Darling I love you, but give me Park Avenue

In October, we took a trip to New York City. To say I was worried about doing the drive and trekking around the city with a 4 month old would have been an understatement. As it turns out, Zoe is way more adaptable than her parents.

Friday night we got to our friend's apartment about an hour before Zoe's normal bedtime. After I put Zoe down for bed, I made the following phone call...

"Mom, this is going to be a disaster."

We were staying in a first floor, street side apartment that was nosier than I thought was even possible. As Yannos liked to say, the upstairs neighbors were teaching salsa lessons. You could hear every word from conversations of people walking by the window. Car alarms, sirens, and blaring music are normal 3am occurrences.

At home, Zoe seemed to be a light sleeper. If I walked into her room to get something, I was greeted with bright wide open eyes (usually followed by a scream). We've taken to being pretty quiet after her bed time. Wanna know how she slept in the city? All.night.long. No fussing, no problems. 7:30pm to 8:30am. Meanwhile, Yannos and I lay there most of the night not being able to sleep. I think we have a city girl on our hands. In fact, the first night back at our house, she woke up 4 times in the first hour after we put her to bed. These DC suburbs are just too quiet for her liking. The whole situation reminded me of Green Acres!

She sure knows how to work a crowd too. A screaming baby on the subway does not make many friends. But a baby who smiles at you for 20 minutes, melts your heart, and then starts screaming can pretty much get away with anything. Zoe made friends with a young Italian couple, a French family, a large group of tourists, a 12 year old boy, and even some locals...pretty much anyone who looked at her. Here is how she operates.

 

She takes any mood into her Zoe factory and turns it into an instant smile. Sad? Angry? Disgruntled? Agitated? Not with that face smiling your head off. She turns everything into rainbows. Here's the song that reminds me of. I cannot even count the number of people who stopped in their tracks to smile and interact with her. Which is a little strange for me while I just awkwardly stand there as they coo and play with her. I feel like I've done my part in the world by giving it the gift of Zoe Adele.