Stardate 61363.23 - Mother's Day Weekend

Loren turned 18-months old this week so Friday Cheryl stopped for cupcakes on the way home and we had a little mini-party for Loren with just the three of us. Loren liked the candle but didn't want to eat the cupcake so Cheryl and I were forced to finish her cupcake as well as our own. The sacrifices one makes as a parent! :-)

Since it was Mother's Day I also stopped at a bodega on the way home from work Friday and picked up some flowers and a card for Cheryl.

Saturday morning Loren was up early and so we started the day with a leisurely morning. Loren showed off her new trick of being able to climb up into the big chair on her own.


Then we got the car and went out to NJ to visit with her parents and I watched Loren while Cheryl, her Mom, and her Grandmother all went out to see this house with a different designer doing each room. Loren did a lot of riding this plastic yellow car up and down the driveway while they were gone.




We all converged on Cheryl's grandmother's condo at the beach before heading out to dinner, so we had to do a quick walk on the beach.




We then went out for dinner at Avenue, which was pretty good. Our two main complaints were that they were not ready to seat anyone for dinner at 5:30 PM (which is when our reservation was) so we had to wait around with a tired and unhappy Loren while they prepared to prepare to think about seating people. There were a lot of wait staff standing around doing nothing, but there were apparently only a couple of people who could actually get all the tables ready for the line of people waiting to be seated.

Our other complaint was that they kept taking the bread away. We like to eat bread with our meal - don't take it away with the appetizer plates! They brought us more when we asked for it, but they swept it away again before dessert. Especially with a 18-month old, having bread around for the entire meal is a good thing. For my dinner I got the Mussels and fries, a salad to start, and cream puffs for dessert - all part of their fixed price dinner. All were very good, but the main course was about half the number of Mussels I got on St. Martin for the same price. Also somewhat annoying was that their cocktails were at NYC prices - $12 for a cocktail in NJ?!? The cream puffs were quite fantastic, however, so I was able to forgive the rest.

Here Loren and I wait outside for everyone to leave the restaurant after dinner.


Sunday we ate breakfast at our favorite Sunday breakfast spot, Le Pain Quotidien. We got the bread basket for us and the large fruit salad for Loren. The praline topping is just the best!

We then took Loren over to the park behind our building to play for a little while. I then watched Loren at home while Cheryl went for a manicure/pedicure.

Now Loren and Cheryl are napping and we are thinking about a trip out to Central Park once they wake up.

NYC