1st hoilbobs aboard with J

This month marked our 1st hoilbobs aboard with J. As you can imagine this sent me into a bit of a tis!

What was I going to pack?
Well as always my packing was easy enough bar the ever changing weather. For J I decided to take 1 outfit for each day plus a few extra bits and also a sleepsuit a night and again a few spares. In reality I took too many clothes.

What about feeding J?
After a conversation with hubby I decided that I would only take 5 evening meals for J with a few spares plus some fruit purée and some biscuits. For his lunch and breakfasts I decided that I would just give him what ever we were going to have. We ended up having a slight nightmare and had to buy some baby food over there, thankfully the local connivence store stocked Ella Kitchen pouches.

How was I going to cope on the plane with him?
I'm very lucky I've been traveling on planes since I was young but nothing prepares you of doing it your self, I take my hat off to anyone that has ever done it by them selves. We had managed to book bulk head seats which meant extra leg room. I have to say definitely allow extra time when travelling with little ones.

We had slightly problems checking in at the airport, most airlines want you to check in online but I had to be checked in at the desk due to J being down as baby in arms. Once checked in it was quite easy to go through security, they allowed us to go though quicker due to J and I was also allowed to keep a bottle of water for his bottles. As normal any liquids had to be in a see through bag. I wasn't made to taste the water or powder, the only thing that was double checked was the calpol, lucky it was a brand new bottle so the seal was still in tack, next time I would just buy it though in departures. Gate check in was fine, we were allowed to take the buggy right to the gate. On the plane as I said before we had booked the comfort bulk head seats which meant we had more leg room, one failing was that the seats we had actually booked didn't have the fittings for the sky cot but the stewardess offered to try and move us to the other bulk heads seats with the fixtures but to be honest as we had a day flight I wasn't too bothered as I knew J wouldn't really sleep. 

I had ordered a meal for him for the flight, this turned out to be a cow and gate jar's that was cold, my advice take your own/buy it at departures. I ended up just giving him bits.  We managed to just about keep J occupied for the 7 hour flight. I did take me 5 hours to watch saving Mr Banks!

On arrival into New York we collected our buggy just as we got of the flight. We had no problems though security or with the taxi journey into Manhattan.

We stayed at the Hilton Garden inn by Time Square which was a good central location. We had a huge room on the top floor and had requested a cot for J. Not the nicest thing I'd ever seen more like a hospital cot.

I will differently be taking our travel cot in future. The 1st night we ended up just having a little walk around then had dinner at Hard Rock.

Our 1st main day we walked down to the financial district and ground zero. The last time we visited New York ground zero it was all boarded up still, where as this time the memory pools were open. It was a strange feeling visiting them and left me feeling weird for quite a while after.

After that we went to the imagination playground so J could have a crawl about. I did like the playground just think J was probably a little too young to really enjoy it. 

After this we started the long walk back to the hotel giving up about 1/2 way back and ended up getting a taxi. What I forgot to say was that we hadn't bothered taking our car seat with us just instead we just held J on our laps not ideal but as we only used a cab 3 times it was fine. That night we eat in a little Italian called Serefina near Central Park, highly recommend it

Day 2 ended up being the best day of the whole trip, for breakfast we went to the star dust Dinner, just think of the dinner that Rachel from Glee works in! J seemed to really enjoy it too! He also had his 1st taste of pancakes

 

We decided that as the weather was nice we were going to spend the day in Central Park, we had a nice walk around and a nice chill out too. It was nice to be able to let J have a crawl about the grass. It was nice we were able to enjoy the park more than the last time we were there.

After a bit of a disaster trying to find somewhere to have dinner  (long story or should I say a long walk later) we ended up at a restaurant round the corner from our hotel the E&E Grill who did a fantastic steak.

Day 3 was the USA's mothers day, and it was the 1st clear morning so we decided to head up the Empire State building along with loads of others, again J helped somewhat to jump the queues.

We then decided to bend back downtown to a soft play so J could have a proper crawl around. 

One thing I would say is that New York is probably not the best place to take a 10 month old child. That night due to being so tired we just eat in the restaurant under our hotel which was actually quite nice. After this J & I went to bed while Hubby and MIL went down to the Staten Island Ferry.

Our last day we did a spot of shopping before visiting the cake Boss's cake shop by the bus station. Then finally having dinner in a greek.

Overall I had a lovely holiday, bar the fact J was teething. Would I go back to New York? Not in a hurry I've been twice now and I have other places I want to visit.