Snow Day

Earlier this month, NYC got a few inches of snow. This gave Sloan a chance to test out her new snow suit on the roof.

Grandma comes to town...

Sloan got a special treat in the middle of April with Grandma came to look after her for a few days. I was on the road for some work travel (LA, to be specific) and Vanessa (our nanny) was enjoying a vacation in Japan. It was a great chance for Sloan and my mom to spend some time together.

Here are some pics from her trip to NYC...

Couch time

Food training

Grandma showing off the city

There's a big world out there

Now let's go get it!

Big thank you to my mom for coming up for the week. It was great to have her in town and I know Sloan loved having her here.

Just another weekend

Last weekend was a pretty fun filled weekend for us, so I thought I would post a few pictures from it.

First up, it was my first Friday working from home without Barry there as well. I'm not going to lie, it was really, really hard. I had 4 conference calls - most of which I had to stay on mute bc Sloan was noisy - and a ton of emails to send out. She is a great napper, but nobody can sleep the day away!

Sloanie Bear helping me with my work early a.m.
I took this  picture mostly to show off the crab butt in her PJs. 

Tummy time in the mirror

Our new Bumbo seat!
(I originally bought a different brand of seat, but she is too tiny for it) 

Later that evening Cousin Emily came over to babysit Sloan so we could go to a Cowboy Mouth concert. Cowboy Mouth is a crazy band whose lead singer is also the drummer. He puts on quite a show. Everybody brings plastic red spoons to the show and throws them at the drummer/singer during one of his songs. 

Drummer/Singer

Red Spoons

Saturday was full of errands, but a few pictures into our world:

Lounging with Dad

We dressed her like a biker chick. Her socks say "Dad" on the hearts 

Hey Warby, that's my chair!! 

Sunday was super fun for us. We had a reunion with all of the moms/babies from our New Mom Group.

Getting ready in the morning. Collar popped! 

The whole crew L-R:
Kerri/Sloan, Emma/Vivian, Sam/Oli, Anna/Lulu, Suzette/Lucia, Thao/Ava

Baby Flower!
You wouldn't know it here, but Sloan is the third oldest. Only Ava, to her left, and Lulu, directly across from her, are older. 

That wasn't the best part of the day though, this was:

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

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. 

One Week Down, 935 To Go

Today will mark the first full week we have had Sloan at home and its certainly been a game changer. All, of course, in a great way. I think Kerri and I would both be kidding ourselves if we said the week hasn't been a blur but its great to have our girl at home. 

After a few days of nervously watching Sloan in her bassinet, eyes wide open and being sure her chest moved with every breath, my parents (Tony and Vanessa) arrived to see their first grandchild. Of course Sloan passed the cute and well-behaved test with flying colors and even took to the town with parents and grandparents en tow.

First time in Washington Square Park. No, Sloan did not buy any drugs.

Tony and Vanessa are here until tomorrow (Tuesday) so there will certainly be some more time holding Sloan and getting their fill of that cute face.

Barry, Vanessa, Sloan, Kerri and Tony Loudis. The couch does hold 5 people!

So one week down and 935 to go, that's 18 years of 52 weeks. I figured if Kerri keeps crazy countdowns for the start of football season, I can have one too.