Four Months...

How fast time flies.

Here's some pics of Sloan in her 4 Month outfit.

Long Missouri Highway...

After experimenting with Thanksgiving in NYC (and obviously delicious fried turkey) we took Sloan for her first flight back to Springfield, Missouri to meet family and friends. As you may expect, Kerri and I took a very methodical approach to how we packed for the first airplane trip. With our bags checked (yes, against my personal bi-laws) we got the OK to fly from Sloan. Of course, before we could board we had to change one of the biggest diapers we have ever seen. The blowout had to have been a caused by pre-flight nerves. Good thing we had an extra outfit!

Sloan is changed and ready to fly!

Sidenote - If you haven't applied for TSA Pre-Check, I highly recommend it. Kids under 12 can go with their parents through the easy-access security lane which we did with Sloan. Even with a big carry-on bag full of baby stuff, it was a lot easier than navigating the Family Lane.

With the 4:30 AM wake up call and activity of getting to the airport, Sloan was pretty quick to sleep the entirety of both flights (NYC-Chicago, Chicago-Springfield).

I'm just gonna sleep her a while.

Once we got to Springfield, Sloan met her Great Grandmother, Ann Annis (but her friends call her Nana).

"I like this lady."

Resting after the trip. Sleeping makes Sloan tired.

My mom with Nana and Sloan

She also got to meet up with her Uncle Kyle, Aunt Jessika, Aunt Niki and Uncle Richard. Niki and Richard are going to have their first child later this spring (a boy) so Niki getting some holding practice was a good idea.

Aunt Niki and Sloan

Uncle Kyle, Aunt Jessika and Sloan

Kyle (my brother) was starring in a local production of Avenue Q so Kerri and I asked Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) to watch Sloan. Kyle was great in the show and I guess the rest of the cast was OK too. After the show Kerri and I had dinner at Flame and caught the #1 band in all the land, "THE DETECTIVES" at The Outland Ballroom. It was almost like a real date.

The set of Avenue Q. Some of the jokes were pretty close
to home for Kerri and me.

The Detectives, live in action!

The next day was SEC Championship Saturday but before the game, Ethan and Marilyn Banks brought over their 9-month-old boy, Harry. Sloan slept for most of the visit but Harry seemed interested in the smaller person on the couch.

Harry Banks on the left, just a few months older than Sloan. 

We also had a chance to see my Uncle Ted who was recovering from wrist surgery. He always said if you keep doing it you'll break it.

Sloan hanging with Uncle Ted

(We're purposely skipping the game recap, no need to get into it again)

Our last day we had a chance to take some shots down the road behind my parents house. Here are a few...

If I had to guess, I think Sloan enjoyed her first trip to Missouri. It certainly won't be her last.

Turkey

Happy Turkey Day!
We stayed in NYC for Thanksgiving this year, but we were not without family. We were able to spend the day with our 'New York family'. Not everyone was in town, but we were very thankful for those that were and wanted to spend it with us.

Our festivities started Wednesday evening at the Pre-Thanksgiving day balloon bash. They blow up all the balloons in the few blocks around the Natural History Museum, and it's open to the public to kind of peruse at their own leisure. Well, joke is on the public, because there is no leisure and no perusing to be had. The crowds were absolutely out of control.  There were a few times we thought about turning around, but this was our friend Cecilia's first trip so we shuffled through a few blocks of waiting and 45 minutes later, we were in!

The crowds to get in (it was just as bad the other direction)

 It was almost as crowded once you got in...we only stayed to see half of the balloons, but saw the important ones:

Charlie Brown looking for his football 

Kermit (note the silver pouch Barry is wearing - that is Sloan)

Hello Kitty

Worth noting that this was also Sloan's first subway ride! I am pleased to announce that she survived, and so far is not sick.

Thursday was even busier (but much less crowded) than Wednesday evening. Barry was in charge of the menu and put on quite a show. He put the years of training to use and fried his own turkey!

The bird before it went in

fry, turkey! fry!

A man and his bird. 

Perfection! 

All in all, it was a stellar evening. We had fried turkey, green bean casserole, cranberry dressing, stuffing, two kinds of squash, gumbo, rolls, all sorts of potatoes, and a few green dishes just in case someone was watching what they ate. All in we had 13 grown ups and 2 young ones (Sloan and David John Castricone) at dinner. Heath and Jen were in Alabama for the Iron Bowl so they were gracious enough to let us use their apartment to host the crew.

It was all delicious! 

 And finally, one last photo to sum up what Barry and I are most thankful for this year...

our little turkey

No...Sleep...til Brooklyn!!

One of our first nights out of the house without Sloan, Kerri and I made our way to the Barclay Center to see Georgia take on Indiana. The Bulldogs hung in there for 35 minutes but eventually fell to the Hoosiers.

Big thank you to Aunt Emily Ramsey for watching Sloan for us and an big thank you to Mike Bilbow (Man on the Inside) for the help with tickets. 

Sloan, meet Warby...Warby, meet Sloan.

You'll remember that our nickname for Sloan before she was born was Warby. Well, a few weeks ago when the grandparents were here, we decided it was time for us to introduce Sloan to her namesake....the Warby Parker eyewear store!

Sloan is so excited to be here! 

 Their store is actually just a showroom in their office, so our trip was a bit hectic. There wasn't anyone to brag to about our awesome little creation, so we just wandered about trying on some of their best frames. Well, wouldn't you know that they recently released their Fall 2012 line...named SLOAN!!!! Yes, you read that right - our daughter, named Sloan, was named Warby...and Warby Parker named their latest line Sloan. It is even spelled the same way! So, naturally we got a picture of Sloan/Warby in Warby's Sloans!

Do these come in a smaller size? 

Uptown Girl

When Sandy hit, we became Upper West Side residents thanks to my cousins George & Carol. They were so very kind to take us in for the week and really were the only reason we survived the storm without major issues! We are forever grateful to their kindness and compassion for taking us in!

For Sloan, this was a pretty exciting week. As you'll recall Sandy hit just before Halloween. We had already dressed her up and she's too young to go trick-or-treating, so really it was all about her taking it in. First up - pumpkin carving!

(L-R) The pre-carve pumpkin, Sloan, George 

It's hard to see, but the outline of the pumpkin...they let me carve it!
I can't remember the last time I had anything to do with carving a pumpkin. 

My audience as I carved the pumpkin

The finished product!

 George and Carol put a sign up in their building to let people know they are open for Halloween. Quite a few spooks stopped by throughout the night, including their grandchildren Nicky and Callie. Callie is 7 and she and her friends were pretty excited about a new baby being in the house. They didn't care that Sloan wasn't dressed up, but they liked her Halloween bib.

Look at those svelte little legs! 

The fun didn't end with Halloween though. This was the week that Sloan really started looking at things. You could tell she knew she was in a new place, and we were able to get her to track faces a few times that week. We were also without the bouncer chair, so there was always someone holding her. You can imagine how disappointed she was when we had to come home!!

Cousin Em with the burp

Out cold. 

Reading the paper with mom 

Carol & George were so wonderful to take us in and we really appreciated their hospitality. It was a great excuse to be able to spend some quality time with family that is close by, but we don't get to see nearly as often as we should. They were kind enough to babysit for us one night so we could go to dinner with a friend as well. I'm pretty sure they were tempted to just keep Sloan and let us go home empty-strollered!

One last snuggle from George & Carol 

Just before we walked our 4 miles home we stopped at Paula's apartment to see her family that was in town. The whole Jobson-Allegretti family has been so concerned for Sloan, and supportive of us, since Day 1. They were so delighted to meet her!

Jobson-Allegretti clan

Sloan Gets Out The Vote!

Out front of our polling location (and apartment, conveniently).

Sloan had her first taste of democracy today. Baby carrier securely attached, Barry took her into the booth at our District 39 polling location in NYC and checked the box for President/Vice President among other local races. No "I Voted" stickers, sadly.

First of many votes to come, mom and dad are sure.

Sandy

What a week it has been! Hurricane Halloween, indeed...

We were able to fix dinner, give Sloan a bath, then...BAM, , this happened:


We lost power at 8:37 pm Monday night. Once the power went out, it got bad. Once cell service went out, it got worse..We were able to keep up with most of what Sandy was doing thanks to our phones & Twitter. But shortly after we went to bed at midnight our cell service went. Tuesday morning we had a 15 minute window where my Blackberry worked, but after that we were unable to communicate with anyone. It's a strange feeling to know that you are living in what feels like the Stone Age, yet people one mile north of you are continuing life as if nothing has happened.

It is worth a quick detour in our story to talk about the NYU Langone evacuation. It was one of the last stories we read before we lost service, and we were devastated by it. Those were the same nurses that cared for Sloan for 5 weeks. They are the most amazing, wonderful, kind, caring people you can imagine - absolutely heaven-sent. I am not surprised to hear that all of their patients made it out ok...the care they give is simply outstanding, but I can't even begin to imagine having a child that needed to be evacuated from the NICU in the midst of the storm. I am so grateful for each and every one of those nurses.

Around 10 am Tuesday Barry ventured outside to see what it was like out there. He was determined to walk as far as it took to get cell service again. Lo and behold, he walked all of 5 blocks and his phone lit up with emails and text messages from concerned friends and family. Our cousins, George & Carol, who live on the Upper West Side had volunteered to take us in. We packed a suitcase and the bottom of the stroller and set out on our journey. Here is a photo gallery of our journey northward...

Tree damage Union Square East

We walked west on 13th a few blocks. There were very few people on the street and even fewer cars. By the time we got to University Place one of the more under estimated issues became apparent: traffic lights. Not just for cars, but the walk/don't walk signs for pedestrians. It is ingrained in a New Yorker's mind to look for the cross walk signs, but now there were none. They seemed to be telling us we were on our own...

Normally busy movie theater, shuttered.

The view down University 

Finally! A business that is open - selling coffee, but in the dark. 

The view east on 13th (our street)

ConEd trucks lined up in Union Square

 All the ConEd trucks in the world weren't going to fix our problem though; they had to fix the transformer before anything would come on. As we continued North, we noticed something very odd - all of the people outside appeared to be tourists. We guessed that most New Yorkers were holed up in their dark apartments. By the time we hit Madison Square Park - 23rd & Broadway - it was a curious site. LIGHTS!!

North: Lights! 

South: Dark. 

The first store we saw with lights...ironically, a lighting store. 

When we hit 26th & Broadway it waas like a different world. Lights were on and cafes were crowded. It was shuttered on one side of the street, and life as normal on the other. It was as if nothing had happened. Onward we strolled...north on Broadway through more tourists, past Macy's (with lights) and Herald Square. About an 45 minutes into it we hit Times Square

"Power is everything." Don't we know...don't we know. 

Baby's first trip to Times Square

View South - no cars!

Our next site was the infamous dangling crane! Talk about a tourist trap...

We were one of ~40 people taking pictures. 

 Around this time, George met us on the street to escort us the rest of the way. Their night had been pretty uneventful - high winds knocked down a tree across the street, but other than that they were unscathed (lucky for us!).

Tree down at Columbus Circle 

Another view of the dangling crane from Columbus Circle

 As you can imagine there were a lot of downed trees in Central Park. I was surprised there wasn't more damage, but there were quite a few. Crews were already working to cut and remove the majority of the mess. Likely in anticipation of the now defunct marathon, but alas...we were almost to our destination!

About an hour and a half and 4 miles later, we finally rounded the corner to George & Carol's apartment. Lights, hot water, and a phone charge were in our future! We could finally plug back into the world. 

One of the first things we did was turn on the TV to watch the storm coverage. We were amazed at the devastation in our little corner of the world. We were simply without electricity, hot water and cell service...that was nothing compared to so many folks along the East Coast. This is such a densely populated area that the devastation is felt times over. Ocean and Bay met all along parts of Long Island, taking homes and transportation with them. The majority of people were not able to get to work - which for many was the only place with electricity. Basic public services were rendered useless up and down the coast. It seems trivial when so many are without power, water & heat in November, but in NYC there is quite a lot of garbage piling up on our streets. I'm sure things will get back to normal soon, but I feel for those that have lost their homes and are still without power as we brace for a Nor'easter that is supposed to hit mid-week. As is the New York way, we will get through this & be even stronger for it - but we have a long way to go. 

Barry was downtown checking on our apartment when the power came back on Friday evening. There were many hoots & hollers on the street when it happened. We are eternally grateful to George & Carol for taking us in. They were so kind to have us for the entire week (and even babysit Sloan one night). I will have another post soon about our week as Upper West Side residents, but for now wanted to post our story about the storm.