…And we’re back. Doesn’t it always feel so good to get home after a vacation? We enjoyed every minute of being away but still, you just can’t beat the rush of driving over the bridge into Maine. Not to mention sleeping in our own bed.
As far as my worries of travelling with Dash? Completely unfounded. Aside from the car ride (more on that below) he was the best little traveller ever there was. We packed single servings of applesauce and frozen cubes of sweet potato in a dorky canvas cooler (does everyone get at least one of these courtesy of their workplace? is it law or something?) and lugged it around with us while we hopped between friend’s houses. Since he mainly eats just twice a day (like a pet!) we didn’t have to carry any of it with us during the day. Just a bag of Cheerio-like cereal to fend off the hunger cranks (works for both mom and baby).
Dash LOVED the city. Loved it. He seems to really like meeting new people, seeing new things, and is apparently just fine with sleeping in strange beds. This will come in handy in his early 20’s. He charmed nearly everyone he met (typical), even on the subway. We loved watching people who were all caught up in their days, stressed over work, relationships, whatever, see Dash and give him these huge smiles. There were a couple moments where I was all caught up with something (probably praying we had just gotten on the right train and weren’t going to have to get off at the next stop to hop on one going in the opposite direction, because yes, that did happen) and wasn’t paying attention, when I’d realized people were smiling all around me. It’s kind of awesome (in the true sense of the word) to realize they’re all looking at Dash. It’s called charisma, and this kid’s got it. Very cool to see in action.
I was going to write out the details of our days—what we did, where we ate, what we bought—but then I realized it’s kind of boring. We walked around the city, visited with friends we rarely see, ate delicious food, bought pretty dresses for me. That’s it in a nutshell. What i’d rather say is that I learned two very important lessons on this trip.
One. Though I was pretty focused on taking Neil to Brooklyn to show him where I lived and breathed back before he knew me, I decided to skip that trip entirely. I realized that it was really more of a nostalgia tour for myself and that I really didn’t need it. Once I let go of the idea, I relaxed more into the trip and enjoyed our days of somewhat aimless roaming. All in all, I think we enjoyed that much more than we would have had I made us spend an entire day in Brooklyn while I narrated, “I ate lunch there once,” or “I know Smiling Pizza looks like an innocent pizza place but really they just want to smile and oggle your breasts.” By spending our days covering more territory than just Brooklyn, I was able to narrate like this: “that’s where Steve Buscemi stared at Jes’s ankles like he wanted to eat them,” and “that’s where Aaron and I saw the dead guy.” Much more interesting material.
Two. Dash likes Cheerios. A lot. And when he wakes up crying three hours into the car ride, if I move to the backseat and feed him 43 Cheerios one by one, he stops crying. Good to know.
