Cold Spaghetti

Thursday morning, we dropped the kids off at school and did a short tour of some of the flooded and recovering areas of Mid-City, City Park, and Lakeview. Then we drove back home to change into more tailored duds and arrived at Commander’s Palace at noon. Mardi Gras season was apparent; members of Muses were en masse in their awesome blue costume sacks and head pieces. We sat in the garden room, lovely, but a bit too close to the window (we should have asked to be moved — they certainly would have been happy to accommodate). Laura and I tried the $.25 martinis (we had cosmopolitians, our first). We enjoyed the very reasonable lunch specials — they start at about $15 and include appetizer and entree. Then we split the signature desserts: strawberry shortcake and bread pudding for dessert. Paul wasn’t feeling well and ended up having his lunch packed to go home.

We got the kids early from school, drove out to Metairie to get Paul’s tuxedo and my dress for Saturday’s ball, and went home to get ready for the night’s parades.
We arrived in our spot of choice (Napoleon, towards the start of the parade route) and saw friends Emmy and Kevin with kids. We set up our children’s ladder — a NOLA original with a kid-sized seat on the top — and enjoyed Chaos (shown below) and our favorite, MUSES.
Muses is an all-girls krewe, known for having the best throws and putting on a fabulous parade. This year, the girls threw sleep masks, make-up kits, comic books, and Muses regala for their this year’s theme: Super Muses.We did pretty well — that Mardi Gras ladder works great! For parts of the parade, we went over to the “sidewalk side” to try to see friends of ours who were rolling with certain floats on both parades (didn’t see them) but always returned quickly to the “neutral ground” which we find more polite and kid-friendly. Kate enjoys some of the throws from Muses and Chaos in these pictures… Muses loot includes stuffed toys, footballs, cups, doubloons, specialty beads and medallions, comic book… AND a SHOE!!!
That’s right — Kate and I caught a SHOE! (It’s in the center of the loot picture above.) The Muses shoe is right up there with the Zulu coconut and even more rare in numbers. Kate was asleep in my arms, Will and Paul were on the sidewalk side, and I stood way in the back while the floats passed. One of the riders pulled out the shoe and was looking in the crowd for someone to throw to — I had my arms way up and was apart from the crowd enough for us to be seen. She pointed to us, nodded that the throw was coming, and let it go! The shoes are each one-of-a-kind, ours has the rider’s initials and float number (float 10). Happy Mardi Gras!

Matt and Laura had a long, rough day of travel on Wednesday due to the east coast ice and snow. As a result, they arrived too late on Wednesday to make our 5:45 reservations at Mulate‘s, where we all going to go for family Zydeco music and dancing. Instead, we got a few prepared foods from Whole Foods wonderful selection and heated up our Raspberry Chicken breasts, lemon rice risotto cakes, fresh green beans, and grilled veggies for a later dinner once the kids were in bed. It was very cold — we stayed in and did not attend any parades.

On Wednesday, I photographed the Valentine’s party at Abeona. The kids took turns being “mailman” (notice the hat?) to pass out their hearts and treats to each Valentine. This is what I learned: for kids that can’t read, just help them sign their name to the valentines — don’t write any “to” names.

The school website will have a link to all photographs… stay tuned!

On Monday, Kate had her 9-month wellness check with Dr. Milvid. Her stats:

Height – 26 1/2 inches (25%)
Weight – 17 lbs, 6 oz (25%)
HC – 44 1/2 cm (50-75%)

We reported Kate’s two merging skills: walking and talking. Dr. Milvid, who had predicted these things in Kate early on, commiserated with our challenge and gave due props to our “ahead of it all” daughter.
Kate’s words: Ma-ma, Da-da, Uh-ho! (and other babbles that sometimes seem to have meaning, but sometimes not)

Kate’s walking: is coming along at a frightening pace. February 9th: Kate turns 9 months. She takes her first step, 2 of them.
February 10th: Kate rests.
February 11th: Kate is 9 months, 2 days old. She takes 1 more step.
February 12th: Kate is 9 months, 3 days old. She takes 2 steps in the morning, and 1 more step on 2 occasions in the afternoon.
February 13th: Kate is 9 months, 4 days old. We officially lose count of her steps sometime after lunch. She takes at least 10 steps in 1-3 step intervals throughout the day.

(predicted) February 14th: I consider a hair appointment to more closely examine the gray hairs that I feel certain are sprouting out of my head this instant.NOTE: Fuzzy photos are what you get when you don’t change the batteries in your flash. I realized when the shutter was taking forever to take these pictures that the flash wasn’t charging to fire. Details!

Abeona’s power outage meant that we, or at least me, were going to be doing some rescheduling today. My lit review progress fell yet-another day behind (but this is OKAY, I assure myself) and Paul joined in when he could to enjoy the beautiful day. A winter storm meant that the DC area was moving slowly, so he was able to have a bit more of a relaxed workday.
Will and I planted seeds (basil, chives, parsley, zinnia, verbena) to germinate in little greenhouses. He is watching seeds grow (“beanstalks!”) at school so I thought we’d do a similar side project at home. We planted the extra seeds in the backyard — hopefully, they’ll do okay there as well!
Paul rocked our Babycakes to sleep. She is struggling with tooth number #2, which has been trying to break through for the past 3 days.
After our gardening, Will and I found an interesting bug to observe. Little man needed his ‘noculars to get in close.
The weather was in the low 80s, but with low humidity (unheard of in these parts!) and the day was exquisite. It felt very funny to bring those little greenhouses inside tonight to prepare for our chilly night (possible frost?) and cold tomorrow (the high may not reach 50!)

We had a great visit with Nana Nancy. Before she left, we tried to take photos on the porch swing to compare to older porch-swing-with-kids photos… have I mentioned that group photography is a challenge?
See the full set (with all the kids’ collective crazies) on the updated Shutterfly page.

Tornadoes, three in current estimates, roared through New Orleans last night. We slept through the storm (or at least I did) but neighbors tell us the wind and rain were fierce. The kind of night where the kids climb into Mom and Dad’s bed to feel safe. We are fine. Huge portions of the city are without power — including the Carrollton area, which was heavily hit by tornadoes. Abeona House is in Carrollton on the Riverbend. Although tornadoes touched down all around it, the school is fine. But they took out the area power grid, the school is closed, and we have no idea when power will be restored and kids will be back in school.

It’s sort of a snow day?

And a tragic one. Family and neighbors pulled a body of an 86-year old woman from the destroyed remains of her FEMA trailer. Over a year and a half later and an 86-year old woman is still living in a FEMA trailer.

Happy Mardi Gras! Nana Nancy joined us for our first Mardi Gras parades of the year: Pontchartrain and Shangri-la. Paul and Will walked over to the barber shop Saturday morning to get cleaned up — and stopped at Clement Hardware on their way home to pick up a viewing ladder (ladder with special box for kids to sit above the crowds for the parades). The ladders have wheels so that they can be rolled like wheelbarrows; Will “rode” the ladder for their walk home.


We got there a little earlier and set up in one of our favorite spots… towards the start of the parade on Napoleon where the crowds are more spread out. Families were snacking out of coolers, kids playing football and riding scooters in the street, folks buying cotton candy and peanuts, lots of people in costume, hats, and funky accessories. Complete fun!

The “pre-parade” included the local Goldwings group, a Vespa club, a mini-VW association and a riding club. I fell in love with a baby blue Vespa — the rider wore a matching outfit and had throws that coordinated with her ensemble.

The official parades were the standard variety, although with many more families (including children) than the more well-known Krewes that roll right around MG.

Tons of marching bands and dancing groups. We did wish that more of the music was of the local variety — there are many more of those in the big parades (from our experience).

Will caught a sword from Shangri-La… and much to may dismay… he LOVES it. From the moment he caught it, it has been the center of his world. We have pretty strict rules about not pointing it at anyone (or he looses it for the rest of the day) which has kept things in check, but I still hate that he loves it. He couldn’t wait to show it to Kate once he opened it.
Happy Mardi Gras everyone!

A jump in visits lead to me check out The Daily Kos, where someone posted a link to my blog (see the comments section). There are many gifted NOLA bloggers who write eloquently of our rebuilding. I often start to write about them myself, only to save the draft and never get back to it. Then I think that in the interest of not boring the couple of readers who follow this blog (e.g.: relatives who check to see pictures of my kids) I should just keep writing on the details of our family life instead and let the pros at it. The link from the ‘Kos made me feel like I should revisit some serious blogging, versus adding myself in with the multitudes of Mommy-bloggers trying to be as cool as dooce.

In the middle of our kitchen floor, Kate stood, slowly shifted her weight to the left, lifted the right, swung it in front, and placed it down. She waited to steady herself, stood another moment, then sat back down. A step. A full step. Her first.

Kate turned 9 months old TODAY. AND took her FIRST STEP.

Another, related, milestone: I have instantly sprouted my first gray hair.