I’d sort of been dreading Halloween. Caroline isn’t the biggest fan of costumes and when she doesn’t want to wear something she ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT WEAR IT. Evan changed his mind 15 times on what he wanted to be, so getting him into a costume we actually had in the house was doubtful. We failed at trick-or-treating at Sesame Place, they had no interest in dressing up for the Seaport or the Aquarium events, and the idea of drag-carry-pushing two kids up and down the hills in my neighborhood was giving me a migraine in advance. I’d been looking for excuses to get out of it pretty much all week, but they managed to behave JUST well enough that I couldn’t take away their Halloween after the Little Einsteins got them so jazzed up about it.

His shirt says “Will Trade Sister For Candy”

It turns out that sometimes lowering your expectations is the best thing you can do. Since all I was hoping for was one block of non-complaining children who said “thank you” after getting a piece of candy, I was blown away by my super polite, super friendly, willing to take turns, willing to walk on their own 2 feet, pleasant, costume-wearing children who made it three blocks before we came home and handed out candy instead, since leaving a bucket with a note that said “Please take 2 pieces!” led to an EMPTY BUCKET after only half an hour. Either we had 200 trick-or-treaters in 30 minutes or some people are douchebags who can’t follow directions.

Since I was pretty much expecting that to happen, I actually saved the good candy for Evan and Caroline to hand out. BOOM. That’s what you get for being jerkfaces, neighborhood kids. Enjoy your fireballs and generic lollipops. Too bad your parents never loved you enough to take you trick-or-treating themselves and teach you how to get whole handfuls of candy from old ladies who think you are absolutely the cutest thing they’ve ever seen.

You know, like my kids:

Caroline vetoed the tutu that was supposed to go under the skirt, but wore the wings all night – which is more than I was hoping for. I’m still ridiculously proud I made her costume.

We only had one person totally baffled by Evan’s costume. I said “It’s from ‘Where The Wild Things Are?'” She said “Oh, my kids are grown up, I don’t know about these shows kids are watching nowadays.”

E made it home in time to come with us, which made the kids super happy

A little flashlight thrown into one of those $1 pumpkin buckets makes a GREAT light for trick-or-treating.

We had a great time. We gave out $35 worth of candy from our house, even to the way-too-old kids who couldn’t be bothered to dress up. At one point, three teenage boys wearing hats and scarves stood on my steps and sang “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”, then asked if I had any candy canes or figgy pudding (they turned down my very sincere offer of a whole handful of candy since I got such a kick out of them). We let the kids eat several pieces of candy and enjoy their sugar buzz for an hour before Caroline went into a trance in front of Mickey Mouse and we made them go to bed.

I hope your Halloween was just as fun! Now please excuse me while I throw myself FULL FORCE into Caroline’s 2nd birthday party.

1. Paleo pumpkin bars so I’ll be less tempted to eat the Oreos.
2. Our patio is prepared for the storm.
3. The last of my Halloween decorations that probably no one will see.
4. Glued to the TV for updates.
5. Giant tree less than 7 feet from my back porch. I heard from the previous owners this tree’s twin on the other side of our yard fell during a hurricane a few years ago so it’s my biggest worry.
6. Guest room ready in case local friends are evacuated.
7. Brutus is pretty worried.
8. Bathtub full of water for emergency toilet-flushing.
9. The kids just think it’s awesome that Daddy has the day off.

This is our second storm in as many years, but Irene didn’t do much more than make a mess. We’re hopeful Sandy isn’t any worse, but the updates from the new stations and weather channel are starting to sound serious and not just in the standard OMG-END-OF-THE-WORLD exaggerated way we’re used to in New England.

We aren’t in danger of flooding or being evacuated ourselves, so we’re just waiting for the winds to pick up later today and praying we don’t lose power for too long or have a tree come through the roof. Luckily E took care of his last urgent work thing this morning and none of us have to leave the house again until at least tomorrow. I’m trying to balance being reasonably concerned with not freaking out, but when the governor closes the roads – like, ALL the roads – it’s hard to keep my anxiety at bay. For now, I’m cheerfully eating Halloween candy and enjoying frivolous electricity usage while I still can. Sending safe thoughts and prayers for everyone in the path of the storm. As long as our house is still standing you’re more than welcome here if you need somewhere to go.

4 pm Update: Still good, still have power. The wind is getting sort of crazy and we’ll be “camping” on the main floor tonight instead of sleeping upstairs tonight but so far we’re OK.

10 pm Update: Power still on, just a few flickers so far. Sent the kids up to bed because we were going CRAZY with all of us in one room all day and the way the wind is blowing means our two scary trees would fall away from the house. We are still HAPPY to host anyone who needs somewhere to go tomorrow, although I’ve heard a ton of roads are blocked by downed trees. Stay safe friends!

8 pm Tuesday Update: Hello friends! I forget sometimes that I’m not real-life (or at least Facebook) friends with everyone, so I forgot to update here. We made it through the storm with no problems. E even had to go into work today although Evan’s preschool was cancelled. We’ll have our porch light on tomorrow for trick-or-treaters (after a quick stop at Target to replace all the candy we ate!) and we’re hoping the neighbors do the same for our first time out!

Sometimes, it’s really nice to be able to say “yes” to opportunities. On Saturday the kids and I had our first ever NYC adventure when we attended Tollytot‘s Playdate In The City. I almost backed out a dozen times (we’re about 2 1/2 hours from New York and E wasn’t able to come) but I am SO GLAD I didn’t. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Evan and Caroline so happy.

We drove to New Haven and caught the Metro-North to Grand Central – the kids are free and the train was SO much easier and more fun for them than driving.

I bought that sweater the day before, when I realized I hated all the clothes in my closet and couldn’t POSSIBLY wear them to NYC.

Playdate in the City was literally that – a room full of toys and kids to play with them. But it wasn’t just a room, it was a gorgeous all-white loft with an outdoor garden and fountain on top of one of the buildings in Rockefeller Center. And there weren’t just toys, there were hundreds of cool new toys from My First Disney Princess, Rubik’s, Baby Genius, Fisher-Price, Safety 1st and Graco. And there weren’t just tons of kids for Evan and Caroline to play with, there were super nice PR reps who sat on the floor with them for HOURS playing blocks and showing them how stuff worked and seriously guys, it was so much fun.

Amazing added feel-good bonus – Tollytots donated a life-changing surgery to a child through Operation Smile just because we showed up. In fact, they donated one for every family that came!

Evan made a beeline for these two toys when we walked in and barely stepped away from them the entire time – the Safety 1st Cubikals Push Along Fire Truck and the Jump ‘N Jive Helicopter. Words cannot express how much he loved these. Words also cannot express how glad I am we got to take them home, although I DO have a word for how I feel about the music the helicopter plays now that I’ve lived with it for 2 straight days. It’s not a very nice word. Thank goodness for off-switches.

Caroline was in HEAVEN, since dollies and strollers are her two favorite things. Both kids loved the Cinderella Sparkling Lights and Magic Wand Doll, who lights up when you touch the wand to the medallion on her dress. To be honest, I loved her too and I’m definitely putting it on the Christmas list. They even had Prince dolls to go with the Princesses – Charming and Flynn (from Tangled!) were my favorites. My friend Kim was so excited to bring them home to her boys.

How gorgeous is that garden? SO GORGEOUS.

Caroline tried every single stroller they had, but decided the Graco Jogging Stroller was her favorite. She has literally slept with it IN HER BED since Saturday. We both though the Ride ‘n Drive was adorable – she kept yelling “CAR CART! CAR CART!” – and it’s another thing going on the Christmas list.

I’m pretty sure the first time bow-tied waiters served me food on trays was at my WEDDING, so I hope Caroline and Evan don’t get used to this level of luxury. The menu was all tiny and child-friendly – shots of milk with a cookie on top, tiny crustless sandwiches, chicken nuggets, cake pops, cut up fruit and sippy cups of apple juice! It’s true I am easily impressed, but they really did think of everything to make the day fun and easy.

Did I mention the location and view was fantastic?

That’s St. Patrick’s behind all the scaffolding. 30 Rock is on the left and you can just see the Radio City sign on the right. The plaza below is where they put the tree at Christmas.

A couple more favorites: the Baby Genius Jukebox and the Rubik’s blocks.

Apologies to this guy (who I suspect it actually someone really important) but you can practically see his internal squee at how cute Caroline is blowing bubbles.

My face looked like this the WHOLE TIME. It didn’t hurt that Evan and Caroline were angels (even if Caroline did run over a few people with the strollers).

We stayed literally the entire time the event was going on and left with a stroller full of toys. Since we were already in the city we made plans to meet up with Sara and do some New Yorky stuff. Kim walked me and the kids to Central Park and stayed until Sara found us, so I never had to wrangle both gingers on my own (my friends rock). We hung out and posed for pictures (true story, foreign tourists REALLY like my kids) and then wandered over to the carousel and the playground for some touristy fun.

What, that TOTALLY looks like a slide if you’re 3.

Evan loves his Sara.

We stopped at the Whole Foods in the Time Warner Center to grab snacks (fruit and cookies for the kids, sushi for the grown ups). Evan was so tired he wrapped himself around his helicopter and took a  nap. Caroline made it until we were back on the train home:

From this…

…to this, in 30 seconds flat.

It was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done with the kids (even if you discount it for the broken car window and stollen GPS I came back to at the train station – thank goodness for awesome full glass coverage insurance!) and I cannot thank the ladies from 624 Public Relations and Tollytots enough for inviting us. There were half a dozen professional photographers at the event too, so I hope I can share some more pictures and video of my kids having the time of their life later.

Best. Day. Ever.

Disclosure: I was invited to Playdate in the City by Tollytots and (to my surprise) the kids were allowed to take home a few toys and a gift bag as a thanks for attending. No other compensation was provided. They didn’t even ask me to blog about it or share the links – my kids just REALLY loved these toys and after playing with them I totally agree.

See, I told you – ten pictures.

My poor baby. She didn’t even make it to her second year without breaking something, although the good news is it doesn’t seem to be slowing her down. I had to pin her to my chest with both arms during gymnastics on Wednesday because all she wanted to do was jump off of everything, hang off of everything and throw herself into the big pit of foam blocks. She is 99% affected already and it hasn’t even been a week. There’s a rather large bump on her collar bone that I am hoping disappears on its own, otherwise she’ll never be a collar bone model and obviously that would be tragic.

Things are on hold a little bit while she heals, but we’re keeping busy with quiet play dates – although the aforementioned insistence on jumping/climbing/running is making them a little less quiet. So far at least we’ve managed to avoid playgrounds. Caroline doesn’t seem to mind, especially since one of our play dates brought purple sparkle play dough and she is OBSESSED. (Well, technically she bought white, pink and blue sparkle play dough, but it is currently one big lovely lump of lavender.)

Let’s talk about how the accident clearly hasn’t affected her smarts. Caroline has the very best memory of any baby I have ever seen. She regularly (as in, every 5 minutes) asks about her friends James and Owen who we went to Sesame Place with a month ago. She can identify all of her grandparents by their photos even though we don’t see them very often. On Sunday I told her we could go to the zoo on Monday and she said “Aoudads?????” What kind of one year old remembers aoudads instead of giraffes or elephants? Although to be fair she remembers those too. I kept her awake for the entire hour car ride home from the zoo naming animals we had seen.

She is still small – most of her 18 month stuff is still big and she’s swimming in 2T. It means she has more clothes than any child could ever possible need (and today I found a full box of 18 month stuff in the attic I have literally no memory of receiving and/or putting up there). Bless all of you lovely people who sent us hand-me-downs. You won’t even believe the cuteness of the little red swing coat Harper sent us and it’s only made EVEN CUTER because Caroline loves to say “Arper! Arper!” She has a plethora of shoes as well, but insists on ONLY wearing her pink sparkle shoes because, duh, sparkles.

Caroline’s favorite things include cheese, strawberries, cereal, eggs, bacon, stealing my eggs and bacon, dogs, animals, play dough, coloring (on herself), children’s pain relievers, talking like a pirate, watching Disney shows on my phone, friends, dancing, Yo Gabba Gabba, fruit snacks, pointing at things, trying to drink my coffee, books* and her brother.

Least favorite things include CAT scans, being really really tired, Lara Bars, not being allowed to jump off of high things, not being allowed to watch shows on my phone, not getting her way immediately, having her hair brushed, and being pushed off of playground equipment.

Today you get 21 photos because she in 21 months and also because I couldn’t narrow it down to any less because I love her so much I think they are all the very cutest picture of her ever. No THAT one’s the cutest. No THAT one. HERE JUST LOOK AT ALL OF THEM.

*pictures feature all of Caroline’s current favorites: Where The Wild Things Are, The Sailor Dog, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Mike Mulligan And His Steam Shovel and Baby Beluga.

21 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Can walk up stairs – Don’t even THINK about trying to help her.
Able to set simple goals (e.g., deciding to put a toy in a certain place) – The goals Caroline sets are more like “see how many times I can make my mom button and unbutton my shirt today before she loses her mind” or “pretend my shoulder hurts so I get another popsicle but then jump up and down on the couch with it laughing”. I’m just hoping none of her goals involve selling her brother for more play-dough.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Throws a ball overhand – Only if she’s aiming at someone’s face.
Kicks ball forward – Only if she’s aiming at someone’s face. Or crotch.
Stacks six blocks – No comment. But also, yes.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Names simple picture in a book – She can name all the animals in Baby Beluga, including “harbor seal”, “narwhal”, and “puffin”.
Can walk down stairs – Don’t you even THINK about trying to help her. Although really you have to a little because she’s so short her legs aren’t really long enough for stairs.