Hurricane Sandy

When I was 9 months old, there was a hurricane that caused a tree to hit the house my parents were renting. It dented in the wall as my mom was feeding me. That was Hurricane Gloria.

Lucie is now 9 months old, and Hurricane Sandy made landfall on Monday. I live in Lindenhurst, on Long Island, NY. You may have seen our town on CNN or other news stations. Many people had their homes flood, there were a lot of fires from blown up transformers closer to the bay, and people have been left without power and cable. Now, I could do without cable television, no problem, but my telephone is cable, so when the cable is out, I also lose my landline house phone and Internet. Without power, I have no way to keep the baby's formula cold.

We were very fortunate not to sustain any damage to our home, but we did lose power, cable, and heat. We discovered what half power is... Our lights work, our refrigerator buzzes, but does not get cold. We are staying with my parents, who regained full power, and they have heat (and hot water for warm showers!!).

My parents' porch was hit by a tree that fell. The tree had been hollowed out by a racoon family of three. My dad had pointed this out to me three weeks ago, and he said, "if we have a windstorm, that tree is coming down, and it's going to fall in the pool."

Well, thanks to hurricane Sandy, the tree was caught by the wind, and it hit the swing set and pool deck. It also broke some lawn furniture, but it stopped short of the pool. If the pool had been hit, the crawl space under my parents' dining room would have flooded.

Lucie thinks it's great, having sleepovers at Grandma and Grandpa's house and in Mommy and Daddy's bed. She doesn't realize we let her sleep in our bed so our body heat could keep her warm while the furnace isn't working. She just knows she got to cuddle her Mommy all night.

Lucie has also learned how to crawl and stand up on her own this week. She is quite proud of herself. She really enjoys when we clap for her to provide positive reinforcement for her efforts.

Halloween was this week, and although Lucie and I weren't feeling up for trick or treating (we both have bad coughs), we did enjoy dressing up for a Star Wars photo shoot last week at Target with Jonathan.

Please note that Target LifeTouch owns the rights to the following images, and you do not have the right to reproduce or share these photos without theirs and my permission.