New York, New York!

I'm originally from NYC, well not Manhattan, but Queens. While I love visiting the city, that is the extent of it....I'm so glad my parents moved us out of there, and I have no desire to move back (although my brother did and has).

When we first got to the city we parked our car and headed out...we took Ave in FAO Schwartz for the first time...we managed to get out without a thing...which kind of made me sad (my first Christmas present was from FAO Schwartz). It's interesting how the employees work the store trying to get people to buy things...handing kids toys to play with.

One employee handed Ave a stuffed animal to play with and when Matt took it away after a couple of seconds she didn't make a peep...the employee commented to Matt how he knew what he was doing. We then took a picture with Ave and one of the toy soldiers out front, but she was kind of wary of the guy....which is unusual for her.

We were going with a very specific mission though: We were having pictures done in Central Park with Melissa (Rachel's sister, who did our pics in Boston in May). Melissa is great and I've so enjoyed having an online friendship with her over the past couple of years. I've always been blown away by her photography, as I am with Rachel's too.

We took the obligatory picture of me and Melissa, but I look absolutely terrible (and HUGE) next to her...hopefully her's is better. Here are some of the pictures that we took in Central Park.

Pictures started off great, then Ave had a meltdown. She was tired, cranky, cold, and just not wanting to sit still....if she was walking on her own she was quite content, but sit her down or hold her in your arms and WAAAAAAAH! Melissa got as many shots as she could. We weren't even out of Central Park Ave was sound asleep in her stroller.

After pictures we walked down to the American Girl Place where my second mission was. I was in my glory in that place! Matt and my SIL just kept looking at me like I was crazy! I loved my AG doll, still do. We got Felicity (my parents are buying her for Ave's 1st birthday since she's being retired) and I picked up a couple of outfits for her that I've always wanted. We also bought Kit for my cousin (from my parents) for her birthday and Christmas gift. I can't tell you how excited I was to walk out of that store with TWO HUGE bags filled with AG stuff.

I pulled everything out this morning and the quality is so much poorer than it was when they were owned by Pleasant Company. The clothes back then were made so well...now they're just cheap polyester outfits that aren't much to write home about. I also found out that the only part of the accessories I need to get for Felicity (since she no longer has the original dress) is the choker and her original dress. They changed the accessories to match the new dress, but left all but the hat and necklace the same. Sneaky!

We stopped at Ik.ea on the way home...we wanted to get new slipcovers for our couch (we have a white and black pattern, which between the dogs and Ave isn't conducive to cleanliness, and the sheets I cover the furniture with are constantly slipping off). We went with the Svanby Brown, but of course they didn't have the slipcover for our armchair, another store further south in Jersey did, but it was already 8pm and we still had a 2 hour drive home. MIL is going to Ike.a again, but I have to find out when...otherwise I have to pay the $25 shipping to my house (which is still cheaper than driving back to NJ and won't take me 5 hours to do).