Spring cleaning

Spring arrived in Manhattan this week. Surprise! Just last week I was emailing photos to my parents of "all-the-layers" that go onto my son before we can go to the park for 20 minutes. Diaper, singlet, onesie, thermals, woolens, snow suit, beanie, mittens, socks, socks, boots.

And then Monday came. The air was a warm 14 degrees. Tuesday it was a balmy 16! It was magnificent! Diaper, onesie, jeans, jumper, socks, boots. Noah could hardly believe his freedom of movement without all the layers on. No more michelin-man walking awkwardly around the playground. He could twist and turn and walk backwards and run and bend! Even better, we stayed at the park for close to an hour, 2 or 3 times a day. Noah and I actually worked up a sweat racing around the playground. He was exhausted and had lovely long naps and crashed out early at night!

I truly never thought I would be so excited about 14 degrees. My Grandma in Sydney laughed at me when I was telling her how warm it was - in Sydney autumn is creeping in and the temperature has fallen to a chilly 18 degrees. Jumpers are being pulled out of closets and people are wondering if it is too early to put the electric blankets on the beds. If it was 18 degrees here tomorrow, I would be taking Noah to the roof deck for a splash in his inflatable pool!

Everything is relative. That statement seems so much more evident now that I am living in NYC and my extended family are all Down Under in the hemispheric opposite climate.

It is quite spectacular to see and feel this drastic season change here on the east coast. After almost 3 years in southern California, I had almost forgotten how good spring feels. The season changes are so subtle in LA, the weather is always temperate and pleasant (one reason nearly all Los Angelenos note the weather as one of the best things about the city).

I have also realised that spring has a profound and irresistible effect on all of us. Spring cleaning, I have discovered is an innate reaction, a reflex, that is triggered by this climate shift. There is no other explanation for, why, on a Saturday afternoon, I had husband and baby packed into the storage closet organising and cleaning and sorting.

Spring is sprung.

Post Script: Of course it has also brought with it torrential rain for the past 2 days!

Photo: With all the extra movement afforded Noah without the michelin-man layers, he refuses to face forwards on the swings, preferring to watch all the passing trucks out on the road.

My city baby

It has really become clear over the last few months that I have a city baby on my hands. Living in the urban jungle that is Manhattan I guess this is hardly surprising. But I still get surprised that what I took for granted growing up, Noah finds novel. Or alternatively, what I found so fascinating and rare, Noah hardly looks twice at.

Take grass. On our recent trip home to Australia, I was ecstatic at the prospect of the warm Sydney summer sun, swimming in my parents pool with Noah and playing in the backyard. But Noah cried the first time I placed him on the grass, holding his little legs up at 45 degree angles whilst trying to balance in a sitting position. He continued to protest and adopt this pose every time I sat him on the grass thereafter. Meanwhile back in Manhattan, he likes nothing better than crawling around, bare-kneed, on the cement and rubber over the park. Gravel and sticks do not phase him, grazes and cuts hardly get a flinch from him - but a little grass Down Under and we have tears!

Noise tolerance is another great example. We are frequently out and about with Noah snoozing in his stroller, when we have fire-engines, police cars or ambulances scream past us (often several at a time). Noah never stirs. At home, we frequently have the same occurrence at all hours, and I pray every time that Noah won't wake up, he never does. His parents might be wide eyed at 2am, but Noah sleeps soundly undisturbed by the sirens screaming down the block.

His fascination with anything that moves, flies or crawls, may not be uniquely a city-baby phenomenon, but how wildlife deprived he is, is. His excitement at seeing a subway rat, is only trumped by seeing the mangy pigeons over the park. Noah points and squeals and tries desperately to run after the animal (or rodent) with pure delight in his eyes. Coming from a city that has more species of skinks in the average backyard than the whole of the United Kingdom, rodents never fascinated me in quite the same way - and I tried to save nearly every type of living animal in our backyard at one point or another. I can't wait for Noah to see cockatoos and kookaburras, possums and blue-tongue lizards. For now rats and pigeons will have to suffice.

Apartment Hunting - A full contact sport!

A friend recently said to me, "From what I hear, apartment hunting in NYC is a full contact sport". After viewing 40 apartments over the last four and a half weeks, we have finally signed a lease! And yes, it is a full contact sport!

And what a broad spectrum of potential abodes we saw. We looked in TriBeCa, the Financial District, NoLIta, the Lower East Side, the West Village, the East Village, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, the Flatiron District, and the Upper West Side.

We looked at the insanely tiny (this is New York after all), and apartments up 5 flights of stairs (which I couldn't be convinced to traverse each day with a baby under one arm and the stroller under the other - not to mention the groceries!).

There were one bedrooms (in which we were supposed to erect additional walls to create a second bedroom aka "cupboard" for the baby to sleep in - because he doesn't take up much room right?).

There was the apartment block I was denied entry to because "babies are not permited on building sites" - a fact which may make living there difficult since the baby is non negotiable.

We saw an "apartment" which was actually a sewing factory (and the fact that the dress Whoopi wore to the Oscars this year was made there will not make me want to live there more - no matter how often you repeat it).

There was the loft with the "6 foot" ceiling in the second bedroom (interesting that I could not stand up being that I am 6 foot and no I am not mistaken I am not 6 foot 2! And no it won't be perfect for the baby because his mother needs to be able to enter his room without risking concussion).

And there was the apartment Nathan didn't even let me see - retreating out shaking his head.

Then there were the brokers! Like used car salesmen but somehow worse. We met no fewer than 5 brokers and, with exception of Lior our final broker, all were useless. Sentences would start as follows:
"Now I know this is above your price range but..."
"This isn't a true 2 bedroom but..."
"This apartment does have some stairs but..."
"That air conditioning unit isn't the correct fit so it is packed in the space with bubble wrap. Not attractive but it works" (don't worry about the choking hazard not to mention risk of small child falling through the gap!)
"There is no washer/dryer but do you know you can send your laundry out to be done?"
"This apartment is a little small but..."

And the list goes on!

Then finally there was the Forward Building in Manhattan's Lower East Side. I literally heard angels begin to hum "Aaaahhhhh" as we entered.

• 24 hour doorman (tick)
• Elevator entry to apartment (tick)
• Washer & dryer (tick tick)
• 1,435 square feet (tick x 1,435 squared)
• 2 complete bedrooms (tick tick)
• View onto a park (tick)
• Children's playground in that park (tick)
• Lovely open kitchen (tick)
• 2 bathrooms & a tub (tick tick tick)
• Bike storage facilities (tick)
• Additional storage space (bonus)
• Roof deck (bonus)
• Built in very large flat screen tv (bonus)
• Famous land lord (cool)
• Famous neighbour (extra bonus and cool)!

Of course, one final note should be, that whislt we looked at a staggering 40 apartments in the flesh, hundreds more were perused and discounted online. All of which was completed on the 11 cm x 6 cm screen of my iPhone (being that our computer is in storage).

We may be left bruised and bloodied, and in need of new glasses, but we have a place to live. Isn't that what this contact sport is all about anyway!?