian entrees and it was so gross I couldn't even finish it (Bombay House is now at the top of the "places to eat while in Utah" list). It's pretty lame- we were really looking forward to endless variety and awesome ethnic food here. Maybe it's more like that in Midtown or if we were willing to spend $60 bucks a pop at the trendy restaurants around here. But from what we've seen so far, the Cougareat has more selection and less chance of food poisoning than anything in the Upper West Side. So Bangkok Grill, Brick Oven, and Cafe Rio here I come!

The list goes on and on (both the reasons i'm excited list AND the places to eat list) but I'll stop there.

We hope to get a chance to see everyone while we're there- so let us know which restaurant you want to join us at and we'll make it a date!

Hooray for teeth!

Tonight I was feeling Rhys's gumline (don't ask me why, because I just realized I don't have an answer for that) and I felt something sharp! At first I freaked out thinking he'd put something horrible in his mouth and then I realized it was a tooth! YAY!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! It's too small to even get a picture of it to post with this but I couldn't go to bed without sharing the news!

I just remembered while typing this that last Thanksgiving Day was the first time David saw him move in my tummy. Now I'm all emotional dang it. This little boy has brought so much love and happiness into our lives. What an honor it is to watch him grow. We have a lot to be thankful for.

I know this picture has nothing to do with the post, but everyone enjoys posts more when they have pictures,especially of cute babies being harassed by floating hands...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Day at the Museum

Last Saturday, we decided to blow off chores and do something New York-ish. Since it was rainy and blustery we decided on the American Museum of Natural History (you might recognize it from such films as Night at the Museum). Another couple from our ward went with us, which ended up being a really good thing since they knew what they were doing. The place is enormous! And such a weirdly laid out maze that if they hadn't been with us, I think we might still be trying to find our way out of the Hall of North American Sea Birds!

Our favorite exhibit was the dinosaurs. They were displayed in gigantic halls with stark white walls and floors, pristine glass, and shiny metal accents. The juxtaposition between ancient and modern was really striking.



Another thing that stuck out to us was how different they made the place look for the movie. They cut together different parts of the museum to create a whole new interior. For example, the lobby in the movie is a combination of the 1st floor lobby, with the ceiling from the rotunda on the floor above it, and the desk from the subway entrance lobby in the basement. The Easter Island head is in a completely different, incredibly hard to get to spot, and of course the T-Rex is actually in the exhibit I just described above. So even though you still see a lot of the things they used in the movie, you don't really feel like you're in the same place which I think would have been a bummer if we hadn't already been told that in advance.


Rhys loved everything (as usual) except for when I took him to see a T-Rex jaw bone up close. When I leaned forward to let him touch the teeth, he acted terrified for the first time in his life. He wimpered and clung to me really tight. I gave him a second, showed him how fun it was for me to touch them, and then tried again. This time he burst into tears and started shaking and heaving and twisted around to bury his face in my shoulder! I was so surprised I didn't know how to react. This kid has never shown fear about ANY new experience. I took him away and got him calmed down, then David took him back again and he seemed ok and eventually reached out and touched it. We're still not sure what caused it. It wasn't bigger than him, and it wasn't even attached to a head or body. It was only the lower right half of the jaw mounted on a wall, so there wasn't even any context he could have picked up on (even if he was usually afraid of big things, or animals, or whatever-which he isn't). The only thing I can think of is that he's starting to get a little clingy with me lately, and it was really crowded in there, so maybe he felt like I was going to pass him off to a stranger or something? Anyway, he got over it, and so did I and everything else went really smoothly.

We only saw about 1/10 of the exhibits, but we hit all the main ones. Since we went near the end of the day with little kids, we were pretty glad we knew the New York insider tip about the "suggested donation" fee. Most of the museums here are completely funded by the state. However, they still ask for an exorbitant suggested donation, which they pass off to unwitting tourists as an admission fee. So if you don't know any better, they'll just ring you up at the ticket counter for $15-20 bucks/person. In actuality, you can pay whatever you want and most New Yorkers go with $1/person. We had to laugh when we looked at our receipt which actually showed a $30 charge minus a $28 discount.

Anyway, it was really fun and we're glad we postponed those piles of laundry and dishes!

Help! I need some "Mommy Advice"!

I need some help from all you experienced parents. Rhys just out-grew his bouncy chair. This morning he flipped his top half over the edge and got stuck dangling head down, with his lower half still strapped in. He wasn't super upset since he loves hanging upside down, but he didn't like the feeling of being stuck there. He just recently started sitting up on his own, so I guess this is the trade off!? Thankfully I was right next to him with my back turned, so I heard him do it. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if I'd been in the next room, or distracted or something! I swear, if one more person tells me they get easier as they get older I'm going to freak out.

My problem now is this: putting him in the bouncy chair in the morning is the only way I can keep him entertained, in sight, and immobile while I shower and get ready. He doesn't like being left in his play yard since it's also his bed (he feels like he's being made to take a nap when he's not tired). So what do I do? I've already thought about getting a walker with wheels that lock, but I'm wondering if any of you have found other solutions... please share any tid-bits of wisdom you have!