Another glorious sunny day in New York City.  We have had amazing weather during our visit!!!  This morning Avi woke early AGAIN, and then Zoe woke just as Avi went down for a nap AGAIN….seems to be the big apple routine.  So we played while he slept and got ready for the day.  On the agenda:  a BIG SURPRISE from Uncle Tyler.  He whispered to Zoe what it was (a huge candy store) and she didn’t want me to come along!!  She wanted to go just with him.  Obviously she likes Uncle Tyler and thinks I’d cramp her chances for mondo candy.  We agreed that Avi and I could wait outside, “whatever place you might be going to”.  Well, she was all excited to get on the subway and go and behaved super well enroute.  When we popped up onto the surface, there it was on the corner!!  Dylan’s Candy Bar!  She and Tyler went in.  I paparazzied a few pics and got myself something when they disappeared downstairs.  Tyler said she knew exactly what she wanted – a giant lollipop and jelly beans.  Well, she got just that!  Plus a few chocolate pretzels and a choco mouse.  And she picked out a sugar cube lolly for me – so sweet of her.  I met her and Tyler outside of the store where she was already digging in.

We went back underground for a fiasco of a subway ride out to Brooklyn.  This is subway construction weekend, I guess, and unfortunately the ones we wanted were rerouted.  Tyler figured out where to go and it took us a while but we made it.  Sometimes you just go with the flow.  Of course, the many subway trains and transfers lulled the kids to sleep. This time, though, Zoe was out of the stroller.  Tyler decided to be a good Uncle and carry her.  It looked like a scene from a movie; like he should be yelling, “get me a doctor”  while running down the streets of brooklyn.  She sleeps so soundly that the heat, the noise, the rough handling didn’t bug her.  Eventually, her weight bugged Tyler. So, we switched Avi to the Snugli and plopped Zuzz in the stroller for the remainder of the walk to the Brooklyn Childrens Museum!  It’s a giant yellow cube and both kids woke just in time to walk through the door.

This place is great!  We basically followed Zoe around where she wanted to explore.  First stop: the interactive play area.  She played with Tyler in the sand, made noise on the loud musical instruments, found another little girl friend, messed around in the dress-ups, and had a grand old time.  Avi absolutely LOVED the sand.  He loves to squish it and feel it and seemed enthralled with watching the other kids play, too.  When he started eating it I moved him over to the baby play area where he could crawl up and around all these padded blocks.  He laughed at himself in the mirror and found a ball to through for himself.  Our next stop was down the ramp to the nature area – we learned about streams, and beaches, and snakes, and other animals.  The kids played for a long time in the little play stream.  Zoe colored, Avi crawled around to look in the low fish tanks and stared for a long while at the tarantula.  The next station was out in the garden where Tyler took Zoe around with the watering can to water plants and explore.  Avi mostly wanted to launch himself into the pond.  After that we headed back in for an animal encounter!  Zoe stayed with Tyler in the theater for a chance to touch and learn about snakes.  I think she had a blast hanging out with Tyler.  Avi and I went to the mini-Brooklyn area where he played in the grocery store until Zoe and Tyler joined us.  This little grocery was a big hit with both of them..we also checked out a Chinese bookstore, an African textiles store, and a Brazilian travel agency before Zoe parked us at a table outside of the pizza shop.  She made us a few pizza’s and served al fresco.  This part of the museum was just genius:  small replica’s of real stores in Brooklyn where kids could pretend to be shopping and doing.  It was great, but it was also closing time.

Our last adventure for the day was an awesome Korean restaurant Tyler had been too!  The food and atmosphere were awesome.  They were so kid friendly, too, just like in the real Korea.  In fact, another lady came over and played with Avi for a long while so Tyler and Zoe and I could cook our food.  It was like in Korea where you cook your own meet on the griddle in the center of the table.  After a bit another little kid kept coming over to play with Zoe, feed Zoe her rice, and show her the lobster tank.  Well, Jaden was such a cute guy we let Zoe go play with him and his fam for a while.  His mom traded us Avi for Zoe and was so happy to have a friend for Jaden to hang out with.  She even got them both some ice cream!  This gave Tyler and I time to feed Avi, chat like grown-ups, and polish off a bottle of Soju.  Needless to say we had a great time and even exchanged numbers with this other fam.  It was a blast off, to use Zoe’s term, with hugs at goodbye time.  Made me miss Korea.

Tonight, as all the others, Zoe wanted big hugs and kisses from Uncle Tyler before bed and got to watch some Shaun the Sheep with him, too.  It’s been such fun to be here.