Happy Halloween!

It's so cute to see the differences between Noelle and Delilah as they grow up. One major difference could be seen with Halloween this year. At two, Delilah hardly knew what Halloween was. Noelle, on the other hand, has had her costume picked out for weeks. Anytime anyone has mentioned the word "Halloween", Noelle has immediately cried out, "Ariel!!". Yep, she found Red's Ariel costume from last year and was determined to wear it herself this year. Delilah, on the other hand, has been changing her mind every 4 days this year. She finally settled on being a witch, but the hurricane delayed the costume and it didn't get here in time. No problem, though, her best friend Lyla let her borrow a Cinderella costume. Problem solved and I think you can tell from the pics that Red was quite happy in her Cinderella costume!
The elevators still weren't working b/c of the storm, so the night was spent going up and down stairs and stopping on each floor. A group of us met at Laura's around 5pm for an adult happy hour and so the kids could all get ready together. Then we stopped at Jonna's to take pics outside on her balcony. Then it was time to trick-or-treat! Everybody had a blast...there are so many kids in this building and it's so cute to see them all dressed up and excited. At the end, we went back to Laura's for cupcakes (b/c we needed more sugar), then Laura closed out the night by reading a book to our four girls. Hurricane Sandy didn't keep us down!!

They are so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maya, Lyla, Alexa, Red, Noelle

On Jonna's balcony

Checking out each other's loot

Princess wave!

Yum...cupcakes!

Laura with the final book of the evening

Happy Halloween!

Hurricane Sandy!

Somehow the northeast has been hit with two hurricanes during the two winters we've been here. I feel very guilty for apparently bringing the gulf coast storm patterns with us when we moved! Last year's hurricane wasn't too bad, but this one has been devastating. New Jersey got hit the hardest, with the rest of the tri-state area not faring too well either. Even though I started this post on October 30, it is now November 8th and hundreds of thousands of people are still without power. Coastlines have been pummeled, with thousands of homes flooded and destroyed.
Lower Manhattan is a mess, but we here in upper Manhattan had a much easier time. Our building only lost power for about 12 hours, for which I am so grateful. We are two blocks away from the East River, and the flooding literally stopped two buildings away. On the worst night of the storm, I didn't get any sleep b/c I kept reaching down every 30 minutes to make sure our floor was dry.
All mass transit/schools/etc were closed, so Delilah was home all week. Most people also didn't have work, but Chris faithfully headed to Mt. Sinai every day to make sure the hospital was still functioning at its highest capabilities. He even walked to work in his ski pants, that's how determined he was to keep the patients safe. And I love that he doesn't even think he was doing anything special; to him, it was just what needed to be done, and of course he was going to do it.
Meanwhile, back at Hampton Court, the girls & I were having a grand time. The entire building turned into one giant playdate. The elevators were out all week to conserve power, so the stairways and hallways were always full of children running and playing. We all took turns going to different apartments, with the children playing while the adults sipped coffee, tea, or wine. :) I will say, though, that by the end of the week we all had serious cabin fever!!!!

Red & Lyla share a sleeping bag (and pajamas!)

Delilah LOVED wearing the headlamp when the power was out. She is SO her father's child!

We will continue to pray and help out as much as possible. A huge snowstorm hit the northeast yesterday, so the relief efforts have been further complicated. I pray everyone has a warm, dry home as soon as possible, and I am so grateful for our blessings.

Boo at the Zoo!

Now that she doesn't have to stay in a stroller, Noelle loves the zoo. We thought it would be the perfect place to celebrate her birthday since it's so close to Halloween and the Bronx Zoo goes all out for the holiday.
Getting there turned out to be a little rough. The story is too convoluted and doesn't lend itself to a pithy blog post, but suffice to say we took 3 times longer and walked a mile further than we should have and somehow worked in a McDonalds happy meal.
Once there, we had a blast. The girls were dressed in their adorable Halloween outfits from Grammy Di, and the whole zoo was decorated spookily.

Delilah is in love with maps right now, so she & Daddy had to plan everything out carefully. :)

Love this sweet pic of Daddy & his girls looking at the seals.

Craft table at the zoo where Delilah made a mask.

Playing tag in the extinct animals graveyard

Gorgeous foliage in the zoo

Tired Ellie Bug

Headed home. Just wanted to document this time in our lives when we take subways to the zoo instead of a car!

Photography by Delilah

Opening her presents and wearing a crown from the card Miss Laura & the Bighams sent.

Red putting the finishing touches on Noelle's cake

So excited! (And note to self: never let Chris frost a cake again)

Starting with a fork

"Forget the fork!"

Playing with the awesome gift from Grammy Di & Papa H

Delilah likes it as much as Noelle. And, yes, she is wearing sparkly earmuffs and no pants.

Worn out

SUCH a fun day!!!  The girls did a ton of other fun stuff at the zoo (hay maze, monorail, watched a bunch of dancing monsters, etc.) but it was just one of those days that wasn't camera friendly. The girls were just too excited to pin down for a picture. I suppose that's the sign of a pretty great day. :)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Noelle!!!!

Happy birthday, little bundle of joy!
Here are your physical stats:
Height: 37.25 inches (95th %)
Weight: 28 lbs, 6 oz (75th %)
Head: 19.25" (95th %)

Noelle, I don't even know where to start. You have more personality at 2 than most people have their entire lives. You are so very funny, and such a ham.
-You have great mimicry skills, both physically & vocally...you can copy just about anything you see or hear.
-If we tell you "no", you get madder than anyone I've ever seen for about 15 seconds, then you just go about your business as if nothing happened.
-You HATE the stroller now. I am not afraid to shove you in, but you will get in happily only if I have food waiting in the snack tray.
-You love the people who work in our building and run up to hug nearly all of them.
-You are happiest when with your sister. You two can play together by yourselves for literally hours at a time.
-You love baby dolls and stuffed animals and all things girly.
-Yet you are such a little rough-and-tumble tomboy!
-You randomly walk up to me and your father and say, "Cuddle?", and it melts our hearts. You like to cuddle in specific ways with each of us. For me, you like to sit on my lap, facing me, and just wrap all four limbs around me as you lay your head on my chest...kind of like a baby monkey. For daddy, you like to sit next to him, then lean into his side while he puts his arm around you.
-You are smart and sneaky in all the best ways. I am already worried about you as a teenager.
-At your 2 year check-up, the dr. asked how many words you have. I casually said "hundreds" and she said "50 is normal", as though I was exaggerating. I swear you understood, b/c you just started walking around the office naming things. Then you said your ABC's, and then you counted to 12. When the dr. dropped her pen, you picked it up, handed it to her and said, "here you go, honey". She laughed and said, "Well, I guess she really does have hundreds of words."
-In addition to knowing your ABC's and being able to count to 12, you also know about 10-15 colors and can recognize several letters and a few numbers when you see them. You know most of your shapes, and your absolute favorite is oval.
-You love cars and coloring
-You are so bright and sunny.
-From the day you were born, you have been this bright little ball of light that draws everyone in the room to you. It is so, so beautiful.

Now, here are some pics from your birthday. It was a school day for both me and your sister, so we had a low key day...the real celebration was at the zoo a couple days later. :)

See all that personality?!?!



I had to include this pic b/c Noelle & Lyla look like they haven't seen each other in years, but they just spent 2 hours at the gym together. They had been apart for 10 minutes and this was their reunion. :)

You. Are. Gorgeous.

Happy Girl

 All day you kept telling everyone you saw that it was your birthday. You kept repeating, "Birthday! Mine! My Birthday! Cupcake?"

Just look at that face. Oh, sweet Noelle, I don't know how such a tiny body holds so much light and joy. We LOVE you!!!!!

Pumpkin Carving on the Roof

It's funny what you have to change when you move to a big city. There are little things you never think about until they crop up, like: where do you carve a pumpkin when you don't have a backyard? You can do it inside, of course, but that's no fun and it really is such a messy affair. Well, this past Saturday brought absolutely beautiful weather after a week of rain, so we headed up to the roof of our building!
Delilah has been asking to carve a pumpkin for weeks and weeks and weeks. She was so excited that it was finally time that she had to get dressed for the occasion...in her 4th of July outfit. Whatever makes her happy, right?

 

Pulling out the messy pumpkin guts

Playing ring-around-the-rosie while Chris & I finished removing pumpkin guts

Tracing the face outline

Carefully carving with together

Happily coloring while her sister carved

So proud!!!

Delilah took this shot. :)

 And I will end with a shot of the girls in the adorable Halloween outfits Grammy Di sent.

 

While I went to school Sat morning, Chris took them to the park like this. He said they could hardly walk a few steps without somebody smiling and/or commenting on the girls. Seriously, wouldn't seeing these two walking on the street brighten your day?

Apple Picking!!!

The church we joined goes apple picking every year to an adorable farm (Wilton Farm? Wilson?) about an hour north of Manhattan.  Everybody meets at the church around 9am, then caravans (I'm still always shocked when NYC'ers own cars) up to the farm. This sounded like too much fun to miss, so we signed up to go.  Sadly, Chris severely pulled a muscle in his neck/shoulder so he couldn't go.  He NEVER misses anything, so I know he must have been in so much pain. :(   We take the bus to church, and there was no way I could finagle both girls and two carseats by myself, so Noelle stayed home with Daddy. Leaving Delilah was simply not an option because she had been talking ALL WEEK about going apple picking.
It was a beautiful day and I'm pretty sure the pictures speak for themselves.



Waiting on the sidewalk outside the church...can you tell somebody was ready to go?!?!?

Ever the photographer, Delilah took this picture of me

Ian and Maggie rode in the car with us. They are precious newlyweds who just moved here from England. They both went to Oxford, and he's now getting his PhD at Columbia.  Delilah LOVED them and followed them everywhere. They originally said they didn't want to have kids until he was done with school, but by the time we drove home Maggie said Delilah had moved up their time frame. :)

Proudly holding the apple picking basket

They had bins of apples for...what? I don't know...people too lazy to pick the apples? Delilah was not impressed

Another Delilah shot

We rode the trailer from the orchard back to the farm. Delilah LOVED it!

Love this pic

Okay, I saved the best pic for last. Delilah saw this tree and was ENCHANTED! I mean, seriously, does this photo not look like the cover of a children's book?!?!?!?

Perfection

Noelle and Chris were sorely missed, but it was really fun to have a mother/daughter day with Red. We shared a dozen apples and even more giggles. Oh, sweet Delilah, I love watching you experience the world.