New York City Is Your Gift Part 2

No New York City trip would be complete without a trip to the Today Show, right?

If you remember correctly, my daughter and I went to New York City to celebrate her 10th brithday. We left no stone uncovered, and did it all -including a final surprise (for her) to go to the Today Show’s Summer Concert Series.

That morning, I woke her up at 5 am telling her that the NYC Birthday trip ended that day; and that I had one final surprise for her: going to the Today Show with VIP passes to see Fifth Harmony.

The poor girl was so sleepy; I don’t think she wrapped her head around what we were doing nor why we needed to be up so early since I omitted the WHAT and WHO of what we were doing. I just told her we needed to get up and get dressed, moving very slow since we were awake and eating delivery pizza in our hotel room the night before at 11 pm.

When we arrived at Rockefeller Center, there was excitement all around us. Incredulous, I never thought that a couple of hundred people would wake up in the middle of the night to stand in line, under pouring rain, for the possibility of getting a pass to the concert series.

Once we got there, I picked up our passes from the Today Show producers and when she looked at the pass the squeals of excitement coming out of my girl fit right in with the crowd.

“OMG OMG OMG We are here to see Fifth Harmony!!!! Mom!!!!” and things like that for about twenty minutes.

With VIP passes come standing in the front, next to the stage and the Today Show crew. One minute you are standing there watching these young girls perform the next Tamron Hall is hugging your daughter telling her that she is beautiful (she nearly passed out).

And then, there is that moment where Carson Daly is standing next to you, and you are looking at each other like “I’ve seen you before somewhere” and your daughter says: my mom cooked with you in a segment! And he tilts his head and says: yes! let’s take a picture. And we did.

After all of that excitement, my girl told me I was officially the coolest mom ever. Whew, I made her cook-mom-club!

We had a blast documenting the entire trip on Snapchat and this morning made it a real finale for her and all our friends watching. My only regret is not having my “real” camera with me that morning since the battery died the night before.

After that exciting morning, we headed to the airport and flew home. The concert was an incredible finale to our mother-daughter trip.

My biggest takeaway from the trip is that our children need our undivided attention, and we need that alone time, away from our daily lives to reconnect that bond that formed the day they were born.

Have you taken a trip, one-on-one, with one of your kids? How was it?