We're Going for a Walk (Part Eleventy-Billion)

As I mentioned in my previous post, we went for a walk yesterday afternoon. When we headed out, I mentioned to Joe that I wanted to bring the sled with us. It wasn't necessarily just for Joey's enjoyment. He tends to hit his breaking point inevitably before we get home, and after shoveling all this snow, I really didn't want to carry him. I figured, worst case scenario, he rides on the sled for a little bit, and I carry him, and we can trade off like that until we get home. Little did I know.

When we got to the park, they had cleared the walking path, but there was still at least two to three inches on the ground. (Did I mention it snowed again on Sunday?) I asked Joey if he wanted to get on the sled, and he said no, that he wanted to pull the sled. So away we walked, with joey dragging the sled (which is really like a boogie board for the snow).

He tromped through all the snow, and loved every second of it.

And when I ask him to say "cheese!" now, he inevitably breaks into "Hi Nana!" and "Hi Buszi!" and whatever else he feels like yelling (including "we're going for a walk, we're going for a walk, hi-hi the derry-o, we're going for a walk").

As predicted (and blogged about previously), we got about halfway around the walking path, and he wanted to be carried. We put him on the sled, and with only a little whining, we made it all the way home. It was a great day.

Ningiat, Ningiat, Ningiat!

Yes, my blog title is in Latin. I don't remember the whole story, but when I first was dating my husband, we somehow got onto the topic of Latin classes, and he told me how they had to learn "Let It Snow" in Latin. So now, whenever it snows, instead of humming to myself "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!" I instead find myself singing "ningiat, ningiat, ningiat!" (For reference, it's a hard "g.")

Anyway, after brunch with the Silva-Offutt and Weir-Achilles families, and no nap for Joey, we decided to go for a walk. I figured I'd take the sled with us, just in case Joey didn't feel like walking home. Guess what - he didn't. But he had fun on the sled (and Mommy had fun pulling him!).

I'm a Big Kid Now

When Joey got home from school on Thursday, he couldn't wait to run the vacuum cleaner. Since we had just done the dining room earlier in the week, I figured we could hit the upstairs bedrooms. When we got into his room, I was doing my normal inspection of his crib, and noticed that two of the screws holding the front railing in were just about out. Joe and I had been discussing converting the crib into a toddler bed, and I figured, why not? I mean, the Boy's already 27 months old, and most of my friends transitioned their kids sometime between 18 and 24 months. There was just no real rush here, though, since Joey only ever really climbed out a few times, and it was usually while we were there to watch. Why give up the confined spaces if we didn't have to? But it was time.

The night couldn't have gone better. He stayed in bed when I put him down, and fell right to sleep during the second Winnie the Pooh story. He did cry a few times in the night, and when I checked on him at midnight (while he was crying), he was actually on the floor. He must have moved there himself, though, because he was using his big white blanket as a pillow, and looked completely comfortable.

He couldn't waiti to pose this morning in his big boy bed. I told him we had to show Nana and Buszi what a big boy he is!

We'll see how it goes the rest of the week.

Crash Into Me

So this is not the story I wanted to blog about, but quite frankly, I just can't post the other pictures right now. I mean, I took these great pics of Joey and had half the blog written in my head already this morning, and then this happened ...

On my way to work. Stopped at a four-way stop. It was my turn to go. The woman traveling perpendicular to me never even stopped. I'm not going to go into all the other details, but wow. What a way to start Friday. And I didn't even want to go to work! I hate driving on snowy/icy roads, and really, I can do everything on my laptop, so after our historic blizzard, I saw no reason to rush back to the office. But Joe was driving in, and he said the roads weren't so bad, and I figured there was some paperwork I could get on top of if I was in the office. Then this. The best part, though, was that Joe and the Boy were in his car behind me, so while they saw everything, they were not involved at all. I just keep telling myself had I not decided to drive in, it could've been Joe and Joey, and then what? As a mom, it's much easier to deal with all of this mentally that it happened to me and not the rest of my family.

Snow-torious B.I.G.

As I'm sure you all heard, we had a blizzard here yesterday. It started snowing on Tuesday around 2:30pm, and when it stopped yesterday around 9:30am, we had about 20 inches of snow on the ground. We had provisions and lots of layers, so we were fine.

This is Joe, trekking out to the street. They plowed it sometime in the middle of the night, and then sometime again yesterday mid-morning. This was before the second plowing. It is still snowing, and you can see that the snow is up to at least his knee. The winds were pretty strong, drifting the snow about a quarter of the way up our front door. Hence the bad picture quality. Not only is it snowing, but I couldn't open the front door, so this is taken through our screen.

Joey couldn't wait to get out side and help shoveling. This is during our second stint. You can tell because (1) he wouldn't let us put his hood up the second time and (2) part of the driveway is shoveled out. It took Joe the better part of three hours to get the driveway completely shoveled out.

This little guy was for the most part a good helper. Except when he took the snow from the snow banks and put it back on the driveway. At least he stayed entertained! (And yes, with the added snow from the driveway, the snow on the sides of the driveway are taller than Joey.)

My Little Picasso

You know your kids have too many toys when you forget what they have. There are also too many when you just forget to play with the ones you know they love. Joey has been on a coloring and drawing kick, and we've just been hanging out at the dining room table with the different paper and markers we have around the house. Then it hit me. (OK, I wanted to watch TV on Sunday, and I was trying to figure out how to make it all work together.) Joey has an easel. One that I specifically asked that he get for a birthday present because I knew how much he loved to color.

And color he did. Erase and color. Talk and draw. Hand Mommy the markers and just keep going.

It was so much fun! So what if there's some marker on the plastic and not just the white board. Just watch how much fun he has!

Too Dark ... On!

This is Joey's latest trick. I didn't even know he could reach the light switch. We're in trouble!!