Sign of the Times

Tracy and I have been making a conscious effort to “live it up” during these last few weeks prior to the birth of Baby Mans.  On more than one occasion recently we’ve been trying to make a decision on what to do, when we inevitably say, “why not, let’s do X…who knows when we’ll be able to do that again once the baby comes.”

The result of the above logic has been quite a bit of fun over the last few weeks.  By way of example - last Thursday night we set up a date to visit the infamous TAO.  Long-time blog readers may remember the memorable visit to TAO we had with Robert and Catherine Whitehill, just a few weeks after moving up here in August 2008.

This time there was no bongo player 2 feet from our table - but we did have the giant 25 foot Buddha and koi pond literally right next to us.  And thanks to some generous gift cards from friends, we were able to go all out without breaking the bank, including the giant fortune cookie dessert.

Over the weekend we packed in even more fun - lunch with Jordan/Trevor/Austin Smith on Saturday, Tracy went to a baby shower for a friend, watching the Heels game with Neill, fantastic Shake Shack with Hannah/Stephen/their friends from Nashville.  Combined with the 60+ degree weather (in November!), it was a perfect few days.

But the sign of the times is that none of the above activities topped the list for favorite thing from this weekend.  That honor goes to the little item which I passed on my way out of the door this morning.

That’s right - after months of wrangling over the decision, we finally pulled the trigger on our big ticket item for Baby Mans.  With no car in NYC, the stroller becomes a very imporant and primary mode of transportation for the baby.  And with ability to deal with weather, varying terrain, and durability all big factors, it becomes a huge decision.  Tracy has been scouring Craigslist daily and we were able to find a pretty high end stroller that’s only a year old, and got it at a nice discount to retail price.

So now we’re officially ready for Baby Mans.  Or at least we’re ready in terms of gear.  Until the big day comes, I guess we’ll try and jam in a few more “live it up” moments.