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Halloween 2012

apparently, there are many neighborhood halloween parades in nyc, park slope notwithstanding.  and, we learned from our neighbor that the parade normally comes right up our street. unfortunately, because of sandy, many halloween parades were canceled this year...including ours!  but, the parents who are a part of the park slope parents association (which we are a part of) have been writing over the past two days, providing input on how to not spoil halloween for our little ones.  so, it was decided that trick or treating would begin earlier in our 'hood -- around 3:30pm before it got dark.

siri and our babysitter, rachel handed out candy from 3:30-4, then jeff, siri and i went trick or treating for...TWO HOURS!  that's the longest she's been able to handle walking around with a bucket full of candy.  and, she filled that bucket to the brim.  note that claudia, one of the janitors at brooklyn college gave siri the trick or treating bucket.  siri has yet to properly thank her with a card, but we're working on it.

the mix of residential and commercial trick or treating was also fun for siri, and she didn't want to go home when the parental unit finally decided we'd had enough of the cold.  oh yes, did i mention the cold?  it was cold, like how halloween should be -- at least how it was from our childhood (minus the rain).  for once in the past 9 years, halloween actually felt like halloween.  

pre halloween party: dr. rosenberg and her patients

dr. rosenberg takes a quick break from surgery, eats a bagel and drinks some steamed milk

siri calls this her "scary face"

acting silly

halloween decos are fun!

starting halloween morning right with gf chocolate chip muffin baked by mommy and a nice glass of vino (note: actually empty wine glass that was never taken into the kitchen the night before)

siri wanted rectangles for eyes, a triangle for nose and a toothy smile on her jack o lantern

i obliged

we then roasted the pumpkin seeds and siri loved them!  she also insisted on cupping this bowl when i took the picture

posing with jack o lantern and a small box of nails (not sure why, but she insisted)

lit jack-o

vet and cat patient

dorky family costume

trick or treating

neighbors were much more creative than me

getting some candy all by herself

neighbor's decorations

daddy doggy snuck in a quick pic

gigantic spider

the ghost moves back and forth

grossness.  siri was asked to reach into the "poopy toilet" to get candy.  she refused.  the "poop" was chocolate water

Hurricane Sandy

we survived sandy!  siri was a bit disappointed as we didn't break into our emergency kit.  yes, folks, you read that right, we have an emergency kit.  a yuppie one at that, evaluated and replenished yearly (well, almost).  so, what makes it yuppie?  oh, just quinoa, hershey's chocolate bar, organic chicken stock, organic raisins, canned wild salmon...need i list more?  we created this kit when we were living in ca, and updated it a bit for sandy.  siri was bummed because she really wanted some of the squeeze fruit pouches in the kit.

we hunkered down at home all day on monday, waiting for sandy to make landfall.  even before it hit land, we saw the rain and heard the wind howl.  this went on for a few hours.  around 7pm, evie emerged from her comfy nest in our closet and was shocked to hear noises out our window.  yes, ms. groggs was confused and her facial expression matched that confusion.  after siri went to bed, we filled our bathtub with water, and made sure everything (three laptops, three phones, an ipad) were plugged in just in case we lost power.  luckily we did not.  jeff and i then split a bottle of wine and watched a few episodes of "the league."

lots and lots of bottled water...untouched and will be added to our emergency kit and camping gear

bottled tap water and two bottles of vino

more tap and filtered tap water

camping gear box on top; emergency kit on bottom

someone helped me fold laundry while waiting for sandy to make landfall

post sandy: tuesday morning

duct tape from faucet behind the green garbage can somehow got loose and wrapped itself up on our tree

walking off stir-craziness

damaged storefront

felled branch

plucking leaves

cuddling with c.c.

c.c. sleeping soundly

the damage to the northeast, and especially to nyc is pretty bad.  the pictures paint an atrocious picture, which is probably not inaccurate.  the subways are a mess, and it looks like brooklyn college is closed again tomorrow for the fourth day.  jeff has no way of getting to work since we don't have a car.  he could carpool with others, but traffic is awful and we literally heard cars honking since 5:30 this morning.  and, all news outlets have reported that the bridges going into manhattan are a mess and that nypd is limiting the number of vehicles going across the bridge tomorrow.  totally cray.

Misc.

friday treat with daddy!  

fall graced us with its presence

such a nyc kid already

we finally broke down and let her watch cinderella.  she says she's dressed as the stepmother here

someone wanted to write the time. it's supposed to say: 702

we made marshmallow brains with eyes

painting a baby pumpkin while mommy made dinner

here are some miscellaneous pictures from the past couple of weeks.  enjoy!

Chocolate Chip (C.C.) Kitten Pan

we are happy to introduce our newest addition: chocolate chip (aka c.c.) kitten pan.  jeff and i had talked about getting a kitten at some point, but were thinking more of something we would do in about a year.  but, a couple of weeks ago, we found what we thought was a stray cat living between two parked cars on our street.  many neighbors (including a vet) tried to coax her out from between the cars, and the entire ordeal took about three hours until she was finally trapped in a special rescue trap.  i took a picture of the kitten, sent it to jeff, and we decided to adopt her in part because she was being sent to the spca, which is apparently a kill shelter.

the kitten is meant to be siri's kitten -- a present for becoming a big girls since she was just shy of four when the kitten came to live with us.  siri took about two weeks to name the kitten.  some possible names included bandaid, toilet, and soap, and for a bit there we were worried that the kitten would be kitten forever.  then, siri decided on chocolate chip.  chocolate chip kitten, like chocolate chip cookie, or chocolate chip muffin.  we call her c.c. for short.  and as jeff and i agreed when we decided on siri's name, pets get my last name and children get his.  so, chocolate chip kitten pan is our newest family member, and we adore her.  evie is tolerant, but easily annoyed.  c.c. is relentless though and maybe one day will charm evie into liking her.

oh, and the assumed stray?  turns out she's most likely feral.  jeff did some research on feral cats and she exhibits a lot of the characteristics, but is still young enough that we hope socialization will help.  she's already fairly loving, and prefers to snuggle with humans, so there's hope!

this is why she's named chocolate chip

responding to hearing bath water being drawn (probably for the first time ever)

first bath

siri was SO excited to meet her new kitten and stayed up to welcome her, then played with her until 10pm.  she was a groggy kid the next morning, but in good spirits and wanted to stay home to play with the kitten instead of go to school

i got a bit of kitten snuggle time

c.c. sleeps on siri's bed.  siri likes to make sure she doesn't roll off the bed.

snuggles