Welcome, new subscribers. This is a weekly newsletter with musings about parenting, recommendations for kids + grown-ups, and thoughts on trying to stay sane. Glad you’re here.
On Saturday morning we made the impromptu decision to brave the Museum of Natural History, because the high temps were in the teens, and because Ada’s seen the subway ad for the Mignone Hall of Gems and Minerals so many times we could only put it off for so long. In theory I love the AMNH, but in the past, it’s been overrun with visitors, it has the slowest elevators in all of Manhattan, and the dinosaurs exhibit is often saturated with strollers, so I struggle to maintain my sanity.
With modest expectations in place, we booked tickets and headed uptown. The crowds were milder than usual, we packed many snacks, and Jacob made the strategic call to get to the gem room first, lest we not make it anywhere else, we would at least make it there.
The gem room greets you with and towering and extremely sparkly purple amethyst geode, followed by case after case of spectacular minerals, organized by color, area of discovery, and numerous other classifications that are immediately wow-ing. The kids ran around pointing at the largest, most colorful, most iridescent, most rainbow, most striated minerals, and without having been able to stop to actually read any of the display text, I will say it was well worth it.
Ada was also enamored with the gems, declared it deeply unfair we couldn’t take the diamonds home, and then read one placard and grasped onto the concept of birthstones. Upon learning hers was topaz, she categorically declared it the best, and circled back around the 11,000 square foot space identifying which displays were topaz.
We left the gem room, raced past the dinosaurs, circled back through the Hall of Biodiversity, and watched people get vaxxed under the famous whale, before it was clear Julian was done. Ada lingered, not wanting to leave, and obviously wanting to go to the gift shop, which we’d passed several times and denied her entry to. Jacob left with Julian to refill the parking meter and Ada waited approximately eight seconds before proposing we stop at the gift shop “just to look.” I’m a sucker so I said yes.
Ada has only been in toy and clothing stores a handful of times IRL and each time finds the experience so overwhelming she becomes manic. Being confronted with toys, books, keychains, stuffed animals, and a huge purchasable array of knick knacks is a pure dopamine hit she can’t process. She frantically ran around the shop for a few minutes before looking at me with begging eyes. I asked her if she had money in her piggy bank, and if so, she could get something and pay me back at home.
She picked out and put back some two dozen items—necklaces, key chains, pins, a puzzle, a stuffy, and a fake jade figurine, before landing on two items: a very large “crystal” paperweight cut like a diamond ($8.00) and a pair of pink binoculars ($10.00). She asked me frantically which was best, and which she should get, and as a diplomatic mother I told her she needed to choose for herself. She picked the crystal paperweight, then dawdled before taking it to the counter, only to ask the cashier whether or not it was real. The bored teen, completely deadpan said, “No, it’s fake. It’s glass.” Ada’s heart sank and she looked at me with sad eyes and asked for another chance to pick something else.
Another ten minutes passed. Binoculars? Sticker book? Weird goo slime ball? Keychain? Geode necklace? She filled a small pleather pouch with artificially colored tumbled rocks ($5) and headed to the register again, only to sprint back a second time, empty it out, and grab the binoculars. It was agonizing.
Finally, we paid, she put the strap around her neck, and we left the store.
Once outside she walked to the car with her eyes through the binoculars the entire time. I told her I thought it was a cool choice because she could bring them on hikes, or to the park. She agreed and volunteered that she wouldn’t brag about them to her brother even though it was clear she would as soon as we got to the car. He was indifferent, fortunately, and we drove home along the West Side Highway with the binoculars glued to her eyes. “Look. I can even see the top of the Freedom Tower,” she reported, as we drove towards the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel. “It’s the tallest building in NY.”
Recommendations for the kids:
Bedside storage: If your child is in a bunkbed or needs a place to put their many trinkets, this caddy is an excellent solution. I got one for Ada’s top bunk “treasures” and she was THRILLED.
Wear: The hoodies and t-shirts from Winter Water Factory are among the most-worn and most durable in our house. They’re all 40% off right now with code CLEANSLATE.
Play: My kids can crush a 100 piece puzzle, but a 500 piece puzzle is over their heads. A good 200 piece puzzle is surprisingly hard to find. A few strong picks: Janod’s Botanical Garden, Fantasy Orchestra and Treehouse Gallery from Djeco.
Read: The NY Review of Books Children’s Collection is a trove of delights. I’ve also been debating whether to get the full 23-edition set of Tintin titles, and haven’t yet pulled the trigger. Somebody convince me.
Recommendations for the grown-ups:
Kitchen Utensil: The best spatula is a fish spatula. Thin, angled, and ideal for a fried egg. I asked for one for Christmas and got this, and this alone.
Eat: This maple + olive oil granola with liberal substitutions: pistachios for pecans, add 1/2 cup quinoa + 1/2 cup flax meal + 1 cup chopped dried cherries. Use half coconut oil and half olive oil.
Watch: Crashing, the Phoebe Waller-Bridge single-season show from 2016 about a group of twenty-something living in a disused hospital in London. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is perfectly herself and I’m confused why I’d never heard of this before.
Listen: Binged my way through The Just Enough Family: wealth, success, loss, NY Jews, betrayal, secrets, excess. A story of the rise and fall of the Steinberg family, hosted by Ariel Levy (New Yorker, etc) that seems likely to get optioned for TV.
Read: Second Place by Rachel Cusk. In the queue: Cleanness by Garth Greenwell.
Let me know what you’re reading, watching, listening to, and eating and just can’t stop thinking about.