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hurricane sandy blew through the area last night. thanks to mayor bloomberg, we were as prepared as we (collective new yorkers) could be—either evacuated or holed up in our apartments with stockpiles of nonperishables.

from where we (the lillvis family) sat, things were actually quite ordinary. the rain wasn't even that heavy. just no school for the bailey. no work for us. but no going outside either.

waking up to the nonstop news coverage of the storm on TV, we discovered that the storm was pretty fierce. the MTA web site posted a statement as follows:

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to avoid the already-fast onset of cabin fever, we ventured outside to check things out. sure enough, no cabs, few cars, and virtually every store was closed. our poor, ragged doorman has been on duty since sunday with no hopes of freedom any time soon.

walking through the empty streets, i was overcome with sadness and shock. not by what i saw with my eyeballs, but by what i envisioned "disaster" to be in times past and in the present. there is a feeling of helplessness. oddly, the smartest thing we can do is to stay put and not do anything. again, for us, this is not a tall order. we are just going to stay and watch tv and play games and take advantage of our still-on electricity and say prayers for those less fortunate.

the reality for us (new yorkers) is that transportation and power for a large portion of manhattan could likely be shut down for up to a week.... i like to think of the city that never sleeps as taking an extended nap. 

i've always espoused the belief that everything happens for a reason. in the past, this would come to me far after an event would have happened. i would have connected the dots in history and come to a realization or understanding of "the why". lately (as in this past year), "the why" has been becoming more and more apparent in the moment. 

inspired by caine's arcade and the imagination foundation, we hosted a cardboard challenge party for bailey and her friends from school. this really amounted to us hoarding cardboard and recyclables for a week and turning them into toddler-friendly games. i must admit that the prospect of conceptualizing/hosting this event was daunting. but it actually turned out to be ALOT of fun for us all. after the girls went to bed, i'd design games, design fun passes, and signs. matt is really the architectural wizard that made the complex stuff like the puppet theater (and bailey's house, car and boat).

and we were able to raise a little bit of money for bailey's non-profit co-op school. yay!
pics from the event can be seen here.

on sept 23, brynny was baptized at the church of the good shepherd by rev. erika meyer. all of our family (her godparents: uncle john, aunt denise, and uncle sam; grandma merry; paw paw; grandma carol; uncle michael; aunt fran and uncle mike; auntie lesley; uncle conrad; uncle nathan) were there to witness it along with nanny gaby and aunt marni and aunt shnow.

 although bryn was asleep for the beginning of the baptism, the water on her head, definitely woke her up. surprisingly though, she barely cried. what a good baby :-).

 the week was filled with a great visit from grandma merry and paw paw who graciously and generously watched the 2 girls while matt and i went on our 1st vacation away from them. too scared to go too far, we ended up at buttermilk falls inn for some great food, movie, sleep, and hiking. though we (and my boobs) missed the girls, we had an AWESOME time.

back in new york, we pigged out, literally. our first family meal was at momofuku ssam bar where we had the bo ssam pig roast. it was pretty extreme and exceptionally delicious. that meal was followed by a birthday dinner for aunt da at casa nonna. then, at the baptism, gaby and jorge's friend catered an outstanding mexican meal for everyone. to end the family weekend of food, we had a sundae prix fixe at dovetail on the upper west side. yum.

happy dieting everyone and thanks to all our great family for coming. for a link to the pics on flickr, click here.
we love you.
xoxo
v