Hanami

In Japanese, Hanami means "flower viewing," and refers to the custom of "enjoying flowers."  I admit it; I like the fucking flowers.  Nilda and I took Charlie to the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx and, overall, it was a success.  We picked a good time because many of the trees were flowering. 

Breaking away from his past as being a photogenic photography subject, Charlie has decided to graciously extend his middle finger to all photo opportunities.  Here I am desperately trying to stop him from jumping to the ground so I can get a god damn picture.  No luck.

The best thing we saw were the magnolia trees, which were in full bloom.

We tried to get good pictures with Charlie with the trees, but he was  more interested in going up and down, up and down, the 2-inch step from the road to the grass.  

I did, however, get Nilda's new facebook profile picture.  Because I'm awesome.  Isn't Mommy pretty, Charlie?

 We saw a baby owl, too. Yay?

 Then we were off to the cherry trees, which were also blooming. 

 There was a road there, too, which Charlie had to go up and down, up and down.

Charlie did a ton of running.  I told Charlie he had to hold my hand, so he didn't (1) run in front of a tram, (2) run in front of people or (3) trample the flowers.  Except holding Charlie's hand is really grabbing his wrist to try to stop him.  At one point, I just grabbed his hoodie and finally understood why people use the monkey backpack. 

By the time we went to the orchid show, Charlie was done.  He ran around some more, but that was it.  We had to give him a pacifier just to get him to make the trip out of the greenhouse.

I got a ton of steps in.  The goal is 10,000 steps per day and I usually average around 12,000, but this day I got over 24,600.  I'm winning Fitbit.