Start 'em early

Start 'em early, I say... (the gymnastics, not the awesomeness...she started that a long time ago)

If you're wondering, that is some poor boy named Edison's art. Sloan stole it and would not give it back.

Mother's Day

Quick pictures from last year's Mother's Day

and this year's...

Animal Adventures

A few weeks ago, on our first trip nice weather trip to the Hamptons, we took Sloan to a petting zoo. She isn't talking yet, but makes an awful lot of animal noises, so we figured this would be quite the adventure for her.

We bought a bucket of feed, decided against the bottle of milk for the goats, and were off to meet the animals. There were pigs, goats, ducks, ponies, chickens, a massive camel, even wallabies and llamas. Sloan wasn't so sure about it all at first. The fact the animals could stick their mouths through the fence was a bit much for her. That Dad was actually feeding them was even more! She loved running around taking it all in; she even got to pet a bunny rabbit and ride a pony (with Dad's help of course). By the end she was brave enough to go into the goat pen, and Dad saved just enough feed to attract all of them. Success!!

Smelly pigs!

Lil' Sebastian

Open road...

Family selfie

Sloan's first pony ride

Not so sure about the goats 

Goat attack! 

Fun at the zoo! 

All in all it was a successful first zoo trip. We also went to the Central Park Zoo with Courtney & Oakley for Mother's Day. It wasn't quite as successful, but she had fun nonetheless. We saw penguins, and I think she was afraid they were going to come through the glass. Perhaps an actual petting zoo wasn't the best first experience!

One final video from our petting zoo experience:

Construction - aka the "sure, why not" post

When Sloan came home in September of 2012, Kerri and I knew something was going to have to give when it came to our apartment. We were incredibly lucky to have the size, location and amenities (read: elevator and private roof area) on 13th Street since summer of 2010 but would a child send us to another area of town or (GASP!) Brooklyn??? 

After sleeping in her bassinet in our bedroom for the first 2 sleepless months, Sloan moved to the area between our bedroom and bathroom. This was pretty convenient as her limited footprint only consisted of a small crib and a changing table (previously seen in our kitchen as an IKEA microwave stand/storage unit.) We set up a small heater for Sloan to keep warm by since this area also had our spiral staircase to the roof. Yes, she was a Harry Potter child. 

Late spring/early summer of 2013, it became apparent that Sloan's space under the stairs wasn't going to fly much longer. "Kid gear" had been increasing by the day. Our lease renewal paperwork had also just come in which, of course, was an increase over our current rate for the next two years. Kerri and I considered moving for about 90 seconds before I started to get brave and sketch out in my mind how we could shift our current one bedroom into a junior two bedroom. [Side note: "junior two" is NYC code for a two-bedroom where the second bedroom doesn't have a window.] 

Lump in my throat and telephone in my hand, I called our building owner with a proposition: let me do construction on our apartment, at our expense, in exchange for the same rent we had been paying for the last year (which, keep in mind, was negotiated the previous renewal cycle and we were given a break 'because we were nice kids who just got married'). Our landlord, who shall remain graciously nameless, asked to see my plans for the construction. I sent them to his secretary along with a picture of Sloan. It was a sneaky move but I needed all the help I could get with this negotiation or we may be taking the subway into the city from Bushwick every day.

A few days passed and Mr. Landlord called my cell. The first words out of his mouth weren't, "hello" or, "is Barry there?" but instead, "be sure the little girl has good ventilation." I felt pretty lucky that this 80+-year-old man who owns more buildings in Manhattan than he can probably remember and likely pays more each year in real estate taxes than I will make in my lifetime not only took the time to call me but gave us his approval. 

Mr. Landlord and I talked a few more minutes about the particulars of the project: who would do demolition (me) and how long do I think it would take (couple weeks). We got to the lease renewal rate. After listening to how Bloomberg had ruined so many of his investments over the last decade and how taxes on the building were putting him into the poor house, we settled on an increase but one that was dramatically less than the proposed. It ended up making the project cost a wash versus the increased rent but I didn't complain as we escaped the hassle and expense of moving.

Construction started a few days later and with help from some great friends, it all started to come together in a matter of weeks. 

Also, I want to give a big thank you to Heath and Jen who let us crash at their place for several weekends while the demo, build and painting/finishing were underway.

Now, about 9 months after the build was completed, we still have standing walls and the doors still close (pretty well, anyway). I do plan to take on other construction projects but hopefully they are in a place Kerri and I own and don't require me to cut drywall sheets in half just to get them into the room.

Here's a gallery of the construction from start to finish. We took so many pictures I'm still finding a shots that I will add to the gallery as they come up.

CONSTRUCTION PHOTO GALLERY

Adventures from the playground

This weekend was quite the adventure...

The weather was (finally) above 50 degrees, so all of New York was outside soaking in the Vitamin D.  Our little family of three was no exception. First up on Saturday was an unexpected brunch at Uncle Heath & Aunt Jen's. Sloan loves their apartment because there is so much space to roam around, but she also loves when Uncle Heath flies her through the air.

Sloan likes to steal Jen's giraffe

Impromptu dance party on the couch

After a not so quick nap, we were back at it - this time to Union Square playground. We let Sloan walk the majority of the way there these days. When she gets about 200 feet from the playground (just enough to hear the other kids shrieking) she takes off running. First stop is the swings...there weren't any open baby swings, so we tried the big kid swing out. Looks like we might need to grow into it...

We moved over to the baby playground, but then, tragedy struck. Sloan was crawling up the stairs and sliding down the slide like a champ, when suddenly on the last run her hand slipped and she hit her face on the steps. She hit the corner of her eye bone square on the step...

The immediate aftermath...

We tried to ice it when we got home, but she was  NOT having it. She wasn't letting anything come close to her eyes. So, after a quick bath (and a dose of Tylenol) we put her to bed. The next morning, we awoke to our first black eye...

As awful as it looks, her spirits were great. She was back to her normal, full-of-energy self. The timing was pretty bad though because we had a neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt to go to Sunday morning. I have an awesome dress that my mom made for her, and I've been saving it for the first springtime occasion...and now she'll have a nice black eye in all the pictures! Going to have to conjure up a few more occasions for it...

We still made it to the Easter Egg Hunt though, and she had a great time. Sloan found several eggs, looked super cute in her dress, and had a blast playing with her friend Charlie.

More eggs, over there! 

She's smiling under that thumb

They don't look happy, but they were sharing chocolate...trust me, they were happy!

Here's a video of Sloan on the prowl for eggs

We finished Sunday off with a trip to Thompkins Square Park playground to meet up with Sloan's friend Lulu. If you had any thoughts that Sloan might be hesitant to go full speed after Saturday's accident, you have not met my child. She was rip roarin' ready to go.

Sloan & Lulu taking turns on the slide

Weeee!

Finally, a video too cute not to share. Lulu's mom, Anna, took a video of them running after each other...it's too cute, and ends with an adorable, yet off kilter, hug.

What A Difference A Year Makes

One more while I'm at it...

Here is a picture of us from New Year's last year vs. New Year's this year.

Long Time, No Talk

We started this blog as a sort of diary to capture memories, but also to keep far away friends & family up to date on our lives. Judging by our latest activities, we've been up to very little the last 6 months. That, of course, is not true when you have an almost 18 month old on the loose in your 800 sq ft NYC apartment! What is true is that down time comes at a premium, therefore we've got a slow blog these days...

As everyone is aware, this winter has been ridiculous. Sloan has spent a lot of her time at Appleseeds (an indoor play gym), in her snow suit, or staring out the window thinking how nice it would be to roam the streets of NYC. We've made the best of it, but we are all dreaming of warmer days on the playground. 

Here are a few snapshots of the last few months...

This is from November; one of the first times we let her walk on the street. She smiled at absolutely everyone we passed. She was so proud of herself and it was the cutest thing ever. 

So happy about the beanbag Nanny Ness got us for Christmas! 

This is a game we like to play called "Waiting for Dad" 

This is another game we like to play called "I'm not getting my way, so I'm just going to lie on the ground".

Sloan's first snow steps. Incredibly unsure, but not all together unhappy about it. 

This picture is from Appleseeds. They have an indoor slide, lots of play toys, and a few big mats to play on.
It has been a life saver during the cold winter months!

Bundle up!!

There are many other adventures to catch everyone up on - Thanksgiving, Christmas, a new year of swim lessons - but for now, life calls...