Another Month Goes By In a New York Minute

The past month has been full of excitement both professionally, personally, and gastronomically. At work, things have really picked up as I'm covering the 2nd Committee, which deals with macroeconomic and sustainable development issues. I've also been tasked with working on the negotiations of several resolutions and while I know I am always representing the United States in my work, I'll admit that it's fun to do it formally. Some of my work also involves some interaction with the Tajik Mission to the UN, which I thoroughly enjoy since we can chat about life in Tajikistan (and I get to practice my Russian). The diplomats from Tajikistan are great to work with and I even got to go to lunch with them to a Tajik restaurant in Brooklyn last week - complete with sambusas, mantu, shashlik, and plov. It really brought back memories.

In the (seemlingly few) hours that I spend outside of work, Stephanie, Aiden and I continue to make the most of New York City. For our anniversary, we decided to have a few of our favorite things at home. Those things included a nice selection of cheeses from the cheese shop, strawberries. olives, red wine, scallops wrapped in bacon, an artichoke, and steamed shrimp.

For dessert, we had a selection of delicious cupcakes from Crumbs:

Having Aiden with us made it extra special. We've also been out and about, going to a Renaissance Fair at Fort Tryon Park...


Times Square at night where we also had Junior's Cheesecake...

Stephanie took Aiden to the Columbus Day Parade. (I had to work because it isn't a UN holiday)...

We also went with some of Stephanie's family to see the World Trade Center Memorial. It was really nicely done, a very peaceful place that didn't feel too sad. I haven't seen it during the day, but some people have said it's best at night, and I can see why.

Last weekend, we took a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with great views of the skyline...

And on the other side we had some great ice cream from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

As Fall comes to New York, the weather is crisp and clear and the fall foliage was on display as we walked along the lower west side this weekend...

Aiden continues to enjoy himself and is growing a lot. We've already had to boost his exersaucer to the second level and he's working on sitting up. We've also started introducing solid food, but he still seems unsure of what to do with it. He's tried apples, pears, peaches, sweet potatoes, avocados, and peas, but nothing has really clicked yet. Lentils and carrots are up next. He also seems to really love his excursions. Sometimes in the morning he gets fussy and only calms down if we let him look out the window or take him out in the stroller. As much as we enjoy being out and about with him, we hope he doesn't demand long walks in December!

Aiden has also gotten to meet more playmates of his own age as we've been able to get together with good friends up here who have young children. He seems to be very interested in other babies and has a lot of fun when they are here.