Hurricane Sandy- Part 1 (Michelson's). . . and Halloween

After returning from the Lipchocks Sunday afternoon, we watched several of our neighbors as they packed up their house and we started wondering, "should we evacuate"?  Hurricane Sandy was to hit Mon./Tue. and there was already a voluntary evacuation in place.  Our landlord informed us that, given our house is 3.5 feet above ground, water has never (even in the "perfect storm" in '91) entered the house.  He said, if we wanted to be extra careful, maybe take stuff off the floor in case it gets wet.  We brought items inside to prevent them from being projectiles and we started the long debate:  should we stay or should we go now?  If we go it will be trouble and if we stay it might be double.  Eventually we decided to evacuate, only an hour before the city vehicles started going down the streets with bull horns informing everyone that the evacuation was now mandatory.  The boats parked outside the fire house 'in preparation' and the general consensus that one should always park on the other side (the dry side) of the highway when a big storm comes a shore played a large role in our decision, but ultimately the children's safety was a driving force.  We teetered even longer about whether or not to stress the cats out by evacuating them with us.  They HATE driving and we'd be back in a couple of days right?  So why bother?  Ben, Nichole:  thank you for taking us AND our cats in during Hurricane Sandy.  Little did I know that we wouldn't be back in our house for 2 whole weeks.  We stayed at The Michelson's until 11/1/12.  Although they made it through the storm with only a tiny lapse in power, they lost power for good the next day and it got cold . . . FAST!  But with the help of their generator and Halloween even being displaced without power (occasionally) was entertaining.  Here are some shots of our first 4 days of evacuation:

The boys:

Dave, Chase, Gavin and Alex

making cookies with Cole (not pictured here)

clean cousins :)

Halloween:

Trick or Treating at the Mall in Hartsdale, NY

Chase (dog), Gavin (Max)

A Snickers stop:

Gavin would not put his candy in his bucket!  He wanted to hold every single piece of candy in his hands.  As we approached 3 pieces, this became difficult and his strategy shifted to 'stop and try to open/eat one of them'.

Stopping for lunch (and a Laughy Taffy)

This was Mia's 2nd time Mall trick or treating (her 1st Halloween was at a Mall in Binghamton, NY).

Max circa naptime

After naptime back at home we played outside a bit.  

My mom (Bubbe), who was visiting with Matt/Harold at this time in Boston, MA, decided to drive down to NY and meet us.  She gave Dave a ton of cleaning supplies and easy-to-eat food (as well as beer/coffee, she knows Dave!) and as he headed back to Highlands, NJ to start the clean-up process I went back to Boston with the kids and my mom to take a warm shower and continue the next 1.5 weeks of evacuation with more family.  The cats were moved from one basement bathroom to the next in less-than-optimal conditions at each place but fed regularly and cuddled occasionally, which is better than many pets fared in the storm, or so I try to tell myself when I feel bad at locking them away :(

Next stop:  Boston (Miller-Licon's)

visit to Lipchocks

It is our turn to visit the Lipchocks.  We like to play house tag to stay in touch and this time it is our turn.  The drive to Chestertown, MD is only around 3.5 hrs and is done after bedtime.  The transfer goes nicely and we're catching up and then Jane wakes up.  I am pleasantly surprised that Sarah gets her out of bed to come hang out with us.  This girly is so chillax and was fun to oogle without the older kids around.

Now since Hurricane Sandy threw me off of my regular delay of 1 month till posting time, my memory is REALLY off here so the order may be wrong but the photos are oh so right (it's late, let it go).

the "babies"

Saturday morning we get dressed in our costumes in order to watch the Chestertown Halloween parade and catch some candy (even some from Mitt Romney supporters. . . mmmmm the taste of defeat was premature yet delicious).

 (fairy, pirate) 

Max (from Where the Wild Things Are)

hand made by Sarah Lipchock (thanks for the loaner!)

Autumnal fun back at the house

Taking a short photo op stop during an evening walk

Rub a dub dub 3 kids in a tub, think we can fit one more?

Jane will want in on the fun soon!  Perhaps 2 baths will be necessary (or the master bath!)

  

Fun in the backyard (sandbox) Sunday before leaving earlier than planned due to the stormy weather (Hurricane Sandy) brewing.  The drive home was windy and on/off rainy but nothing too bad.  Little did I know I would be evacuating Highlands, NJ that very evening!

*see you in January :)

Weekend Fun in Autumn

Monmouth Museum

9/23 trip to the Monmouth Museum

Forgot the camera on the inside but it wasn't worth the price.  The kids had a good time though and the slide was fast- two very important things.

Diaper dad!

Mom waiting with a picnic

Mia, eating said picnic

Longstreet Farms:  Harvest Festival

9/30 trip to Longstreet Farms for the Harvest festival

This is us on a hay ride.

She takes her croquet very seriously apparently.  

Gavin handing Dave a handful of pebbles

SNACKTIME!

The chickens were also eating bits of apple and were keeping an eye on Gavin's large piece.

. . .and THIS little piggy went to sleep.

*As a side note, Dave guessed one pound off of a "guess the weight of the big pumpkin" contest and we were notified by phone that we won!  Unfortunately, the prize was the pumpkin and not 96 lbs of cash!  We are debating this weekend whether or not we think our trunk can handle that much pumpkin.

Kiddie Update

Below I have pictures from a few random weekends but separated by each child followed by a little update on each of them and then an update on how the two play together with pictures to prove it ;)  

Gavin

• Will scream "no" now on occasion but not often.
• Refers to his daddy as Dave ("Day" is how he sounds when he calls for him)
• Still nurses in the morning, when I get home from work and before bed though if he is fed/distracted at these times he can skip it.  I started to nurse him earlier in the bedtime routine to make it easier for him to eventually go to sleep without nursing at all.  Starting to experiment with "don't offer, don't refuse" weaning.  
• Refuses to eat things cut up anymore.  Wants to hold pizzas, bagels, bananas etc just like the rest of us despite the mess and occasional gagging on a too-big bite.
• Like Mia, Gavin likes "flowies" (flowers) a lot and is always picking them and pulling them apart.
• Says:  "sowwy" (sorry) all the time and frequently when appropriate, which is always super cute, he also says "cwacka (cracker)", and tonight he was chanting for pizza "peepa, peepa, peepa".  
• Until very recently he still took 2 naps at home (11-12:15pm, 4-4:30) but I think (notwithstanding another cold) this has changed to something like his weekday daycare single nap (12:30pm-2:30pm) 
• This month he spun around in circles for the first time though he doesn't do it that often.  Mia used to do it constantly.

A painty Sunday

with sink clean up

A rainy weeknight evening

Mia

• Is asking some pretty complex questions these days:  "who makes the trees?"
• Has leg/arm hair (blonde) now
• Had a spurt of talking with her hands though it has subsided a bit
• Did a worksheet in class where she connected the numbers (1-5) to a picture with one, two, three, four, or five drawings of something.  I was impressed!
• Spells her name with the right letters but often (though not always) out of order.  (aiM), 
• Wants to do ballet.  We said we would potentially start when she is 4 if she still wants to at that time. 
• Had her first play date since we moved to Highlands, NJ (Annie from daycare).
• Talks about magic/witches a lot (must be related to Halloween talk at daycare).
• Had one day where it was like she was playing the 64 Thousand Dollar Pyramid with me:  asking questions to see if I could guess the answer ("what game can we play in the dark with little things and Gavin can't play it because it has chokables?"  The answer was Lite Brite!), 
• Had her first nightmare recently. We let her sleep in bed with us for the rest of the night.  She seemed scared of the dark more than normal the next night but was worried the hallway light would keep her up--quite the conundrum.

A painty Sunday

A rainy weeknight evening

BOTH:  Playing together

• Mia engages Gavin in play more and more:  "we have to hide here. . . come on Gavin!" and is always asking him stuff since now he says "yeah" a lot "Gavin, do you want to build with blocks?"
• Although we started out here (in June) with the two of them together and it worked really well for the first month or so, Mia has been wanting her own room.  I feel like Mia was being confused by where "her" room was.  We tried to decorate her side to help but given that Gavin goes to sleep first we were reading her books in our room then we would move her to our bed in the middle of the night if he woke up and needed to fuss a bit.  So she didn't have consistency and it was creating such insecurity at night that she would scream and cry when we left her in the room and since Gavin was also in there it just became too difficult so . . . bye bye guest bedroom. 
• Gavin likes to pull cans out of the closet and one day the two of them started pulling everything out of the pantry.  Mia said they were preparing for a party (see pics below).  

preparing for "the party"

"chalking" together

A painty Sunday

A rainy weeknight evening