Happy Everything!

We sent this card

to family and friends

to celebrate this winter season;

& to wish everyone

a Happy Christmas,

a Happy Chanukah,

...a Happy Everything!

Exploration Day 1 (photo heavy)

Twas a gloomy, rainy, overcast day yesterday. We awoke in our slowly evolving new home, sat down for coffee and breakfast, and began planning the projects we wanted to complete in the apartment that day. Should we build the new bed frame or put up shelves? Finish painting or put away the winter clothes? Organize the records or hang the guitars? Then Gaby had a great idea: how about none of it? What if we put the apartment plans on hold for a few hours and went on an adventure? Biet, Nico, and I were game. We threw our plans out the window, grabbed a couple umbrellas, and went to explore our new front yard: Prospect Park.
The park was completely deserted in the chilly wet weather, and it was beautiful. We hiked deep into the center of the land, past the lake and through the forested area, and into a lush green field. We discovered abandoned turn of the century platforms, grand at one time but now decaying. We let Nico run free and head the way. We watched the ducks and the swans, and said hello to the occasional fisherman. We walked under bridges & down staircases & along winding dirt pathways. It was a magical way to spend a rainy day.  I couldn't believe that we were still in New York City. I can't believe that this green oasis is our new New York City.

Good Morning Brooklyn

We have arrived. All four of us.  And we are safe and happy and exhausted and adjusting to new routines in our new neighborhood. Hello Brooklyn! You are quite something. You seem a bit rough and tumble from afar, but are so very different up close. You may not have as many skyscrapers as Manhattan, but your buildings are ancient and quaint (with nice BIG apartments inside). Your parks are lush, your streets narrow, your skyline expansive, your people loud, and your pride palpable. You have hustle and bustle, and quiet neighborhoods too. We landed somewhere right in the middle. You also have flea markets & farmers markets & horses & beaches & elevated subways & docks & every kind of food imaginable. I am just getting to know you, Brooklyn, but so far I think I like you.

Our short journey here from across the river was comically disastrous. Beginning with our belongings not fitting into the 17 foot truck we rented and ending with the elevator being broken upon our arrival.  In between, another moving truck smashed into us on the Bowery and shattered the window on me (luckily, baby girl and her Papa weren't riding with me), it started raining, and our new apartment wasn't quite finished being renovated. We are just now beginning to laugh at it all.  All I can say is THANK YOU DEAR FRIENDS. An army of our amazing friends showed up at our place on moving day morning, coffees in hand, and jumped right in. They carried all of our furniture and boxes, took care of Biet & Nico, and kept our spirits high through each unforeseen setback. We quite literally could not have done it without them. We are so grateful to have such an amazing family of friends in the city. 

Now we've been here a week. The apartment is slowly coming together, and the blog is back up and running (it was on hold for a while due to switching internet providers & losing/packing the computer charger).  My favorite thing about our new space, so far, is the sunlight. The sun pours in from the big Brooklyn sky into every room of our apartment. It makes me want to take photographs all day. And it is simply lovely to wake up to in the morning.  I think baby girl feels the same way.

The B

If (or shall I say when) we find our dream apartment in the park-side neighborhood we've discovered (and now LOVE), then our local subway will no longer be the F-train, but instead the B. This means that when she's a bit older, little Biet will learn how to ride the B train. I like the thought of that. I can almost see her, metrocard in hand, toddling through the turnstile eagerly & fearlessly. I'll tell her stories about the days when we used shiny tokens to get on the subway instead of cards. And she, a street-smart tiny New Yorker, will tell us how how the B stands for the Biet train. Oh, the adventures to come!
Here are some more photos of our little trip to Prospect Park by way of the B-train..

Prospects..

So we are definitely moving come October 1st. We have decided to try to end up within a couple blocks of a NYC park this time. If we're lucky enough to find a place in my neighborhood of choice (I'm keeping my fingers crossed and obsessively checking craigslist every day) then the name of our new park (aka front yard) will be Prospect Park! Prospect Park: the wild-eyed stepsister of Central Park, the tourist-free oasis in the middle of Brooklyn, the home of botanical gardens & The Prospect Park lake (part of which is dedicated as a dog swimming area- Nico will thank me one day) & museums & a 99-year-old carousel & horseback riding (yes please) & an ice-skating rink & and acres of forest and wilderness!

Gaby and baby girl and myself took the train out the other day to get a feel for the park. We walked around our potential new neighborhood, chatted with locals, & sat and daydreamed of what it might be like to wake up each day to such wondrous nature. In my daydream we were calm and joyful, more creative than we'd ever been, in the center of a vibrant neighborhood and in a home with abundant space (and hard-wood floors & a huge kitchen & lots of natural light- ok, my dream may have been a bit unrealistic, but maybe not) and Nico & Biet were happy to have the brightness & freedom of the park.

Now I just need to make it all happen.