Debi Derryberry at Bank Street Books, NYC

“Mama? Mama, I whan a baba.”  NYCity Mama hoped she was dreaming.  ”Mama, wheck-up!”  She opens her eyes, heavy with sleep.

And there he was. The 2 year old.  Curly blond hair a chaotic mess.

“C’mon Mama!”  He starts taking the sheets off.  Mama looks at the clock.  6:00 in the morning, on a Saturday.

She’s been a mom for 11 years now, and she has come to terms that she will never, ever, never, get used to getting up early.  She knows the day will come when they will sleep in, and she has heard stories of parents who are unable to sleep in due to the years of waking up early to tend to their kids.  Mama knows that this will never be an issue for her.

As she sips her cafe con leche, she looks through her list of activities for today.  She can’t help but smile.  The sun was gleaming through the windows, and there were plenty of things to do on this wonderfully sunny, though chilly day.

Today she and her family were going to head to Bank Street Books to catch a free performance by Debi Berryberry, best known as the voice of Jimmy Neutron.  This would be the last performance in NYC, and Mama didn’t want the boys to miss her, especially since they were fans both of her songs and her characters.

A couple of hours later, they are on the 1 train towards the Upper West Side.  Bank Street is two blocks away from the 110 St. stop.  They arrive a few minutes after the 11:00 scheduled performance, and the second floor is packed.

Bank Street Books is a staple of the Upper West Side community.  Before Mama moved to Wisconsin, and when her then 5 year old son was attending Kindergarten at the nearby PS 165, they would often stop into this cozy shop and browse through the wonderful selection of books and educational toys.  Even on this day, Mama was happy to see that the staff were as friendly and as helpful as she remembered them to be, and just being there again, with two new little ones, brought back many happy memories for her.  Recently, they hosted a reading by Julia Alvarez, a Dominican-American author (How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent) whose novels and poetry Mama just loves.  She is glad to see that despite all the changes the neighborhood consistently goes through, this is one of those neighborhood gems that never looses it’s luster.

Debi Derryberry’s performance was super fun.  Mama’s little ones managed to squeeze themselves to the front, where all the other kids were sitting, and listen as she told the story of Baby Banana and the Licorice Tree and sang songs from two of her CDs.

After the show the kids picked out a couple of toys, and Mama picked up two books before leaving and making their way to one of the playgrounds along Riverside Park.

And, as Mama expected, around 1:00PM, the 2 year old (you know, the one who woke up at 6:00AM), started rubbing his eyes and asking to go home.

With that, they made their way back home, while singing the chorus to Baby Banana.

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Tags: kid friendly
Posted in Performances/Events/Charities | 2 Comments »