Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 6

While being a mom in NYC is not for the weak, there are certainly some up sides. NYC has some fantastic parks that are free for everyone. (There are also free public pools, but we went once. It was horribly, awfully, sickeningly crowded, like taking a bath with 200 strangers. Never again.)

In an effort to focus on the positive aspects of raising a family here, let's talk about one of awesome parks that we visited over the summer!

First, Pier 6, part of Brooklyn Bridge Park. 30 minutes away, but it's beautiful and has a fantastic view of the city skyline.

Someone spent a good deal of effort in landscaping. You walk through along a path lined with bushes, and on either side, you see little bush-lined pockets of open space that have swings in them. Each pocket has only a few swings, so you can find a covert little area of your own to enjoy the swings. Most of them are the typical infant swings or big kid swings, but in a larger bush-lined pocket, they have these rope swings.

In another area is the "Water Lab," which is a sprinkler miniature water park, great for toddler and pre-school-aged kiddos.

Sadly, we did not have Cora's swimsuit with us, and she was fairly tuckered out from all the swinging anyway. Next summer, though, we will certainly make time for the Water Lab. Heck, even I want to play at the Water Lab.

(Note: The Water Lab closed for the season after Labor Day.)

School for two-year-olds?

I remember one of my first conversations with a NYC mom. We were living in New Jersey at the time and church-hopping. (Well, we are still church hopping, but that's another post.) Hoboken had zero thriving churches, so we started going to Trinity Wall Street Church in downtown Manhattan. Some of the first people we met there was a mom and her three-year-old daughter, and one of the first questions the mom asked was, "Have you thought about preschools? Trinity has a great preschool! You should go ahead and put your daughter (Cora then only one year old) on the waiting list, just in case." I tried to discreetly get the message across that I was a stay-at-home mom with no job prospects and that $20,000 just wasn't in the budget for a two-or-three-year-old's preschool tuition. Apparently I wasn't straightforward enough with that message because every single time after that, this mom would always ask us if we had put our daughter on the waiting list yet.

Truly, this was very sweet of her because Trinity does have an amazing preschool, and it's incredibly tough to get in. And, as with all networking, if your kid went to the prestigious Trinity preschool, they have a leg up on their kindergarten applications to other elite private schools.

But this hyper-pressure to put kids into school as early as possible seems to be pervasive here. Some parents want, like the above scenario, their kids to get their foot in the door of a top-notch private school. Some want to socialize their children into spending more time with friends, away from home, in a structured learning environment. Some parents want their kids to be in a foreign language preschool, so they begin learning a second language. Some parents just want a daycare option that is more "learning-oriented" (although I doubt preschool and daycare are really that different).

We did decide to put Cora into a Spanish immersion preschool. She is two-and-a-half. This still blows my mind a bit. The simple Texas girl from the 1980s in me says this is ridiculous. Back in my day, kids started kindergarten at age five. Now we're starting kids in pre-pre-k at two?! But, you know, my kid loves it, and from 9am to 12pm, I only have to deal with the baby and getting a little class prep done. I do justify the expense because toddlers are capable of picking up a foreign language. Also, we don't really have many friends here yet, so maybe we'll make friends.

But is this a NYC thing, or is it happening in other parts of the country? Are there other cities and states where two-and-three-year-old "preschools" are becoming more and more normal? Is it because of working moms or wealthier families? If I have any readers out there who can provide me some insight, I'd appreciate a comment. For the moment, I'd better go order my two-year-old's school supplies from amazon.com (because that's how we roll in Brooklyn, order everything online).

Apartment Tour

I am always curious about peoples' homes, so it's only fair that I show you mine. We live smack in the middle of busy Brooklyn, in a three-bedroom apartment. The front rooms (dining and living) face the street, with constant traffic noise. I love the colors we chose for these rooms, though.

Yes, the dining room desperately needs a large picture/mirror, but I have a mild phobia of hanging things.

The bookshelf to the left of the keyboard holds Chad's monitor and work supplies, for when he works from home.

The library/office/guest room is connected to the living room and is my sanctuary. I can work on my laptop or read while Cora watches a movie. Yes, I'll admit it, my kid watches movies on a regular basis.

The middle bedrooms (Ewan's and Cora's) have no real windows, just small slits of windows that open into a "light shaft," which is like a really big column of space between buildings, just to allow light and a bit of air. Ewan's room was my craft room/the guest room - and will be again when he can move into Cora's room - that's why the changing table has markers and colored pencils dangling above it and bins piled up on a cart beside it.

Cora's room is the biggest in the apartment because she will share it with Ewan and because the grandparents dote on her through donations of toys and books. I think I'll do a separate post about how I fit all of the kid/baby gear in our small apartment.

The back rooms (kitchen and master) overlook a beautiful backyard and are actually very peaceful. The white-painted tin ceiling, offset by the green ivy on the windows, is my favorite thing to see in the morning.

Let's be honest, the sink and counter are usually piled high with dirty dishes.

Oh, yes, and our teeny bathroom! Two bathroom apartments are pretty rare in this area, so most people squeeze into one small bathroom.

And that's our Brooklyn apartment! I hope you enjoyed the tour. :)