Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. Ours was a full one and we started it off with a day trip to Millwood which made an earlier appearance on the blog.

This visit was under much different circumstances and was a memorial service for Roger who sadly passed away a few months ago. It was such a beautiful way to celebrate his life with many many people gathering on the land and enjoying the sun and the creek and the company.

Maggie enjoyed the great big lawn and really really wanted to hop off that bridge into the creek. It wasn't in the cards for her that day but we made up for it, today, with our first trip down to Solomon's for the summer season. She spent hours splashing in a kiddie pool followed by a dip in the creek with Pop Pop and dad.

So glad to welcome summer.

The new pool was soon followed by the new finger paints! It was great to see how quickly Maggie took to this and the whole paint-to-paper thing seems pretty intuitive. No sticking paint in her mouth and only a few smears on the tummy. I was surprised by how very very seriously she took this process. (The picture of her smiling only came after a prompt.) Surrounding this it was ALL FOCUS.

All sorts of new goodies at Maggie's house! I came home to find her running around this little pool and loving it. It was a bit too chilly to fully submerge but she got her fair share of splashin' out of it.

Bi-lingual baby.

If you've been checking Graham's tweets you may have caught on that we were in New York early in the week. I had a small work thing up there but was able to turn it into a mini-trip for the fam.

Our first day could not have been better. Maggie was as sweet as pie on the train ride up. We checked into an adorable hotel in the West Village and spent the afternoon walking the neighborhood and enjoying perfect weather. The highlight, for me, was picking up sandwiches at a great little shop and taking them over to the playground for lunch and a few hours of play. It was terrific people watching and Maggie got a chance to cut loose. This was followed by a stroll down the high-line and then off to a swanky party.

Our second day, however, took a turn for the worst! We awoke to pouring rain with the looming reality that check-out was at 11:00 and our train was not until 6:00. Sans-Maggie this would have been fine but when you have a kid and a stroller and bags and umbrellas and few indoor options that encourage toddler-dom, you feel a bit stranded.

We saw the MoMA as our salvation and a way to pass several hours. After a long and expensive cab ride up to it, we learned that it is closed on Tuesdays. (Ouch.) Thankfully, Graham had the brilliant idea to try FAO Schwartz and because the rain had turned to a drizzle we decided to walk it. This trek started out fine but quickly turned into chaos when the rain started pouring in sideways and the wind was turning our umbrellas inside-out. At that point we were committed to walking so Graham clutched Maggie to his chest and wrestled the umbrella the rest of the way. I was left to push a stroller of wet bags and gave up on the umbrella altogether. By the time we got to FAO we were a sight to see!

Thank God for that store. It was the perfect refuge. Maggie (who by the way was dry - go figure) had the absolute best time and ran up and down every aisle. We were even able to stay long enough to get to the train station only reasonably early. On the train, Maggie decided to grace her very weary parents with a relaxed ride home by watching Nemo and curling up on dad's lap.

It was an exhausting two days. All three of us had some low points - especially on day two - but I have to say that we were able to hold it together and avoid any major melt downs. For that I am proud of our little crew.

Note: All photos were taken on day one. For obvious reasons.

I know I usually post with a pic, but I'm reaching out to readers to see if anyone has experience with "night terrors".

For the past week or so Maggie has been waking up every night around 1am in absolute, inconsolable hysterics. Graham and I have both tried to calm her but many times it's seemed like she is still in the midst of a bad dream and she will aggressively resist the slightest touch. If we hold her, she will squirm and not necessarily wake up. If we leave her be, she will just stand in her crib and cry terribly. She has even pointed at the door and repeated "eyes, eyes" and "mouth" and I hate to imagine what the poor thing is dreaming about.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is it something she will out grow? Has anyone found a way to help their kiddo through it?

Our biggest adventure of late was buying a baby seat for my old bike. We're hittin' the streets in style (and causing traffic jams in our parking lot).

I'm pretty sure Maggie loves it. And I do too. We went on our first big ride, yesterday, all the way to Nana and Pop Pops house. Truth be told, this is only a mile or two but it still felt like an adventure. The front-mount seat is great; perfect for interacting with her and chipping in when the helmet slips into her eyes.

Looking forward to many many bike rides.

Today was a beach house clean-up day and Graham found Maggie a turtle. To prove it, he was forever Sharpie'd with her name before being released back in to the wild. (Is that wrong?)