NYC series no.12: babes in toyland

Once the boys understood that we weren't going to Legoland in California, Jackson began researching the Lego store in Manhattan and Rylee began researching what was available at the store. Legos are a big thing for the boys. They build the sets or create their own vehicles or buildings, collect and modify the minifigures, watch the videos and create their own animation. For months, they made plans on how to spend their money in the store. For the boys, shopping for toys became an important part of the trip and it took some doing to convince them that they shouldn't and couldn't spend every last dollar of theirs in the store and they'd appreciate fewer things in the long run. We planned on making the Lego store our first stop.

So on Friday morning around 10 we took the subway and walked to Rockefeller Plaza, where the big Lego sign greeted us in the window. The boys were very excited. Rylee first wandered around the entire store, looking in vain for Indiana Jones Legos. We thought this store was the only place to find them, but the line had been discontinued. Instead, the boys checked out the Hero Factory sets. They gathered around two kiosks where they could assemble their own minifigures from bins. Ry worked at one; Jack at the other. Each surrounded by other children building the minifigures. This was a destination for many young families and you could hear several languages inside. Then the boys filled two small cups with blocks from bins along a wall. They had a lot of fun there. Ariel joined us there, and we headed up 5th Avenue afterward.

After our champagne at the Plaza, we headed over to FAO Schwarz. There were many demonstrations of toys inside. The first in the door was a wax drawing tablet with a plastic cover sheet you lifted off to erase the image. About $1 at the grocery store; about $15 here. The demonstrator emphasized how it didn't make a mess. Tacky, of course, in more ways than one. A little beneath what I'd expect at FAO Schwarz, but it was the first thing through the door. Things got better.

Jackson grabbed me later. He wanted to show me something. At another point in the store, a man was demonstrating a magic kit in which lights appeared on his fingertips, which he then put in a paper sack, and in which one ball in his hand turned into three balls. Jackson loves magic tricks, so we looked at the kit. It promised 50 or 500 magic tricks, but was mostly the fingertip lights, a paper sack with a hidden light board, and four red sponge balls. We did purchase it, to be shared by both of them, and the boys had fun with that during the trip, practicing in the hotel room and often performing for whomever happened to be sitting near us in a restaurant or on the subway. The boys developed their own trick where they would act out throwing and catching the light between them, often across a table. Since we've been home, Jackson has demonstrated it to his cousins and Rylee practices the tricks with Cyndi and me, complete with all the banter and abracadabra.

Jackson must have seen the demonstration a couple of times. When we were looking at the kits, a new circle formed around the hawker as we studied the choices. The hawker repeated his performance, drawing the new boys in by asking their names and by including those on the outside of the ring, looking for the "missing" lights to put back in the paper sack. He'd say, oh, someone has been taking some, and find one on a boy on the edge of the circle. At this point, Jack, who'd been wandering back and forth within and outside the circle, made his way back inside the circle and walked up to the hawker. I confess, Jack said, I took one, too, and held out his hand. The hawker took a magic light out of Jack's hand, without missing a beat, saying, children are so honest these days, then went on with his performance as Jack exited the stage. I chuckled, this was so Jack.

The boys played on the giant piano, and Jackson found a jumbo red Angry Birds plush toy that he wanted. He kept hoping we'd go back to get it, and I told him it was possible, but sadly for him we never got the chance again. Maybe an upcoming birthday present. We did go back to the Lego store at one point when we found ourselves in Rockefeller Plaza again, and we also visited the Nintendo store next door to the Today Show studio.

Toys R Us has a giant flagship store in Times Square, with a ferris wheel inside. We walked inside it the night we saw Mary Poppins but it was crowded and I didn't see anything there that we couldn't find anywhere else. We looked for Vanns shoes for Rylee, but the skate store near our hotel did not carry children's sizes. We almost got an I [skateboard] NY shirt there but held off. My souvenir from the trip came from the Lego store: a mini-figure refrigerator magnet with, of course, I [heart] NY on the shirt.

The boys built their Legos in the hotel room and played with them when we were there. If you ask the boys what their favorite part of the trip was, they'll say they got to visit Ariel but the Lego store and FAO Schwarz are next on the top of their lists. Ry still holds out for the Lego store as his favorite, but Jack mentions both the Lego store and FAO Schwarz and admits that FAO Schwarz was the better of the two. He'll add that Toys R Us was a little lame.