America, June 5, 2009
New Yorkers Love Hanalei Stockard Vota
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I'm not sure when I realized that New Yorkers love my daughter, Hanalei.
Maybe it was the cab drivers, always willing to wait while I buckled in her car seat. Maybe it was the waitress who made space for her stroller at the table. Or maybe it was when the cute college girls stopped everything and played with Hanalei at Starbucks. Yeah, that was it. When I could get random women to put away their iPhones and boyfriends to babysit my daughter in a busy Starbucks, I knew she'd won the hearts and minds of the Big Apple. Amy and I took Hanalei on her first NYC visit to get her acclimated to overstimulation, and she fit right in. Asleep on Amtrak, calm on the subway, and styling in restaurants, she was the perfect 6 month old. She even went to meetings with Daddy, wooing a crowd of focused computer coders with her charm. May she always be and have this much travel fun. |
