Our friends Scott and Anya – former New Yorkers who currently live in Hong Kong – swung through town this weekend and threw themselves a little party on Sunday evening in the back garden at Flatbush Farm, an excellent bar/restaurant just a couple blocks from our place (coincidentally, it’s also where Beatrice and I, with my parents, had dinner the night of our City Hall wedding a year ago July. So it’s a place with good vibes.).

We decided we’d make it a family outing. Not only did we want to see Scott and Anya, of course, but Nyan needed a change of pace. He was very needy all day Sunday – whenever we’d try to put him down for a nap, he’d start mewing and crying after about two minutes, and pretty much wouldn’t stop until we picked him up and gave him a hug. This went on for several hours. A change of scenery would do him some good, we thought. So Bea strapped on the baby sling and dropped the boy in there, and off we went with me pushing the stroller, just in case.

Nyan had been to a bar before, as you may have read in an earlier post. But he hadn’t yet been to one with daddy. We picked a good one: it was a splendid late summer day – warm, almost hot; humid and hazy, with a nice breeze. The back garden at Flatbush Farm has trees and picnic tables wedged into a modest-sized space surrounded by four-story brick buildings. Nyan nestled comfortably against mommy’s chest as Scott and Anya, as well as some other friends and acquaintances, met the young man for the first time. He didn’t fuss or cry, and hardly even bothered to open his eyes. Just laid there being mellow. Putting on a good, non-fussy show for the new people, I suppose.

We didn’t want to push things too far, so after about half an hour we loaded him into the stroller and Beatrice took him home as I stuck around for a bit longer. She gave him a bath, fed him and put him to bed, and for at least the next four hours he hardly made a peep, zonked out with exhaustion. (He also slept pretty much the entire night through, waking up for a feeding just once!) All in all, a successful trip, I’d say. We still haven’t taken him out of the house for more than an hour, and haven’t yet dared to take him beyond our immediate neighborhood. No rush on that.

Side note #1: Scott and Anya brought us pressies! We’re now in possession of some dried shrimp, anchovies in chili oil and hot sauce from Hong Kong. And for Nyan, they brought a beautiful stuffed cow that unfolds into a pillow. It’s covered in colorful silk that’s embossed with various Chinese characters. Lovely!

Side note #2: Nyan was born with a pretty full head of hair, for a baby, and it usually lays flat and straight. But in the high humidity today, it got these sharp little curls at the end. Just like mommy: her hair is usually straight, but whenever we manage to get away to some place tropical (Thailand, Costa Rica, Belize, St. Thomas – can you tell we love warm weather?) it becomes much more wavy. Not quite as curly as Nyan’s, but the same basic idea.