Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Owen Gone......

He looks harmless, I know. This little guy almost gave me a heart attack yesterday. I took Owen to the garbage chute with me this afternoon. The garbage chute is in the hallway- just two doors down from our apartment. It is inside of little room that holds little recycling bins. I do not usually let Owen in the actual garbage room with me, because I know that he would immediately be drawn to everyone's discarded plastic bottles sitting right at perfect toddler eye-level. So, usually I let him play in the hall. That may sound irresponsible of me, but the whole throw-my-garbage-down-the-chute experience lasts all of 15 seconds. At most. Usually, as I exit the garbage room, he can be found running gleefully over to the large hallway window, beating it as hard as he can, and yelling to the people on the street below.

Not today. Today I left the garbage room to find silence. No high pitched squeals, no little pounding fists- just eerie silence. Where did my little Owen go in these 15 seconds?
Mother-panic kicked in. I knew immediately that my little guy was on an elevator to somewhere in the building. Why doesn't the elevator ever come that fast when I push the button? Embarrassment also kicked in. My child is in a onesie, with no shoes on- somewhere in this building. Oh goodness, where is he?

I ran down the stairs to the lobby. No one had seen him. Then I ran back up the stairs, and started to strategize with Maddy and Eva (who were in the lobby coming home from school when I arrived down there in a panic). Maddy was instructed to go to the 3rd and 4th floor, Eva to the 5th and 6th. Directions: hunt for Owen and report back to the lobby. I was hoping his little fingers could not reach higher than the 6th floor button. I headed back down the Lobby. Our lobby has movement sensitive front doors, and Owen is quite aware of this feature.
In my minds eye I imagined him running out of the elevator, out the sliding doors, and onto the streets of NYC. His dream.....my nightmare. Luckily when I arrived at the lobby the second time, David, the concierge-had Owen in his arms. My blood pressure fell about 90 points and I finally started to breathe again.

My little nugget started crying when I tried to peel him out of David's arms. They will not be nominating me for the "Mother of the Year" award anytime soon. First I lose my kid, then my lost child would rather have a stranger than his own mother. Nice.

So up to our apartment we go- it was time to make dinner. About 2 hours later, the doorbell rings. It was the Fresh Direct guy. I had a much needed grocery delivery scheduled. The door opens and the delivery man (who we know well now) exclaims, "oh there she is!" (apparently Owen's hair is getting too long:) "I found her on the 6th floor today when I was delivering groceries, and I knew she didn't belong there, so I brought her downstairs to the lobby."
So, that was the rest of the story. Apparently my little escape artist pushed the 6th floor button and was hanging out up there until Mr. Fresh Direct found him wandering around, and brought him to the lobby. Thank goodness for nice grocery delivery men. One more reason why I love Fresh Direct.

"Water, Water, Everywhere"........but not a drop in my sink

So we live on an island (a very small island at that) and yesterday there was no water. Well, at least not from the hours of 6 pm to 1 am.
The Subway that is directly beneath our building had a water pipe burst, so an emergency water shut-down was ordered. It was called an emergency, but we received papers the day before warning us about the shut down so I am guessing it was more of a "uh-oh we had better fix that soon" than a true emergency.
Even with the advanced warning, I was a quite surprised by how much it affected our nightly routine, not to have running water. Toilets could not flush. Clothes could not be washed. Dishes could not be cleaned. Baths could not be administered. (so far it is sounding like a typical night!:) Toothbrushes could not be dampened. Ice-maker could make no ice. Hands could not be washed (thank goodness for hand sanitizer!). The most frustrating "to top it all off" moment had to be when I slathered cleanser all over my face and then turned on the faucet, preparing to lather up..... only to be met with silence.

Uh-oh.

I couldn't even use our Brita Jug water because we had finished it off just before bed. Funny how you are suddenly parched when you know that water is scarce :). I know we should have water storage. We usually do....Eva and Madeline have lately taken to opening up a water bottle, drinking two sips and then labeling it as "old." I stopped purchasing them temporarily to stop the madness.

So I didn't even have a bottled water to splash on my face. Thank goodness for baby wipes! This whole situation made me realize just how hard it would be to live in a "real-life" emergency situation where there was no potable water for an extended period of time. Judging by this experience, our family would make it about 6 hours :).

Our water story doesn't end there. This morning we woke up to find brown water running. It took a few hours to get it all to wash through.....but hey, it was running water and I was grateful- and we could finally flush the toilet! Unfortunately, someone in our building on the Penthouse level (17th floor) left their faucet in the "on" position when they went to bed. The water line was restored at 1 am. So, at 1 am the penthouse apartment water turned back on. It ran, and ran and ran and ran.....until the tenants woke up this morning- floating around in their bedroom. Okay, I don't know if they were really floating....but because of this faucet oversight, there was water damage on every single floor below them......and a very large wading pool on the main floor.
Ooops. That is one of those situations where you say "that could have been me, and I am SOOOOOOO glad it wasn't. "

Fortunately, our apartment was not downstream. We live on the lucky side of the building. At least that is what the Feng Shui masters told us before we moved in. I am a believer now.

The above picture is of a pretty cool articulating faucet I saw at the International Contemporary Furniture Trade fair here in NYC last week (I thought it fit well with the faucet theme:). I want one of these, just so I can spray Marc (or my girls when they are being cheeky) no matter where they are in the house.

We Got a Car!!

Well, does a rental car count? Marc had to drive to CT for business and on his way home he called me with a surprise, much appreciated offer: "Do you want me to swing by and pick you guys up for Music tonight?" Oh, did I ever! Tuesdays are a marathon day. Maddy to school at 8:30, Eva to School at 12:30, everyone picked up at 2:50 then it is off to the subway station to head across town to Lincoln Center for music. This entails a 35 minute commute with 3 subway line transfers, and a trek up/down 5 flights of stairs, carrying Owen in his stroller. When we arrive at the music school at 4 pm, I have to then figure out what I will do with my 19-month-old for the next 2 hours until the girls finish at 6 pm. Then it is the same subway routine home (3 line transfers, up/down 5 flights of stairs) and we collapse into our apartment at 7 pm. I usually have Owen boogers all over me, string cheese in my hair, and a smooshed ham sandwich to clean out of stroller.

When Marc called up with the offer to DRIVE us to music in a CAR the heavens opened and I swear I heard a hallelujah chorus. WooooHooo! Within minutes he arrived in a shiny HOT Royal Blue Dodge Charger (which, BTW, is totally not a car I would normally like at all but it looked SO incredibly awesome at that moment in time because I knew it would whisk me off to music lessons with out even a single sniff of the urine-laden subway).
Owen looked quite confused as we strapped him into his car seat. This was his first time EVER being strapped into his big-boy car seat. I may be a bad parent, but I cannot lug a car seat around NYC for cab rides. I pat myself on the back when he is at least strapped into my Ergo for those. So, this was the inaugural ride. Shiny Royal Blue Dodge Charger......matching Royal Blue car seat.

We arrived at music class unscathed- but very, very carsick. Unfortunately Madeline has inherited my propensity for carsickness. We arrived at the music school and the first thing she said was, "Oh, mom, I am going to puke!" All it took to cure the nausea was a drink of water and a snack, and we were good to go- thank goodness. Eva finished her Dalcroze class, Maddy started her Piano lesson, and we were off to pick up a snack as we waited for our Driver to return (Marc was off in the car on a conference call). Thank goodness Magnolia Bakery is only a few blocks away.......hee hee. Eva helped me pick out a few of these chocolate cupcakes:

And some banana pudding...........

And a peanut butter cookie for Owen. I need to stop letting him watch Sesame Street. He is really taking the Cookie Monster imitation to extremes. Our trusty driver (Mr. Chenn) showed up after Maddy's class and took us home in style. Now I know why people have drivers. I want to get me one of those. Full-time.

So we are still car-less in the city. I miss our cars sometimes. Those fond remembrances are quickly erased, however, when I think of filling up the gas tank (for $4 a gallon!) or paying insurance, or paying for parking, or paying for tolls, or getting the oil changed, or buying new tires, or replacing the windshield monthly, or even vacuuming the car out........:)

The subway isn't that bad.

Did I just say that??!

Cinco De Mayo

The kids had a great time at a Cinco de Mayo party here on RI on Monday. It was a wild party- Madeline got to taste her first Pina Colada :).

All of the kids got a chance to try and crack open the Llama Pinata. Owen wanted to ride the Llama.

Madeline took the Llama's head off with her final attempt, which left kids scrambling for the exiting candy.

Here, our friend Debbie is teaching the whole gang how to dance the Mexican Hat Dance. Even Owen joined in momentarily. Great food, music, dancing, and company were enjoyed by all. Thanks for hosting, Debbie!

Where do I fit in?

I am convinced that the "spatial" center of Owen's brain must be developing right now. Every time I turn around he is trying to figure out where he fits. His favorites right now are kitchen cupboards, large Tupperware containers, and the back of his toy dump truck. Here is a picture from a morning I found him just hanging out in the hallway, inside our water bottle case. He sat in there for over ten minutes, rearranging the bottles around his little body. Can you tell he still has his morning diaper on? It looks like it is so full it has busted open one of his PJ snaps :).

I've Got you Babe

Multiple times a day I think...."I am so glad my girls have each other." They really are the best of friends. Of course, they have their moments (see below). But don't we all? I count myself so lucky that I have 8 sisters of my own. There is something about a sister bond.
The girls know that I get very perturbed to find them in each other's beds at night (it always makes for a 3 am awakening when someone is rolling around and stealing covers). What they don't know, is that I also secretly love finding them all snuggled up next to each other fast asleep.

More Spring Break

We headed over to the Central Park sand box for the second time this week. The girls did not quite get dirty enough last time. They had a great time digging, and making "castles." Each time they go they meet new friends at the park, and are sad to leave.

The girls also had a great time hanging out with their good friend Ella, who is Owen's age. Owen missed all of the action because he was asleep in his stroller the whole time. Ella had a good time foraging through the sandbox for small little edible objects. I made the mistake of telling Rachel (Ella's mom) about pin worm friends that lurk in outdoor sandboxes. I don't think she will sleep tonight :)

This is a piece of Eva's sandwich and her dirty little sandbox hands. I know, it looks like her hands could be on a poster for "Stop World Hunger" or something. But no, those are just her hands suffering from sandbox effect. Oh, and by the way, that was after hand sanitizer was applied. Not that it helped or anything.

I am loving all of the beautiful tulips here in NYC. It truly can be a "cement jungle" at times, so it is very nice to come across a small little oasis of nature. I think this is also why I love heading over to Central Park so much.