NYC

We had spent the last whole week in NYC with a baby in tow. 13 hours road trip with a baby between Kalamazoo and NYC was not bad at all, but tiring indeed.

Speaking from this experience, don't even think about carrying a baby to get around the city, especially ours is a super-wriggly one. Stroller is a godsend in this city. It's a challenge to find a bathroom with a baby changing station in the city. We learned it the hard way on the first day that a stream of pee came right out of Elle's soaked diaper onto me. Later on, we figured out changing her diaper inside the stroller simply gets the job done.

Subway is much more baby-friendly that we thought. When Elle was asleep, we just pushed her in the stroller into the subway. It allowed us to enjoy a 40 minutes peaceful ride when she was sleeping. She's a handful when she's awake. Her spunky energy just made our head ache and spin. Imagine we had to deal with her making screeching noise on the wall panel, uttering a bunch of gibberish, staring at people sitting on her sides, arm flapping, body twisting and touching people's hat and shirt during the long ride.

Elle was having a feast in the NYC. She pretty much ate everything we had, even though she has only two teeth. Surprisingly, she loves kangkung belacan. Regardless of our intention to give her the first bite to make her stay away from it, she kept wanting more and more.

It's funny to watch the way Elle behaved when Hin's brother and his roommates were around. She would sit still, stare at them, make little puppy's whining noise, and did not willing to eat when we fed her. The moment they turned around and left out of her sight, she'd lean forward to bite her food and then wriggled out of our arms and cruised around the couch. It's hilarious to see her freeze instantly when there are people came out again.

Co-sleeping with a baby with a terrible sleeping posture can be hurtful. We were awaken at least several times each night by a fistful punch, a kick, or a body thrown upon us. I wonder why she can't sleep like a normal person. Aside from being with a bad sleeper, the bed itself is another major reason that caused us sleeping restlessly. For the record, that bed is as hard as a rock. It's meant to be good for people with back pain. However, for normal people like us, it's a torture. It's ridiculously funny to see Elle's expression when she fell to the bed on her butt for the first time. Against all her expectation, the bed didn't bounce her back at all.

This is an eye-opening trip for Elle, surrounded with crowds, skyscrapers, traffics, and noises that she had never experienced before.

So long, NYC.