Black Friday

We went to Herald Square to look in the store windows. It was CROWDED! Andrew, there's a pic of the Hearald Square JCP just for you. Everything was beautiful.






I had a couple of Chevy Chase moments. I sat in a bistro chair in the pedestrian area. It was broken. I became entangled in the chair. There I was trying to regain my balance, wearing a baby, shaking a chair off myself. Then I moved to another chair. I leaned on the little table and became entangled in it while accosting a nearby 8 year in another effort to regain my balance. Paul was very entertained.

Pic tutorial anyone?

Feel free to send me a link to school me on this. I am tired of getting the right side of my pics cropped.

Thanksgiving Eve in NYC

So we had an interesting day Wednesday. Hannah, Elijah, and I went all the way up to the Bronx, to the Pelham stop, to pick up a milk donation. Then we headed to meet Paul in Manhattan to see the parade balloons being inflated. It was super crowded and we were herded through the streets by traffic cops. We had a great time. Hannah's favorite part was riding on Paul's shoulders.

Funny faces of Elijah

Well blogger cropped these pictures strangely. You can see his whole face if you click on each picture, but grandparents are probably the only ones who want to go to that much trouble. I'll figure this out eventually.

Hannah learns about sewing.

I bought Hannah a warm coat at The Big Fat Greek Flea Market. Ok, it wasn't really called that. A private school run by the Greek church had a flea market complete with food vendors selling fried octopus and all sorts of goat cheeses and other exciting Greek things. But this coat is navy blue and not very feminine, kind of ugly. I lopped some pompoms off an old scarf and sewed them on the hat and everyone was very satisfied with the new look. Hannah was mystified at the idea that I sewed though. She has been begging to learn ever since.





So the other day I showed her just a little about sewing. I know very little. But I can get fabric to stick to other fabric using thread and a needle and that's enough to get the job done most of the time.



I remember when I was very little and Mom showed me how to sew. She taught be some basics and we practiced on some scraps. Then we took a nap. I was too excited to sleep and I snuck back over to the sewing basket and started creating. I got out this doll dress and adorned it with buttons, zigzags, and a Muppet nose. I thought it was gorgeous! Mom kept that thing forever. I wonder where it is now.

Reading sister

Hannah managed to read a book while holding Elijah. She was so proud. She is really starting to love reading. She is starting to see the value in writing too! She is ready to communicate her thoughts and ideas. Progress is fun.

Trick or Treat

Here Hannah is decorating her treat collection bag. She loves to glue stuff to other stuff. Because we trick-or-treated so early in the day and for such a short period of time Hannah only got a modest amount of candy. She doesn't care at all. She only wants to give the candy away to other kids at church or on the subway. She is so generous and I am a proud Mama.



This is a terrible backdrop. That's because you can't see the Statue of Liberty in the background. I was really hoping she'd show up. That was so cool to be walking around trick-or-treating and look over and see the Statue of Liberty.



Hannah is very silly.



Hannah is dressed as a wingless Tinkerbell. She was allowed to bring one costume up from Dallas and she chose this dress. We forgot to bring her wings. We went to Target to try to find some. They probably had some but the herd never moved them from the stockroom to the shelves. Old Navy and Marshalls were also out of wings. Old Navy must've been having an "everything's a quarter" sale. There were about 75 people in line. And being # 75 in their line isn't like being #75 in Whole Foods' line. I am starting to think Old Navy is run by the government - their lines move so slowly. It was probably a 2 hour commitment for those people at the back of the line. So surely there was a sale or a radio contest or something. Anyway, Hannah is a wingless (modest) Tinkerbell and Elijah is a dalmatian puppy. Paul is a skinny white guy.

More Zigo

I am promoting Zigo again!

Go to the Zigo website and watch the videos. This thing is so cool. If MacGyver built a bike, this would be it. If Swiss Army Knife built a bike, this would be it. No, I am not making any money from this. I am trying to win a Zigo though. Just go look at the thing and admire the engineering! Hannah likes to go to the website and watch the videos. She knows I entered the essay contest and she asks all the time if I have won "the Zigo bike" yet and if I will go on stage when I win. Zigo said a bike shop near us has one in the store and we went over to try it on. Elijah has some growing to do before he can ride in it, but he likes hanging out with his big sister in there. I think he'll be just the right size to go for a ride when they announce the winner in January. Can you imagine him wearing a tiny little bike helmet?

Chubby Cheeks

Just look at this growing boy!

Halloween Musings

I will post pics of Hannah and Elijah later. I have to get them from the camera to the computer. But I thought I'd tell you a little about our day for now. Trick-or-treating is done mostly at businesses, not apartments, in this area. That was fun. We went to a dinner at the home school co-op - no costumes there. Hannah had so much fun playing board games and visiting with her friends.

On the subway ride home we saw lots of folks dressed up. There were a few kids, but tons of grown ups dressed in all kinds of costumes. There was a couple dressed as a box of Wheaties and a carton of milk, a guy with a bandage on his ear who really did look like Van Gogh. Then there were several variations of one costume - hoochie. There was a clown hoochie, a Bat Girl hoochie, vampire hoochie, circus ringmaster hoochie, Little Bo Peep hoochie, Wonder Woman hoochie, bikini wearing angel hoochie, genie hoochie, etc. It seemed like it must have been quite a challenge to use such a small amount of fabric and still get the "Bat Girl" etc theme across. Very creative, if nothing else.