What Went On in May

I didn’t realize how busy we were in May until I started going through photos to include in this post. Tanner is now six weeks old and I haven’t returned to planned workouts yet, because recovery has been longer and tougher than I expected. But, after checking out all the running around and adventures we’ve been on in May, I’m pretty sure I’m getting a little bit of a workout.

First up – someone can either award me mama of the year, or craziest woman alive, because when Fran got a last minute invitation to a hockey playoff game, I decided I’d still take Roman to the annual ‘Touch a Truck’ festival. Alone. With Tanner strapped to me.

I know.

It actually went much better than expected. We met some friends there, so I had help for a couple of the trucks (by the way, it’s basically a bunch of trucks and emergency vehicles parked with lines for the kids to get behind the wheel). And even when we got to the backhoe loader line, which was 45 minutes long, Roman was better behaved than I could have believed. Except for when he stole a muffin from the kid in front of us. Luckily the kid’s parents were nice about it!

My parents arrived May 6 from Australia, so it was a rare occasion that I spent Mother’s Day with my own mum, as well as my littles. Fran did a bagel brunch for us, we had a playground outing, and a family dinner out.

May weather brings the return of stoop time in Brooklyn! We spend a lot of weekend time on our stoop when the weather gets nice – alfresco dinners, stoop ice-cream and stoop beers and this year we’ve introduced stoop hockey! The boys love it.

It would have been a tiny bit of a stretch for me to run the Brooklyn Half this year, but I took Roman and Tanner to cheer on the runners. Check out my tips for being the best spectator at a race here.

We went with my parents to take the kids (so weird for me to write ‘the kids’ still – it hasn’t 100% sunk in that I have two children!) to the Prospect Park Zoo and Carousel. It was hard to tear Roman away from this part of the zoo, where he could climb into caves to become the zoo attraction. 🙂

And just look at the face of pure joy on that boy when the carousel started up. My heart exploded.

With gorgeous Spring weather, we took advantage of our lovely backyard (aka Prospect Park) and had a picnic Memorial Day weekend. Roman got so filthy playing in the dirt with his diggers that we had to strip him down in our entry way and put him in the tub immediately when we got home. Seriously – grass for miles and he beelines for the dirt patches.

These days heading into Manhattan is pretty rare for me, but I had my postpartum doctor’s appointment uptown and decided to take advantage of the trip to go with my parents to MoMA. We headed to the Art Lab afterwards, which is the children’s education area of the museum. Roman goes crazy in there – he loves it.

After I had Roman, I think I went out without him in the first two weeks. With Tanner, it took me six weeks to get out for a no-kids outing. I made it to book club and our hostesses with the mostesses cracked open some champagne to celebrate me and my friend Emma both having our babies. I had such a lovely evening with no-one needing anything from me except my opinion on the book and to let them know when my glass was empty. 🙂

I was planning on having coffee the morning after book club with my friend Emma and her new baby. I was all ready to head out the door when in walked my dear, dear friend Jenny, whom I haven’t seen in a year! She had texted Fran to let him know she would be in NYC and they organized her surprise visit to see me and meet Tanner – I was speechless. Jenny is one of my closest friends and I really miss her since she moved to CA a couple of years ago. It was weird being pregnant the second time without her around and while I texted her photos of Tanner on the regular, it’s not the same as being in person. While she was in town, we also managed a get-together with our mutual friend Elle and the three of us plus Tanner went out for a lovely girls afternoon.

I actually got out for a walk with Roman in the stroller and Tanner strapped to me, towards the end of the month. It felt good to walk faster than a basic stroll to the playground, but it really just made me simultaneously desperate to go for a run and be terrified for my first postpartum run. Soon!!

Fran and my dad took Roman to the Intrepid Museum on the Hudson River and he was apparently in heaven. He brought home the little map to show me all the cool stuff they got to see.

We also made a day trip to Coney Island with my parents. Somehow we convinced my dad to go on the Wonder Wheel. It was his first ever ferris wheel ride and he announced about halfway through that it would also be his last.

They have a great kiddie ride section of the amusement park and Roman had a ball on all the rides.

The only real bummer of the month was the loss of the NY Rangers to Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference Finals. They were thisclose to playing in the Stanley Cup Finals, only to have a devastating loss in a Game 7.

Tough to have to write this post…a great season that ended too soon. Thank you #NYR fans for supporting us through the ride.

A photo posted by New York Rangers (@nyrangers) on May 29, 2015 at 8:15pm PDT

It’s weird when you get emotionally invested in a team, how their wins and losses can really impact you. I was actually going to write a post about it, but I couldn’t quite put into words how I felt. Then I read this post by Joe Fortunato on the blog Blueshift Banter and he expressed it perfectly.

And in the midst of all the excitement this month, a certain someone started smiling. 🙂

Do you like the rides in amusement parks? I love roller coasters!

Has anyone ever made a surprise visit to see you?

Do you have a favorite sports team? How do you react when they lose?