Little Sedona in the Big City

By KEVIN DING

Although we held her birthday party on Aug. 29 at home, Sedona officially turned 3 on Aug. 31 in New York, so we had another fun-filled day for her on the other coast.

We landed in New York in the early morning on Aug. 30 and after a brief rest tried out some fancy-schmancy NYC dim sum with Maggie's friend Ian and my longtime friend Andy and his family (including Andy's visiting-from-St. Louis dad). When Maven conked out for a nap later, Sedona got better acquainted with Andy and Purva's twins, Jay and Anaya, whom Sedona was meeting for the first time after more hype than a 2004-05 Kobe-vs.-Shaq game.

Upon returning from the eight-day trip, Sedona spotted a yellow taxi on Pacific Coast Highway and opined: "Why is that taxi car here? It should be in New York with Anaya and Jay." But here at the start of the trip, she was just getting accustomed to all the bustle of the big city and Anaya and Jay, who are just about the same age as Sedona.

What is this, Sedona at the negotiating table with Jay and Anaya? Well, the kids quickly bonded over a shared love for quality watermelon and then a couple of games of Bingo.

Soon enough, they looked like three musketeers on a local Tribeca playground. (Photo credit: Andrew K. Tsai, who came up surprisingly big here but usually defers to his wife with the camera because he foolishly wouldn't follow my lead and transfer out of Honors French V in our senior year of high school to take Photography I.)

Even though the boy with the Jordan gear is clearly looking down (literally and figuratively) at Andy's prepster wardrobe, it didn't stop Andy from confidently grabbing a handle and trying to give all the kids a whirl.

Based on the grins on the faces, looks as if we have three pretty satisfied whirling customers.

Maggie's Texas friend Debbie was in the city on work assignment, so she joined us for dinner and for this ill-advised foray on the subway. Despite Debbie's faux enthusiasm here, Maven's face reveals that it was a friggin' sauna down there while waiting for the train.

There would be plenty of non-faux enthusiasm the next day -- Sedona's actual birthday, begun at the very cool amusement park set up for the summer on the Central Park ice rink.

Little did little Maven realize that she would not get to do nearly as much as the bigger kids.

Here's first of many photos of Maven on the sidelines while Sedona (on the right side of your picture) enjoys a ride.

Sedona: "Hey, guys ... I'm not so sure I should be stuck here in the back given how much faster my daddy was in his red Toyota Supra when racing to places in St. Louis in the late 1980s against your daddy in his black Nissan 200SX."

Note Anaya's tongue is out. ...

Now look at Sedona, three seconds later.

Maven could only hope that what looked like so much fun wasn't really that much fun.

Alas, it was that much fun!

We left the park and walked to Andy's office, where Sedona was surprised by a birthday cake and this snazzy camera as a gift from Anaya and Jay.

We headed back to the park for more carnival fun but stopped off at the FAO Schwarz superstore ...

... and burned off more of the birthday-cake sugar high in Central Park ...

Back at the amusement park Sedona wasn't altogether comfortable with the thrills of this giant slide ride with me ...

I wasn't at all comfortable when upon exiting the ride, some little boy tried to run in through the exit gate and was about to crash into Sedona. I stuck my hand out reflexively to impede, but I never touched him because his heavyset, gargoyle-faced mother reached in and jerked him back by the wrist upon realizing what he was doing. She started to drag him away but then turned around to say to me: "What do you think you're doing putting your hands on my son?!" This triggered a confrontation between me and the heavyset, gargoyle-faced woman, one in which I did tell her to crawl back under her rock. Even though we are indeed fans of New York's energy, believe what you hear about the people: We encountered a lot of rudeness in a lot of ways.

Sedona gleefully went on this up-and-down ride three times and capped her carnival day by winning a stuffed animal (with my assistance) when she outshot a much older boy in a water-pistol contest.

Meet Buckle the Frog, tucked into Sedona's stroller as the girls fell asleep on the way out of the park. We named him "Buckle" after Sedona took him on one last ride and he kept sliding away from her because she hadn't buckled him into her seat belt. You can see she was not about to make the same mistake again.

For all that we did, I doubt anything was as good as the girls' simple joy, visible in the videos below, while chilling and singing back in the hotel room in their new "I Love NY" shirts.

Yet it didn't even end there. We went back out on the town to meet Debbie at Serendipity 3. Even while getting the sweets, though, Sedona's eyes revealed some fatigue at the long, fun birthday.

When Sedona saw this photo, she laughed and asked why Debbie wasn't really drinking. (You'll have to look closely at the image to follow her thinking.) Even though all children are universally curious, I dare say this newly 3-year-old kid definitely has my eye for detail with as often as she points out little things such as this. I don't know if it's my own self-absorption or more likely something every parent can feel in some way, but it's a special wonder to me whenever I am offered such a reminder that this little girl is a big part of me.