Yesterday morning Monkey awoke to a brightly wrapped package on her bed. She opened it to find a lovely blue dress inside, picked out especially for her to wear on our date to the ballet.

When she saw it, she looked up at me, batted those baby blues, and exclaimed “Mom! It’s perfect! Thank you!” Excitedly she donned the gown and we began preparations for our trip into The City for George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker“. (Those preparations included spinning like a ballerina.)

It was the first time either of us had been to see the New York City Ballet and we were both very excited. I have wanted to take Monkey to the ballet for a long time now, but waited for her to get old enough to appreciate it. She certainly did.

We got all dressed up, snapped a few pictures together with the fancy camera (which was not coming to NYC with us so I wouldn’t have to keep track of it), and began our adventure.

We drove off to the train to NYC anticipating sugar plum fairies and hours of time just the two of us. We played game after game of I Spy on the ride into the big apple. Our train was delayed a few times by a broken train before it, but we managed to get into Penn Station with an hour left before our show. Sadly this meant we had to discard our pre-ballet lunch plans in favor of timely arrival at Lincoln Center, but Monkey was too excited to care. We dashed up the stairs to 8th ave, stuck our fancy hands in the air, and hailed a bright yellow cab. She cuddled up to me in the back seat as we rushed twenty blocks to our destination. We pointed out pretty Holiday displays to each other while we rode. When we arrived we oohed and aahed over the big Christmas tree out front and snapped a few pictures.

Monkey in front of Lincoln Center:

Mommy and Monkey in front of Lincoln Center:

Mommy in front of Lincoln Center (Taken by budding photographer Monkey):

We got to Lincoln Center 45 minutes before curtain, which left us with enough time to grab milk and cookies at the Starbucks on the corner and have a little snack by the fountain before the ballet began. Monkey really enjoyed sitting by the water and watching all the people go by. She kept pointing out little girls in red coats.

Once we finished our snack we headed inside to the gilded theater and marvelled at the lovely lighting, Marble floors, and towering balconies. Sadly, they didn’t allow any photos inside the theater, even when the performance wasn’t going on, so we will not be able to share the interior of the event.

During intermission we took a picture with a snowflake, which we will add to a scrapbook page, along with our playbill and ticket stubs. Monkey and I both really enjoyed the ballet. Afterwards we walked for a while, grabbed a pizza at a little diner, then spent 45 minutes looking for a cab that would take us down to Penn Station. Every cab we caught was heading uptown until a we finally caught one a few blocks from Times Square. We looked at all the bright city lights while weaving in and out of traffic and I promised to take Monkey back to see the Hersey’s store another time. Once we were safely on the train back home we whiled the time away by talking about the things she did when she was a baby and cuddling.

All in all, it was the best christmas gift I could imagine having.

I have determined that motherhood and marriage have brought me the gift of a few new superpowers. Having a baby had already granted me super sensitive hearing, allowing me the ability to hear Otter cry from many rooms away, hear Monkey say forbidden words under her breath, and hear Lee mutter distractedly while facing his computer. This hearing has enabled me to respond more efficiently to my family’s needs.

Apparently I now possess the ability to speak in a tone that can only be heard by dogs. I haven’t figured out what this special speaking power will grant me, but I am sure it will prove useful in some way beyond calling the dogs to me for animal cracker disbursement.

This power almost guarantees that no one but my mother will laugh at my jokes or hear my tragic parenting anecdotes. I believe she also received these super powers with her marriage and motherhood, and is therefore able to hear me with her super sensitive hearing, even though I am only able to speak at Dog Ear Pitch (DEP). Additionally, I am having to yell at Monkey to get her to listen to me, and raise my voice in order to impart information to Lee.

These downsides do leave me feeling awfully left out of things, as I can’t ever really share moments with my family as they happen. Anytime I try to point something out to someone, I usually have to repeat myself so many times that the moment has passed by the time they hear me.

As an upside, I am once again reminded of the importance of my mother, and her willingness to play straight man to my one person comedy act. I am not sure I could make it through all this if I didn’t have her to laugh with me, and I am thankful that she forgives the repeated 7 a.m. phone calls she has been getting. (Thanks mom!)

Has any one else discovered this unique ability?

Yesterday I had my tooth ground down, the nerves filed out, and three large spikes driven into the roots. Oh yeah, and they applied a hot poker to the surface of my tooth. Three times.

No, the U.S. Government was not attempting to extract information on WMD’s from me in the basement of some off shore prison. I was at the dentist, getting my very first root canal. Shudder.

Actually, it wasn’t that bad. I won’t call it pleasant, as I had to hold my mouth open “really wide” for an hour, and it’s never fun to be drilled and soldered (yes, soldered). However, the procedure did not hurt, because the dentist gave me four shots of lidocaine. Bless him.

I was a little freaked out when he busted out the mini propane tank, fired it up, stuck his metal tool into it, and said in his charming Russian accent, “Don’t panic if you see smoke coming out of your mouth, I promise I won’t burn you.”
Ha, Ha, HA!

On the flip side he was a little taken aback when I informed him that his accent was comforting to me, as it vaguely resembled the accent of a close friend of mine. The fact that he sounded a little like my friend Sanjin made the procedure much less scary. I could close my eyes, and think about having drinks in his 16th Street condo with more ease than I otherwise could have.

Today, my tooth is sore but not horrible. It would be better if the baby would stop slamming the side of his immense and concrete-esque skull into my jaw. Kids always know when mommy is at a weak point, and that is usually when they turn it up. I am not sure how this is an evolutionary strength, but it has to serve some solid purpose, because every flu, surgery, early morning meeting, emergency filing, school paper, or whatever can be guaranteed to bring out the sick or the crazy in children. Ugh.

Of course, Otter has good reason to be cranky, his mouth hurts. He had another little tooth break through his gums last night, and he has a third that will be making its debut any moment now. I suppose it is kinda cute that we are both wandering around with sore gums this morning. Maybe I can cuddle up to his warm little baby body and comfort myself with shared suffering.

In the meantime, I am off to crochet more Yule gifts, as I am a whiz with the yarn this year.