New York City Adventure.

Saturday Abby and took a day trip to New York city to go the the American Girl Place.  We had an amazing adventure.  Abby and I love American Girl dolls.  I think I love them at least as much as she does.   The dolls are for accessible for her with her visual impairment.  The dolls are easy for  her to manipulate with touch and they are large enough for her to still visually enjoy them.  They have many cool accessories but sadly not really any visually impaired themed items. (though that was easy to fix with a craft project) Abby has 7 .. yes 7 American Girl dolls. This doesn't count her Bitty Twins and Bitty Baby. There is many reasons for this but lets just leave it at both Abby and I are BOTH fans.

Now back to our magical day.

We walked up 5th Ave from where we were dropped off  near the Empire State Building to American Girl Place New York City.

I was so proud of Abby she used her cane great the whole walk to American Girl. She sometimes fights using her cane but she needed it and she knew I expected her to use it so it was never really an issue in NYC.  It was really neat to watch her play with different textures on the ground.

Abby and Mommy at the American Girl Place cafe

We arrived after a short brisk walk.  I must say from almost the moment we walked in to till the moment we left I was impressed. My sister set up a personal shopper for Abby. Its a free service offered at American Girl Place. You need to make arrangements for it in advanced but its well worth it.  I really recommend it for any special needs girls.  Our personal shopper Robyn was like an ambassador.  Helping Abby have the very best experience possible.

 The most special experience she set up for Abby was how Abby's doll got her hair done. Instead of Abby having her dolls hair done  in the normal spot they had it done in the personal shopper area.  Abby would never have been able to watch her doll's hair get done.  Its one of Abby's favorite thing at the American Girl store and she wasn't going to be able to experience it at all. In moving it to the other room she was able to get real close, ask questions and even help out.  There is no way I can't ever really express how special this was for Abby.  How speical this was for ME.  Abby has been through a lot with her vision loss but American Girl made it so Abby could just feel like a girl having a wonderful day.

Abby watching her doll get her hair done. 

I could keep gushing out this special day because American Girl (and Robyn at American Girl) hit a home run with our experience.  The store is well lit.  It was easy for Abby to navigate.  The floor were clean.  I am sure things end up on the floor but the people who work there kept it well picked up.  We even learned something new. There is escalators and Abby did amazing going up but when it came down we realized Abby really shouldn't be going down them at all.  I am thankful she never got hurt so scary.  We learned .  (there was plenty of elevators so her going down was never an issue). 

My sister Tricia had arranged for the personal shopper service and decided to surprise us with meeting us there.  Remember that little girl who had a horrible  birthday a few weeks ago. Well I think we replaced those memories with this magical day.

Abby with her birthday cake. It was birhtday outing even a month later.

After our amazing lunch it was time for us to leave but we had  chance to explore the city some more. Abby got to go to Rockefeller center (and said the skaters look like penguins from what she could see) and Time Square. She loved the lights in Times Square.  

Abby in Times Square with my sister Tricia