A Hunger for Beauty

Our spring break trip to New York was mostly spent in my sister's home in Eastchester, where I watched the kids (with my Mom's help) while Craig put down tile in a small room in their basement.  My other two sisters were very generous about coming out to see us there (and even bringing along some in-laws one day!), so we were pretty busy there.  But I was bound and determined to get into Manhattan at least one day.

So finally on Thursday my Mom and I mapped it all out and made our way-- with four kids in tow-- to the city.  We hit our first snag before we even parked the car: NO PARKING!  After driving aimlessly for a bit, we finally nosed into a 15-minute parking spot, unloaded everyone, and told my Dad to take the car back for us and pick us up in the evening.  So Dad got cut from our New York adventure.  As crowded as it was, that was probably a good thing.  Dad hates crowds.

With the car out of our hands (and my Dad's GPS very carefully programmed for him), we hopped onto the train, and then the subway, and finally lugged the stroller up the famous steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Now, I know that an art museum is not a great place for little kids.  In fact, our plan was to just be there for a very short time and then hit the Museum of Natural History, which is much more interesting for the grade school crowd.  The only reason we went to the Met at all was because Bentley's class had been studying Egypt and China, and I figured it would be fun for him to see the Egyptian temple there and some of the Chinese art.  And then maybe, since we were already there, we could see a few Monets or something...

I forgot how bad my Mom and I are in a place like that.  Kids in a candy shop have NOTHING on how my Mom and I were acting.  "Let's just look in that room really fast!"  "I see a Van Gogh!  Quick, let's go there!"  "Ooh, I forgot Joan of Arc was here, look!  See how beautiful her eyes are?"  "Ooh, early Picasso!  I like his earlier stuff better!"  We couldn't stop ourselves.  There was just too much to see.  There was too much that we loved.


But it all really hit me this time how much I love the beauty of these works of art.  I think often I've been so excited to see the things I'm familiar with, that I forget to slow down and savor their beauty.  Now, there certainly wasn't much slowing down and savoring this trip, either, but I could feel the desire for it in me.  Mostly we went dashing about helter skelter and it was insane, but, oh-- so much lovelines!  I think it was the first time I really felt the "Art for Art's Sake" cry running through me.

One wall had a small exhibit with-- of all things!-- Chinese snuff jars in it.  I stood staring in awe of these little snuff jars.  Who knew they could be so magnificent?  With such rich, sparkling colors?  They were magical!  (Probably should have held opiates rather than plain old snuff...)  I loved them so much I made my Mom (who'd been sitting in a different room with a napping Ryder) go and check them out, too.  I loved them so much I did a Google search so I could show them to you.  Check out a few here and here (and note that this last one is one page out of five, and this isn't even including them all, I'm quite sure!).  I never could have guessed that I would find a bunch of snuff jars to be so moving...  (For you New Yorkers out there, they're only there until June 25th-- go see them!!!)

Another time, as we were searching for an elevator (cursed stroller!), we passed through the Lehman Gallery and I saw a large vase that was glazed so beautifully-- red and blue and purple shimmering through-- that I could have stared at it for hours if we hadn't been on our way to the cafeteria and we were all starving by then. 

It was almost torture not having more time!  And I'm quite sure the kids thought they were being tortured because we took so long!  But I just couldn't tear myself away!  I hardly took any pictures, but the last one in this set is one of my new favorites:

Excited to see the Egyptian temple

I have no idea what that woman behind my kids was pointing at, but you have to admire her line, right?  Also, you can see on Kendra's arm where I wrote my phone number, just in case she got lost.  I was kind of proud of that idea...

Nap time for Ryder

And for Colton, too, stuck in the Ergo carrier...

I love this picture so much.  I actually have a photo on my dresser of this sculpture that my brother-in-law took.  You can't see it well in this picture, but the lady has three babies all clinging to her.  It always makes me smile, thinking of trying to be a patient mom like this woman who seems so calmly pleased to have babies all over her.  So here's me, with three of the kids, smiling away like my role model!



Anyway, to sum up the rest of the day: we finally dragged ourselves away from the Met and got on a bus (which was super crowded, and several people got up and offered their seats to us!  New Yorkers are delightful!) to head across Central Park and hit up the Museum of Natural History.  On our way, we managed to add Craig to our group, so that was happy.  It meant I could make him carry Colton for a bit!  At the next museum we realized that this week was spring break AND Holy Week AND Passover for most of the city.  And I'm pretty sure that everyone who had more than one child had gone to that museum.  I've never seen so many Hasidic Jews in one place before!  But even though waiting for an elevator was a bit of a nightmare, it made me happy seeing so many families doing things together.  So it was still worth it.  Even if we were pretty much beyond exhausted at that point!

Kendra with the styracosaurs (one of my favorite dinosaurs)

Colton is angry that someone other than Mommy is holding him.  To which I said, "Too bad, kid!  Mommy's tired!"  Then I took his picture.

Bentley imitating the gorillas

And ever since he started playing Minecraft, he's a big fan of gems, crystals, and diamonds

And last but not least, I leave you with this video of Ryder taking his first look at the dinosaur bones in the museum's entrance.  Priceless.


I sure enjoy the city.  Winding up our day by hitting the Shake Shack and hanging out with three of my four sisters was perfect (okay, okay, it would have been MORE perfect if Natalie could have been there, too).  Apparently Aunt Leah also taught Kendra how to hail cab after that, but I missed that.  My Mom, who also got to ride in the cab since her knees were sore promised me that it was super cute.  (I was back to carrying Colton, walking to the train.)

But all that beauty.  Wow.  I appreciate it so much more now.  I'm surprised by how happy it made me, how much I wanted to just stay and look and look and look.  Some day, when my kids are all grown up, I'm going to spend a full month just living in New York and going to the Met every single day.  Maybe then I can begin to be filled by it...