New York Day 1

On February 14th, Hudson, my mom and I left for NYC. We zipped through the airport (I must brag that I am getting pretty good at the security checks with the little guy) and raced to our gate. My mom stopped to get Starbucks while I went ahead with Hudson to board. I got there after my boarding group so I went ahead of a huge group of people. As I was checking in the airline employee took my ticket and told me my seat had been re-assigned. She was acting a bit strange and I was concerned because we were all supposed to be sitting together. I explained that I had paid for a seat for my son and I wanted to make sure we were going to be together. She said we were still together so not to worry...we were being upgraded (wink wink). She handed me my 1E boarding pass (she only gave me one which I questioned but again she strangely acted as though I was being paranoid and sent us on our way) and off we went. It was a bit of a challenge to get Hudson (in his car seat) and my rolling suitcase onto the plane and I was a bit rushed/flustered. I walked up to my empty row and got Hudson and I situated. I was trying to play it cool, but I was pretty darn ecstatic that Hudson and I were in 1st class!! It wasn't just any 1st class either, it was the really fancy 1st class with beds!! I've never sat in 1st class before and couldn't believe that Hudson was going to get to sit in 1st class on his 3rd flight ever!! (On a side note you should have seen the looks we got from the other 1st class passengers when we walked to our seats. They were not so excited to have a little baby in 1st class with them). There was one more seat against the window across the aisle so I figured that seat must be for my mom (she travels all the time and always gets upgraded so I figured she would for sure be upgraded before us) and that is what she meant by us not sitting together. I took a picture of Hud (the photo didn't really show that we were in 1st class, but remeber I was trying to be low key) and the boarding pass and sent both to Nic. He has never sat in 1st class either and couldn't believe his little boy was so lucky to already experience such luxuries at such a young age. When a man sat across the aisle I realized that my mom wasn't going to be in 1st class with us so I called her to see how mad she was going to be. She thought it was weird that we got upgraded and not her and said that we should just ditch Hudson's carseat so we could all 3 sit up there. (I didn't really like that idea because we got Hudson his own seat mainly for safety reasons...plus let's be honest, I didn't want to be holding squirmy boy the whole flight). Just as we were getting all settled in, a lady came up and said we were in her seat. Before I knew it a United employee was standing next to me requesting my tickets. Apparently, we were only given one upgrade (one seat) and if I wanted to sit up there I needed to hold Hudson the whole flight. I explained to her that I had asked the lady specifically about that and she implied that we had two seats together. I told her that a simple solution would be to let my mom sit in the 1st class seat if she could find 2 seats together in the back for Hudson and me. She said if I gave up my seat it couldn't go to my mom, but the next person on the upgrade list (which we realized later was in fact Hudson (haha) then my mom). So I asked if they could find a seat for Hudson in the back with my mom. Our original row was still empty so Hudson and I ended up in the row by ourselves and my mom got to sit in 1st class. Everyone was sucked into all the drama and it was pretty embarrassing when Hudson and I made our walk of shame out of 1st class. It still worked out though because having our own row was nice and it would have been a nightmare holding Hudson the whole flight. Maybe someday we will get to experience 1st class, but for that flight all was "normal" and "right" again in the world. 

Hudson was so good the entire flight!! He didn't cry at all. Well, he did fuss a little bit once. I took him up to visit my mom in 1st class (she kept begging me to bring him up when he woke up) and he immediately started fussing. Everyone was sleeping in their fancy beds and I got the evil stares again when Hudson's whining was waking them up. Then I also got lectured by the flight attendant that even though I technically had been a 1st class passenger since I was no longer the ticketed 1st class passenger I wasn't allowed up there so we got kicked out of 1st class again. All I have to say about Hudson's behavior is that he could obviously sense that he wasn't welcome up in 1st class. He knows when he isn't wanted. He was so good the rest of the flight, that I was able to squeeze in a movie!! We even had people commenting in baggage claim that they had no idea a baby was even on the flight! :) Way to go Hudson!!

We had so much luggage, but the carts were $5 and we are cheap so we awkwardly maneuvered all our luggage and Hudson in the stroller over to the taxi line. Then we squeezed into a cab and headed into the city. Hudson got to ride in his 1st yellow taxi!!

We got to the Plaza and checked into our room. Upon check in we were told we had a package. At 1st we thought it was a welcome bag (for the wedding), but realized it was a flower delivery for my mom. My mom and I both kept saying how impressed we were with dad for sending Valentine's day flowers to her in NYC. When she opened the box though, we realized they were actually from Nic for me. (ooops! Apparently Nic had to address it to my mom because our room was in her name and he felt terrible about it). It was pretty cleverof him to throw me off with the can opener diversion present the day before, then surprise me with gorgeous flowers. I have the best, most thoughtful husband. Plus, we all got to enjoy the flowers in the room all weekend so it ended up being a bit of a gift for my mom after all. :)

After we settled into the room, we changed and got ready for dinner. We walked up 5th Avenue to dinner at Koi. I carried Hudson in the Ergo, which was perfect. The restaurant was pretty empty when we got there so we enjoyed a great dinner without stressing about Hudson ruining people's romantic Valentine dinners. We had a booth so Hudson just sat and played while we enjoyed the most delicious sushi!! I was off my diet and in 7th Heaven!! 

After dinner, we walked to Times Square. We stopped to admire the Empire State building which was pink for Valentine's Day. We were surprised at how empty Times Square was. Hudson loved Times Square!! He was staring up at all the lights mesmerized by it all. It was so cute!! 

From Times Square, we walked back to the hotel and got ready for bed. I did Hudson's normal bedtime routine and put him in the crib while my mom and I hid in the bathroom. (We decided to keep Hudson on Cali time, which worked out perfect for dinners, etc.) Hudson cried for about 45 minutes before I couldn't take it any longer and went in. It was so stressful because I knew we were annoying other guests at 10pm (which quickly became 11pm) with his hysterics. I tried putting a hand on him, shushing him, and patting him, but he only cried more. I finally had to pick him up (once I did that I knew I was screwed). I looked over at the big empty bed and had this brilliant idea to co-sleep. I figured Hudson can sleep on Nic's side of the bed...it will be great...he will be close to me and maybe we can even snuggle a bit. Boy was my romantic vision of co-sleeping way off!! If your baby has never co-slept before apparently a hotel room on vacation isn't a good time to try it out. I ended up holding Hudson in my arms all night. At one point I tried to scoot down and rest my head on a pillow with him still in my arms (with no blankets because blankets made me nervous), Hudson was so close and every time I tried to move him away, he cried. In fact every so often he cried just because (well, probably because he was like why the heck am I sleeping in your arms instead of my crib!). Needless to say I got little to no sleep that night! I kept thinking I hope Nic is sleeping on his red eye because I am going to need his help-but it turned out he had just as tiring of a night!.