WALRUS!

The walrus costume was a huge success. Everywhere we went it was a fan favorite.

The next photo here is our family dressed up for actual halloween. Renee is Gail Simmons from Top Chef and the Walrus is self explanatory. I stayed true to my own personal traditions of never having a costume ready until about 2 hours prior to needing to be somewhere. As I thought my trip to the basement would yield some great finds and materialize a costume, I was left almost empty handed. I pulled an old chain out of the ground that was probably circa 1900 and Renee begged me not to use it. If it wasn't for her amazing suggestion I probably would have been hauling the chain around park slope.

My costume was a new dad. Complete with nappy hair, bags under my eyes, pacifiers, fake dirty diapers, actually dirty bibs, bottles, wrinkled shirt, sweatpants, a lamb, and dress shoes.









Brooklyn has some killer parades put on the by the Center for Puppetry Arts.
Her first halloween parade.


Getting up in the action.


She loved the music so much she was charging into the center.


Ever seen a walrus get down?


While Bobofet and storm troopers loomed in the background she was fascinated by the music.


The final parade today on 7th Ave.

Fischerous erectus

So many things have happened since the last blog post. She took her first steps this week, brushed her own teeth, went to the zoo, and now dances. The dancing will be reserved for its own post.












Teaching her about college football. Don't worry, dad will show you what you really need to know.

Tornados and Grandmothers

While we took our first trip away from the Nuffin and were sailing at 30,000ft peacefully over the U.S. bound for Napa Valley. This is what was taking place in our neighborhood. As we landed on the runway in San Fran, I get the following text message from my mom. This is verbatim. "We are ok. Tornado hit park slope on way back from tot lot. Ditched into Joes. People hurt. Trees down. Backyard is a disaster. Repeat, we are ok."

Needless to say I had no idea what ditching into Joes meant but I was slightly concerned. This was the best footage of it. The language is either offensive or hilarious depending on your taste.




Aside from the natural disaster within hours of our departure the last couple weeks we had a back to back run of grandmother helpers. It was quite a revealing insight into our own upbringings.

Beth Moss - Taught her how to turn off and on the light. Taught her to shred paper. Fed her dinner while bathing in the sink. Let her eat adult toothpaste (not just the outside of the tube).

Mommy Maus - Bought her the first pair of real shoes. Would say "Cooperation" repeatedly during diaper change (in lieu of toothpaste distraction). Slight paranoia regarding potential hazards faced at the tot lot.





My method of extracting leaves from the mouth.





First time down the slide solo.

Swaddling Lesson & Windshield Wiper Tongue

This was the product of a swaddle lesson for Scott. As you can see, he was a natural.




Just add another funny noise to her repertoire.


Our new found obsession is the Garfield Tot Lot. More on this to come...

Throwing down some papa

with split pea soup.




Normally post milk, I go through all of her body parts in spanish. Its usually is a very relaxing pre-sleep ritual. Every time I get Renee to film it its pretty wild, nothing like the usual. This was the best footage I could get.



We have discovered a little gem in Prospect Park. Garfield Tot Lot. More to come.

1st Babysitter and an uncle sighting

No video or documentation exists of this disaster. Renee left for a Keane concert and told me the following:
Ok, the babysitter should be here at 6:30 for you.

What happened was the following:
Baby sitter who forgot to tell us she could no longer come calls in a Russian girl (Victoria) to take her place. She had been in New York for 3 days.
Victoria is on 6th Ave Manahttan at 6:45 not 6th Ave Brooklyn.
Torrey misses the first half of the Bway show.
We all return home to find out about the hilarious altercation between Lori and Victoria. Lori Lee returning from a 16hr work day at 11 o'clock was not allowed into the house to get any of her stuff after describing it in detail.

Renee then walks in the door and asks "so how was it"?

Fingernails over the head kind of gives her the willies.


The arrival of the Uncle (Fegrotaman) Why Fegrotaman? Well its just one of the many words that comprise his language. If you would ask him why he was called that, he would respond with "tuv day" (which translates to mean "whatever")

The Spanish Tongue

The noise that was once was used to describe pure torture now has come full circle. We have grown quite fond of it and have deemed it to be the Spanish Tongue. Cleary this ability to roll the Rs does not come from Renee or her Austrian decent (Which sounds like an awkward lion).



This new happy Spanish Tongue can be heard around bed time coupled with some serious excitement. This reminded me of how crazy bed time actually was growing up. It was the pinnacle of day. You brought out your biggest guns, anything to avoid actually going to sleep. I hope she doesn't suffer the same fate as me during nap times in early school days. My nap time in school days were 20 minutes of torture. It was a mix of wondering how the other kids were able to sleep, the crinkle of the cheap plastic mat, and trying to corrupt the closest sleeper to me.

I also remember a tactic of Steve Moss during later years which was to allow me to stay awake but only if I watched Cspan. 100% success rate.