Last night we went into the city to meet up with Alejandro, Isabel, Nicholas and Lourdes Matheou who were visiting from Argentina. John has now known Alejandro for about 14 years and although they only see each other once every year or sometimes every two years, he still considers him one of his best friends. John used to run the international equity desk, so he traded several different foreign markets. He used to trade several Latin American markets which is how he met Alejandro. They used to spend hours on the phone with each other each day and they quickly became good friends. Twelve years ago, when Alejandro married Isabel, John flew down to Buenos Aires Argentina to be there. Now Alejandro has a successful career with Merrill Lynch's Private Banking division, so he comes to NYC once a year on business. This year, Merrill Lynch invited the families to come as well. The first part of the trip was spent in Orlando, then they put them up in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.The first time I met this wonderful family was 3 years ago when I was pregnant with Reagan. I couldn't find the pictures from the time we spent together, but we had a great time. John and I met them in the city for dinner one night which was possible because they brought Alejandro's mother with them and she watched the kids. The next day, we picked them up and took them shopping at the outlet stores that are just north of us called Woodbury Commons. Isabel was learning English so a lot of our conversation had to be translated by the men. Nicholas was 5 and Lourdes was 3 at the time. The next time I saw them was 1 year later when Reagan was 6 months old and Alejandro only brought Isabel on the trip with him. We drove into the city with Reagan so we could show her off to Alejandro. Here are some pictures from that day:
Alejandro and Reagan June 9th, 2006 ~ Alejandro immediately started referring to Reagan as his "future daughter-in-law"!
Alejandro gave John this soccer jersey, so he put it on for the picture. He was on his way to see the World Cup in Germany because a few of his clients played soccer for Argentina.We didn't even park the car ... we pulled up outside the hotel, visited for about 30 minutes, then got back into the car and drove home. We got ourselves ready, then got Reagan settled with John's mother, then went back into the city to meet them for a nice dinner at Aquavit that night. Isabel's English had improved a lot, so I had a wonderful time getting to know her better over dinner.
June 9th, 2006Last year, we did not see them ... I'm not sure if they came to NY or not last summer. If they did, it must have been during the 2 weeks that we spent in Salt Lake, since there's no way we wouldn't have seen them if they were here.
Back to the present ... We drove into the city and parked the car near their hotel, the Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue. We got out the double stroller because I figured we'd walk around until we found a good kid-friendly restaurant to have dinner. What we didn't realize was that the Matheou family had already selected a restaurant: Dave & Busters. On Saturday night, Merrill Lynch rented out the place for these international families that were in town and they had such a great time, that they really wanted to go back. The only problem was that we had just parked our car and it was too far to walk, since it was in the middle of Times Square. So, we hailed 2 taxis and all jumped in. I have no idea if we broke the law, but John and Alejandro just held Reagan and Avery tightly on their laps, since we had no car seats. I wonder what local New Yorkers do when they take their babies and kids in cabs?
I just had to take a picture of Reagan's first cab ride!It was shocking to see Nicholas (8) and Lourdes (6), both 3 years older than the last time we saw them! They are such sweet, beautiful children and it was fun to watch Reagan interact with them.
Lourdes grabbed Reagan and started hugging her ~ so sweet!
Alejandro and Isabel kept saying that Reagan looked exactly the same as Lourdes did when she was Reagan's age. They also refer to Lourdes as Lulu.
Isabel and her handsome son Nicholas
Avery was very excited to be part of the party!
Here I am with my girls, waiting for dinner to come (VERY slow service!)
Alejandro, John and Avery
This picture really captivates Alejandro's personality ... he's a happy guy with a great sense of humor. He's always cracking jokes and giving people a hard time. If you know my husband John, you'll realize that he has a very similar personality, which is why they get along so well.
Of course, Reagan wouldn't touch the meal that SHE ordered, so she started grabbing fries from Lulu's plate. Lulu then started offering her all the condiments from her burger (tomatoes, pickles, onions, & lettuce). Reagan just kept taking her fries.
As usual, I kept telling Reagan she couldn't go play with all the games until she ate something for dinner. I finally ordered her a second dish, buttered noodles, which she ate. Getting food in this girl can sometimes be a very exhausting ordeal!
We finally joined Lulu and Nicholas on the games and Reagan couldn't put the coins in fast enough. I took this picture and that's when I realized she still had noodles in her mouth ... this little girl often stores her food in her cheeks like a chipmunk! I often have to tell her to swallow her food, or she'll let it just sit in her mouth, all chewed up. Isn't that gross? Ahh, the joys of raising a 2 year old!
The kids still had Dave & Busters cards with credit on them left over from their Merrill Lynch night, so they were having a great time earning lots of tickets. They had so many tickets at the end of the night, I could hardly believe it! They turned in the tickets for all kinds of stuffed animals and other various toys. When I turned in Reagan's tickets (that were acquired with the card I bought for $20), we only had about 180 points. The only thing we could buy with such a small amount was candy, so Reagan chose a "baby bottle sucker." The Matheous ended up with thousands of points, so they gave Reagan a whole bag of toys and stuffed animals.
By the end of the night, the restaurant section was rather dead and deserted, so the kids started playing with their new toys on the floor. Alejandro continued to call Reagan his "future daughter-in-law"!
Lulu figured it was appropriate to give the baby a bottle, so Avery got to have her first taste of candy! And yes, I'm the horrible mother who opted to take a picture of the situation, rather than stop it :)
As everyone started to get extremely tired, we asked someone to take this group shot. Then we left D&B, got into 2 cabs, and headed back to the hotel. We had checked our double stroller with the Bell Captain at the Waldorf, so we sat around talking in the lobby while it was being retrieved. I had never been inside this beautiful hotel, so it was neat to see what it looked like, especially because of all its hisory. Lulu insisted on holding Avery:
We then said our goodbyes and strapped the girls into the stoller.
This picture didn't turn out very well, but both girls were laughing as we were walking to the car on Park Avenue ... the MetLife building was a few blocks away and it just seemed like a good time to take a picture. Since we don't make it into the city very often, I was trying to enjoy every aspect of our night.
During our evening with Alejandro and Isabel, it came up (AGAIN) that they love to ski and would really like to meet us in Utah for a ski trip. We talked about how wonderful it would be for them to meet us in Salt Lake over New Years Eve this year. I truly hope that we can make this happen, since we would love to see them again soon. They are a wonderful family and our only complaint about them is that they live too far away.
