Amalia’s Egg-straordinary Manhattan Adventure

Last week I was in Manhattan, where Spring is in full bloom (not like here in Massachusetts), and I got to tag along after granddaughter Amalia, 2 ½, to see how a preschooler who lives on the Upper East Side fills her days.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays she has yoga at a nearby store called Sprout, with teachers Rebecca and Samara.

It includes headstands, tree pose while balancing, and, her favorite-- kicking at bubbles.  There are stories and songs too.

We went to Central Park every day, stopping to admire the gardens in front of some brownstones.

In Central Park the daffodils and lots of other flowers were in bloom.

Some days the playground was crowded.  Amalia had new sand toys for building castles and hiding treasures.  She’s getting better at sharing.

Other days, especially in the late afternoon, we had the playground to ourselves.

We ate with Mommy at some of Amalia’s favorite restaurants, including Big Daddy’s Diner.

And had breakfast with Uncle Bob and Aunt Robin at Alice’s Teacup, featuring Amalia’s new favorite food—pancakes.

Everywhere we went we encountered giant eggs decorated by artists.  There are nearly 300 of them “hidden” around Manhattan and on April 22 they will be sold at a Grand Auction. The bids are already coming in—each egg starts at $500 and the egg by Jeff Koons (we didn’t see it) has already hit $360,000.  

The money will be used for art education for New York City’s children and to aid Asia’s endangered elephants.  And weekly prizes of jeweled egg pendants are being given away.  If you want to know more, check at thebigegghunt.org/auction.

When we went into the Metropolitan Museum on Friday afternoon, we found three more giant eggs.

We were coming for dinner at the Petrie Court Café, which Amalia likes because she can run around and look at things, but first she wanted to show me the Temple of Dendur in the Sackler Wing.

Especially her beloved alligator.

And she had to throw some pennies into the reflecting pool to make wishes.

Then we walked through the American Wing to get to the Café.

Amalia discovered that she could make a hat out of her napkin.

She had salmon and noodles and strawberry ice cream for dessert at the end of an exciting day, but sometimes, after her adventures, Amalia has to take a power nap on the way home.