A walk through the park

November is officially here with the highs in the 50s and even colder nights. Fortunately, the sunshine has been abundant early in the day, even if it's dipping below the horizon by 5:30 p.m. So today we took advantage of Nacho's day off and went into the city to Central Park for a little family time. Elisa was not very cooperative for the picture taking, but she had a blast running around the park. She kept saying things like, "See people! See people walking." And then yelling at a kid who had a small baby stroller like hers. She was convinced he was pushing her stroller around which made for an interesting tantrum in the middle of the path. After that, she wanted nothing to do with us. She took off on a little stroll and Nacho hid behind trees tracking her movements. She finally turned around after about 5 or 6 minutes. And then she started calling out, "Where, Papa? Mama, where Mama??" Call me mean, but it was amusing to watch her struggle after all the crazy fussing. She was clearly regretting her independent streak, and by the time I called out and waved to her from across the clearing, she was ready to return. When Nacho stepped out and surprised her she was too busy huffing over to care. I asked her where she went and why she ran off like that. And she actually told me she was sad. A breakthrough moment. So we all hugged and kept going, and this time, she didn't flip out.

I think we were about a week later than last year to see the fall foliage in the middle of the park, but the colors that were still around were beautiful. Not as gorgeous as last year, but hey, it's still worth a visit. The NYC marathon is coming up this weekend and the time change on Sunday will mean fewer hours to visit. But there is something really special about the park in the height of each season. It was great to walk around for even a couple of hours and take it all in. Tantrums and all.