MoMA

The weather looked a little iffy, so instead of going to the big Columbus Day parade on 5th Avenue, we took the kids to the Museum of Modern Art.

We parked about 5 blocks away (The MoMA is between 5th and 6th avenue, on 53rd, so we wanted to avoid the parade crowds). Kris (mom) confidently led the way, clutching the hand of 5 year-old Ellen jumping up and down beside her, while carrying on a conversation about NYC architecture with her 10 year-old, Henry. I followed with 9 year-old Andrew, pushing his manual wheelchair. What a challenge! Kris laughed as I discovered the "joys" of getting that vehicle around. Even with the "ramped" sidewalks on the far ends of the crosswalks, I had to tip the chair back to clear the 1-inch edges. I even had to tip it back for some of the sidewalk cracks, they were so big! Then we hit construction, where the walkway was carefully detoured off a curb into the street. At this point, Kris took over driving, and I grabbed Ellen's hand. Kris was a sight to behold--quite the expert with maneuvering (she's been doing it for 9 years!)--while chatting away with her children, pointing out all the interesting things to notice on the streets of the city.

The museum itself was not my favorite experience. There were the proverbial "modern art" circles and triangles "depicting origin and creation." But there was also Van Gogh's Starry Night, and it was fun to see some pointalism. Kris, Henry, and Ellen found Water Lilies, but Andrew and I never got there; we were very busy finding the works that displayed a headphone symbol next to them, so that Andrew could key it into his handheld listening device and hear the explanations. We saw several Picasso's, since they had the most entertaining kids' explanations, making him "find" things hidden in the paintings.

After lunch, Henry and I wandered around on the Architecture and Design floor, then rested in the sculpture garden, where he turned to me and said, "I think everything has art in it." That made for an interesting exchange. I couldn't help but wonder if that is what a child of 10 is forced to conclude when he is shown circles and triangles on canvas, blocks of stone with obscure titles, and stick figurines inside frames of buildings, and told that they are "art."

My worries about his plastic young mind were eased when we went inside. His favorite thing in the museum turned out to be an old airport schedule on the wall that "flipped" successive tiles to change the information display. He was fascinated when I taught him how to read the military time, and wanted to guess the country of each destination (Milan, Innsbruck, Bordeaux,...). We watched it flip once, then waited another 10 minutes to see if it would do it again, before meeting up with the rest of the family! (it didn't)

No traffic on the way home; the whole day went smoothly. It was a fun time to just be with Kris and the kids, without having to make sure everyone's homework was done or that all the schedules were coordinated.

And the best part is, I don't have school again until Wednesday!