Hangin' Around City

Even though he probably won't remember any of this past week, I think Chase had a great time with family here.  He was held all the time, went on several city adventures, and always had a volunteer to feed him or change his diaper.  These are pictures I stole from my mom from when she was here.  (I'll probably have more later from the extended time my dad was here since Storm Athena canceled their flight home Monday night.  Yeah, another freaking storm.)

Grandma and Chase

Little Chasey Man

Out in the stroller all bundled up

Staying warm on the subway

Getting in his 5th Ave shopping

Rockefeller Center ready for the election

The map before it turned mostly blue :(

His election pin

We had to take a pit stop inside the building

Quick diaper change in the stroller

Ah, beautiful New York!

All ready for winter with an awesome hat and gloves

An interlude of fun Chase pictures

Back to the city

Heading in carrier-style

The cute bundle

Sharing a huge Carnegie Deli sandwich...  so good!

Walking down Broadway

Times Square

Times Square

Times Square

Riding the subway back to Queens

Trying on G-Daddy's glasses

Happy little guy

And now a ton of extra pictures of the cute little guy...

We had our first snow with Storm Athena Wednesday.  I had an awesome picture of Chase in a snow-covered stroller, but it was deleted by the worst phone on the planet.  But I'm sure we'll get plenty of snow pictures again soon.

First Smiles

Watch the progression to his first (and super adorable) smiles...

Baby Blessing

Chase was blessed on Sunday, November 4th.  Hurricane Sandy tried to prevent family from attending, but we figured it out just in time.  The blessing was right after church, since that was when everyone was able to get there.  It was a good group: Mike, Cozette, Kate, my mom and dad, Mimi and Grandpa, and Bishop Glass.  And of course, Marcus, me, and Chase.  Plus the Young Women wanted to come.  It was really nice.

Chase in his blessing clothes

Outside our building

Four Generations of First Borns

Three Generations

Our first family picture

Our Walk around the Neighborhood

We seriously were super lucky during this hurricane.  Every time I watch the news, I can't believe how terrible conditions area in so many areas.  Nothing much has changed in the timelines for power to be turned on around Marcus' work or subways to be running.  And we're still hoping to hear that the airports are running as originally scheduled.

Since our area wasn't as affected by the storm, we were able to get out and walk around a bit this afternoon.  We did as we were told and stayed inside, so we were ready for fresh air.  We walked over to the store to grab some new things for dinner tonight and some soda-- what was I thinking storing up on just water and no Diet Coke!  (Can you tell there is Gardner in my blood?!  Haha)  And then we took a longer route home to walk down 48th Street and see the trees that had fallen during the storm.  Luckily no one and no homes in this area were harmed, just a few cars and these beautiful old trees you'll see farther down in this post.

My two boys on our walk :)

Leaves on Skillman

Close to the laundromat we like to go to

And this starts the damage on 48th St.

A pole is holding up this tree

You can see how the tree came up through the cement

The huge branches crossed the entire street

Front view

A second tree on the same street

 Our street-- definitely looks a lot better.  Thank goodness.

The city is coming up with their big plans now about how to repair the city.  I'm sure it will be a long process, but hopefully we'll see lots of improvements in case anything like this happens again.

24 Hours Later

So it's now about 9:15 P.M. on Tuesday night.  The day light definitely showed quite a bit of damage from the hurricane.  Like I said before, our street was basically unscathed.  We were protected for sure.  But apparently even just a couple streets away there was some damage.  Falling trees seemed to have been the biggest issue.  This picture is from about two blocks east-- a tree was completely uprooted out of the cement and fell on a car.  I didn't go outside past the front entrance, so I haven't seen it yet.  I stole this picture from a friend's facebook.

So there was some damage really everywhere in the city.  But our biggest issue right now is that there is no public transit, so we can't go anywhere until it's reopened.  (It's one of the top two priorities according to Mayor Bloomberg's speech this afternoon, along with the power outages.)  They haven't said when it will be opened, so we just have to wait.  This obviously impacts my class tomorrow, since that's by Columbus Circle.  And Marcus' work still doesn't have power.  So between that and the lack of transportation, he gets to hang out with me for at least another day.  (It's been nice to have him here, plus we're able to work on getting Chase on an actual sleeping schedule.  Way easier with two of us home, and Marcus is better at it than me.)

But I think that's the current update as of Tuesday night.  The storm has passed, and now New York City is in rebuilding mode.  Biggest priorities around the city are helping those without power and getting the buses and subways up and going again.  (And of course airports.)  There are some areas with extreme damage, and those are mostly in Long Island, lower Manhattan, and New Jersey.  But they're pushing through and opening areas as quickly as possible.