Marathon weekend in NYC

This Sunday was the 40th annual NYC Marathon throughout the 5 boroughs. And in a way, it was also a marathon weekend for Elisa and I. We were traveling last week to deal with some estate matters for my late Nana and flew home on Halloween. We'd spent a very restless night before the travel day (Elisa actually joined me in my bed, if that tells you anything) and when she woke at 5:30am for no apparent reason, I knew I was in trouble. Despite that, I dressed her in her pumpkin smiley face jumpsuit and hoped for the best. Dumb. It was probably the worst flight for Elisa to date. Just when you think she's getting the hang of something, you get a "oh, HELL no" and realize that yes, you have a long way to go before our mother-daughter communication is understandable. I was tired, out of games, and just plain sorry to have put her and our fellow passengers through the ordeal. But what can you do? She (finally!) fell asleep on the landing at JFK and I sat holding a snoozing, peaceful baby as the passengers deplaned and probably wondered if I'd strangled her after all that fuss. Good timing, kid.

But luckily, we were home and resting by 7pm on Halloween. No trick or treating. No fun parties (we had two invites!!). But the beauty of seeing Elisa wake up refreshed on Sunday was well worth it and we headed out to watch the runners whiz through Queens on their way into Manhattan. The area around where we live is the half way point for the marathon which I think is kind of cool. Since Nacho's best friend Felipe flew all the way from Madrid to compete this year, we had another reason to go and cheer the runners on.
Elisa loves a crowd and she was screaming along to make some noise for the runners!
Afterwards, we met up with Felipe and the whole Spanish crew on the Upper West Side near the park. I think Elisa was impressed with his medal.
Here are the lovely ladies celebrating the end of the race.
Finally, on the way home, we hopped on a bus and Elisa got to dig into her snack--a whole apple. The girl goes NUTS for apples. She gets the silliest grin and smiles with her eyes. Who knew happiness could be bought with so little? Now, if that only worked on airplanes...