New York, New York

Wednesday:

I medicated KayTar at roughly 1pm and the car arrived to pick us up at 1:30. The flight wasn't until 4:30, so we had a good bit of time to entertain KayTar in the airport. She had a snack (yes, a SNACK!) and had my mom push her around the terminals quite a bit. The wait was just fine, KayTar only got mildly bent out of shape when she decided it was time to get on the plane and the airline didn't quite agree, but that was the most difficult she got.


On the plane, she had another snack, watched cartoons (I am ONLY flying JetBlue with her from now on, HEAVENLY!), and we sat at the bulkhead so she could kick until she dropped. She slept for about 3 hours on the flight, while I watched a marathon of Top Chef on my TV screen. She woke up shortly before we landed and was in an wonderful mood. From there, we picked up luggage and found the man holding our little sign "Kyla Tar". Car service is nice. We got to the hotel about 12am, settled in, ordered a pizza, and went to bed around 2 am...even KayTar. Little nightowl of mine.



Thursday:

We woke up, got ready, and packed for the hotel transfer. We were moving to the hotel where the other women were staying for the next two nights. They couldn't get our Wednesday night room there, because they were booked. KayTar was delighted to discover the "stage" in our room, which was actually just the fancy curtains.



Once we settled in, a friend met me and we went out to lunch. It was so good to see her!



My mom and KayTar ate in the room.



After lunch, we walked around Times Square and took KayTar to ToysRus and rode the ferris wheel.









This animatronic dinosaur scared KayTar half to death. She is still talking about it. A mosquito bit her yesterday and she yelled, "THE DINOSAUR IN NEW YORK CITY BITE ME!!!!" We told her it was a mosiquito bite and she said, very slowly to emphasize we were mistaken, "No. DI-NO-SAUR! New York City. BITE ME."



We walked around the Square, bought souvenirs, and then had dinner in the hotel that night.

Friday:

KayTar woke up at 5:30 having an asthma attack. Great way to start the day! She typically doesn't wake up until 9:30 our time, which is 10:30 in New York, so she woke up about 5 hours earlier than normal. It concerned me a bit, as it was shoot day, but it didn't phase her at all. We hopped in the car at 8:30 and headed to the studio. Once we were there, we got to meet the other women who are involved in the story and they were all so nice. We took turns getting hair and make up done and KayTar and my mom ran around and investigated all of the theme rooms they had. KayTar loved the psuedo-subway the best, but she talks about the Tiki Room the most in retrospect.









Like I said, we put in a 9 hour day, but a lot of that was down time. When we came in, the photographer set us in places on set...trying different positions and such...and eventually he decided the entire set needed fixing. This was the set before.





Here the photographer is telling KayTar that his three year old has hearing aids, too. See how they are both touching their ears?



But then he decided to take off the ceiling and cram the walls closer together, which took quite a long time really. About that time the catered lunch arrived, lots of fancy food, much too fancy for me actually. I stuck to the goat cheese and basil stuffed chicken breast, because it was the least fancy of the dishes. We all sat around and ate and talked. KayTar smashed a chocolate cookie into "rocks" and "dirt" and was very bust "building mountains" on the table. Once she tired of that, she got the photo editor and the fashion assistant to play several rounds of I Spy and Hide and Seek with her. She is in love with these girls.



Then she killed some more time watching DVDs with my mom.



And then she did more running around and entertaining. One thing I really noticed on this trip was how far her verbal skills have come recently. She said a few things that had people looking a little confused, but for the most time she was great at communicating and being funny...she is quite the character and she showed it off everywhere we went, especially the shoot.





Then we got back to the business of being beautiful and sitting very still. We spent at least 2 hours sitting and testing lights and positions and all sorts of things. I had no idea how much detail goes into one photo. It was impressive to watch. Everyone in a while we would see the make-up artist peer in at us appraisingly and then she would disappear and reappear with hands full or brushes and come for one of us. We started to expect it and say "Uh-oh, who is she coming for this time?" They let KayTar run around most of that time and once they sat her in there with me, she passed out pretty quickly. We let her sleep for the rest of the test shots, although the fashion lady came and relieved my arms for a while so I didn't fall over on the exam table. Once we woke her up the entire staff was behind the photog peeking at us and doing anything and everything to keep her going...and it worked! She just kept on trucking. The last three shots she started saying "Let me outta here!" But we got her through and that was the most "difficult" she was all day long. It was impressive for sure.

That night we had dinner in the hotel and an old family friend came to visit us. It was so nice seeing her again! Then Saturday we woke up, rode to the airport, and flew home.




New York was fun, but it sure was nice to get home to our boys.