Natalie in NY

On Saturday and I Natalie and I headed off alone into Manhattan while Mary and Graham headed over to Sadie's birthday party theatrical performance. Natalie had declared a need to go to FAO Schwarz, which I understand all too well, having a memory from childhood of a magical visit to the store in which it had all kinds of crazy over the top shit, gokarts and what not.

For starters, it was immensely gratifying that she held my hand very intently as we walked from the Public Library, where I showed her the main reading room (which I think impressed her a little). So we headed up 5th Avenue, hand in hand, past all manner of crap including the new Prada store, and I couldn't help musing to myself about what it might look like in two years -- H & M, Barnes and Noble and TGI Fridays might be the only things left in their current forms -- but mostly I just revelled in the fact that my independent and at times defiant 8-year old really wanted to hold my hand... in front of all these people. Even if our palms were getting sweaty so we had to switch sides.

FAO Schwarz, it would seem, has morphed from being a place of great magic to being just a really good toy store. Really, a toy department store, which is to say a glorified mall. Has this been the influence of its acquisition by DE Shaw in 2004, I dunno.

But Natalie was more than adequately entranced, especially by the Harry Potter store. And she didn't even beg for anything big, accepting a small treat and the idea of inventorying for the Xmas list.

Afterwards, I took her to Central Park, including a trip to the disco rollerskating area by Sheep's Meadow, but she declared the skaters to be "weird," and it's hard to argue with that, really.