Unbirthday

On Sunday we went to Brooklyn to celebrate Liel's 2nd birthday with Uncle Kenn and Aunt Giselle. We cleverly managed to forget that the NYC Marathon is run the first Sunday in November, despite the fact that after my water broke the day before Liel was born our midwife suggested we walk down our block and watch the runners go by to take my mind off of things. And we did. And it's a very clear memory for me, one I associate with Almost Liel Time. But we still forgot. The reason I'm wasting so much metaphorical ink on this oversight is that it cost us probably 45 minutes of extra car time. Not because there were more cars on the road (most folks were more aware than us, I guess), but because, as the electronic billboards all over the city helpfully noted, there were "Various road closures". And one of those roads was 4th Ave in Brooklyn. Kenn and Giselle's house is between 5th and 6th Aves, and the BQE (the rather misnamed "Brooklyn/Queens Expressway) runs right above 3rd Ave, and drops you off down by 2nd Ave. So in short, we couldn't get up by Kenn. We made various bad calls in attempts to get closer, but in the end we parked on 55th St between 3rd and 4th Aves (by going backwards up the street, I might add), and walked across the Marathon. The helpful cop we talked to down in Bay Ridge said he thought it would be OK for us to do that, since most of the runners were past that point.

Anyway, you still with me? Good. So we all sauntered down to Bay Ridge and I bought a lifetime's supply of tahini (4 lbs!) and then we went to La Maison du Couscous for some delicious Moroccan food. We used to go there all the time when we lived in Brooklyn, and Robert says it's his favorite restaurant in all of NYC. Rashid, the owner, calls Liel "the Moroccan baby" because he says I ate there so much when I was pregnant with her. Here we are, enjoying our tagines, couscous, and lamb shank bones.



After that we drank mint tea (not pictured), and headed back to Kenn and Giselle's for cake and a couple of gifts. Kenn and Giselle gave Liel a Hello Kitty backpack, which she loves, and which Zion now covets. Luckily for him she's pretty accommodating (tho not as much as he'd like, since he'd like to just have it be his!).





All in all, quite fabulous.