Steven Jr. Pics

Hey guys-just thought I would give you some good pictures of our son. We have all been under the weather lately. It started with Steven Jr. and then hit me, then Steven Sr. Some of these are from before that and some are after. Enjoy!


Eating is soooooooo much fun when I get to chew on my spoon!




Bath time is great now that we have bath toys and my mommy bathes me!



Look at how much fun my bouncer is! I can play here for soooo long and enjoy every minute of it! And look, I'm growing my hair back!






Our Kitchen Closet Our living room/Dining Room....or whatever



Our Bathroom-the toilet is behind the door....you actually can't open the door all the way open because it hits the toilet!

Here are some pictures of our apartment since I couldn't get the video to upload on the original post.

Our New Friends

I just wanted to write a quick entry about our last few days here. This past Saturday we started our day with a picnic in the park with a few of our new friends here from the Teachers College Program. All of them are guys in Steven's class and three of them have wives with children. They are all believers and have been a great source of community for us here. We all went to church together. It is a church called Emmanuel and is a church plant of Redeemer (which is Tim Keller's church in downtown). Shown above on the left are two of Steven's friends (left to right: Adam, Steven, and Joey) to the right are three of the wives (left to right: Sarah, Collene, me, and Beth). I wanted to put their pictures here so you guys could match faces with stories that you will hear this year. So here we go!



These are the Ropers. Hart, Colleen, and their 2 yr old daughter Mary. They live two floors above us and are from DC. Colleen used to be a nurse & is expecting a second child in the spring!


This is the Dube family. Adam, Beth, and their kids Emma (6yrs.) Owen (3yrs) and Addison (10 months). They just moved from Korea where they were teaching English and doing outreach work to their colleagues there. Beth is from Missouri and Adam is from Ohio. Beth used to teach Elementary school and is currently homeschooling Emma in the mornings. They live on the 7th floor of our building.


These are the Alexanders. Sarah, Daniel, and their children David (1 1/2 yr.) and Avery (2 1/2). They are from Raleigh and Daniel used to teach at St. David (where Thomas Breedlove graduated from). They both went to Chapel Hill (Go Heels!) and Sarah used to teach as well. She is also expecting a little boy in January! They live on the 6th floor of our building.


This is Joey. He is a Carolina grad as well and also used to teach at Thomas's school in Raleigh. He lives in the building just around the corner from us!


And lastly-these are our good friends the Robinsons. They are the only people we knew prior to moving up here. Gabe and Steven were roommates their Senior year of college and they have already lived here for two years. Gabe is a publisher for Harper-Collins and Meg works for the human resources department of Loreal. They live about an hour subway ride from us (which believe it or not for a New Yorker isn't really that long...you just read a book or listen to your Ipod).


And this-is the campus of Columbia. It is an incredibly peaceful campus for the middle of a city. Lots of lawns to play on and fun things to do. When you step off the streets of the city, you feel like you walked into a different world. Just a little bit of where we are now-hope all is well

The Gerber Baby

So the last couple of days have had some happenings that needed to reach the general public.

1. Two blocks from where we live is the beginning of Harlem. Now two blocks may not seem like a long ways to you-but these two blocks separate two worlds. Where I live is incredibly safe-but it is very close to projects and the heart of Harlem. Unfortunately that is the only place Bank of America exists in this area. So Steven and I took a stroll down there together pushing our son (which might I add I will NEVER do on my own), and we were one of 3 white people I saw in the entire 45 minute walk. Not once or twice, but three times I had very kind young (and older) women stop me to talk about my son. Each first promptly exclaimed at his chubbiness and asked what I was feeding him. To which I responded, "breast milk," and they exclaim, "Of course, cuz no formula fed baby's gonna look like that!" They then proceeded to tell me that he looked just like the Gerber Baby! Now....no one has ever told me this. I wondered if it was because he was white and chubby-because 3 women told me this in one afternoon! So I have included a poll on the homepage so you can give us your opinion.


2. I have had the typical NYC experience-the one joked about on Friends and the local double decker buses. That's right guys-the ugly naked guy. From where I feed Steven, I can see across to another dorm. And naturally as I sit doing nothing (as talking on the phone or reading seems to distract him and make the process much longer) my eyes begin to wander out the window. Well this particular night my neighbor failed to pull his blinds as he was getting out of the shower. I yelled and made Steven come look so I didn't feel like I was seeing or doing something bad. We had a nice laugh over it.


Last night we went to the boat house in central park to have a social for Steven's program. It was a very nice wine and cheese party in a "must visit". It was right on the water and had boats to rent. We had a great time-but ironically ended up hanging out with the people we already knew. I was able to meet a couple of his professors and they were super nice and asked me to stop by the school as often as I could. Everyone was a fan of our little guy and it was a nice Central Park stroll. I have included a picture of the boathouse at the top of the blog. Unfortunately the other mothers with children left before I was able to get out the camera. We also went by the gym today and I was able to get a very cheap membership-so Steven is going to come home and watch little Steven during his afternoon nap so I can find time to get out and get some exercise. We figured this would be a must during the winter months.

Little Steven!

So yesterday was our first experience with feeding little Steven "solid" food. First of all what a misnomer...second-who knew that any experience could be so messy! He loved it. He was banging on the tray, grabbing my spoon, and generally getting the rice cereal all over the place. I
had it on me-he had it on him and it took longer to clean up then it actually did to eat. Things are going well-I went on a good 30 block walk this morning with my new friend Sarah so that she could get a new stroller. A city stroller. There are some that work here and some that definitely don't. She took 2 days to realize the needed a new one. We went to a specialty place that helped you find the perfect thing for you. 95% of the strollers in NYC are one brand-who knew they could monopolize the whole city! Luckily I have one too-it may be the only place that I actually fit it.

Steven started his classes yesterday and he is really enjoying them. Today he had a class with the man who used to be the superintendent of the NY Public School System. A man who has the authority to call politicians to the carpet! He is really excited about that one. Overall I'd say we are getting acclimated. I've found a fun park just around the corner and other than napping our son is adjusting as well. We love you all!

Our First City Apartment

So-we're here and now I'm officially a blogger (who would have thought). My parents were up moving us in and we had a great time. We took a double decker bus all over downtown and spent some time in Central Park. Our apartment is just 10 blocks north of the northern end of central park!

We had our good friends Gabe and Meg over for dinner last night and I had to adjust to cooking in a closet and a tiny gas oven (no timer or pre-heat buzzer here). The oven is just large enough for a cookie sheet to fit in long ways-but not sideways. Our apartment is much roomier than I thought it would be. We have just the right amount of stuff. Somehow 495 square feet feels large here. They actually raved over how much space we have! I had to catch myself in mid sentence saying..."wait a minute, this isn't big-you're just used to New York!" I suppose soon enough we will be thinking that way to. We have some large door/windows onto a tiny balcony overlooking 121 Street. It is really nice. Some people have said it reminds them of Paris-me not so much, but it's nice. I am going to attempt to put a video on here of a tour. I hope you can view it. I'm still learning how this thing works so bear with me. Our only real frustration is that little Steven is not taking to falling asleep on his own. It's silly to ask a prayer for that-but if you think of it-pray he adjusts and learns to sleep on his own. It will make my life and spirits a lot better.

We've only explored the neighborhood a little-but last night we walked down Broadway (which is one of the streets our apartment is in between) and there were the cutest bookstores and places to eat. It's like Franklin street on steroids! We plan to explore that a little more tonight. We miss you all so much-we've met a few people, but not lots of honest conversation yet. I miss it dearly. Love you all and hope this finds you well