Snow Day!

Well, living in New England has certainly expanded my experiences with snow by about 10 fold.  Kyle and I have slowly acquired things like snow shovels, fleece-lined hats, water proof gloves, and we buy the industrial size cans of hot chocolate (I kid you not, on the side of the can it says "great for restaurants and day cares!").  

After a few days, snow gets old.  But, I still get excited about snow days...they're like surprise holidays, and, well, it's fun!  So, as we got about 18 inches of snow on our street today - school was rightly cancelled.  We're out tomorrow too....which is kind of exciting as well. :)

But, on to our day. 

I already blogged about our morning making snow ice cream.  After all of that fun was done, we got ready to go outside. 

I kinda love seeing Abby in her snow pants.  

We went outside to check things out.  Abby was excited, but tentative (rightly so).

My car 1/2 way through the day.  I have an awesome husband who spent nearly an hour shoveling it for me.  Then?  Then he did it again tonight.  ....That was before we knew I had tomorrow off, but man, he didn't even complain about it.  Lucky girl, I am. 

I'll admit I felt like a little kid again frolicking around in the snow that came up past my knees. 

This is the best I could get of Abby on our first trip outside today.  She was not exactly amused when we stuck her, waist deep, in the snow.  She couldn't walk, move, wiggle, or even really fall.  She found it...frustrating.

Kyle, on the other hand, decided to dive right in. 

home sweet home

We decided to take a walk.  But, at this point, the street had not been plowed and Abby was having a really hard time walking.  Kyle picked her up, but when they got a little ways down, he turned around.  She flipped out.  She didn't want to turn around - but she didn't want to walk either.  She ended up just working herself up into a tizzy and *screaming* and crying as loud as she could until I could get her back upstairs.  Now...screaming toddlers are bad enough - but when you're outside with half a dozen neighbors trying to shovel and there's not another sound in the air...it was almost more than I could deal with.

trying a walk with daddy.

We let Abby eat lunch and take a nap (two things that surely contributed to her melt down) and decided to head out again after she was fed and rested.  This trip was much much better. 

our back deck after being shoveled. 

Abby being a big helper!

our street, after it had been plowed.  heh.

I tried to capture this snowflake on my sleeve.

me and my happy abbykat

I love the way the freshly plowed sidewalks look

tree pic

We ended up walking all over the neighborhood and had a really good time.  We passed a dad and his 6-year old at one point and the little girl ran up to Abby and asked "You want to play with me?"  I told her Abby was kind of small to be sliding down the hill (turned slide by the 6-year old)...but Abby, to my surprise, answered "yes" before I could get in the way.  So, instead, I helped Abby slide down a snow slide with another little girl for a while and she had a lot of fun doing that.  :)

Eventually, I couldn't feel my toes and Abby's nose was running - so we convinced her to head back towards home with the promise of hot chocolate.  A promise that she held me to.  As soon as she got upstairs, she said "Ok.  Hot chocolate now?"  And of course she got some.

Kyle stayed outside a while longer and worked on my car and the driveway a bit.  When we all got in, we sat down to a yummy dinner of pot roast that we've been smelling all day.  After dinner, it was time for Abby's bath, books, and bed.

All in all, it was a nice day.  Low key, but full of stuff at the same time.  We got a lot of snow.  Kyle and I were trying to decide if we've had this much snow since we lived here or not.  We couldn't remember.  It seems like our first year here may have been close.  But, I kinda think this is the biggest snow we've had.  And, well, it was fun!

Abby is already growing up in a different reality than Kyle or I did.  She knows what a snow plow is.  She owns snow pants.  She thinks you should be able to make a snow man anytime you'd like.  It's so much fun watching her learn this stuff. :)

Anyway.  That's enough for now.  For everyone else out in this stuff - stay warm, dry, and safe...may your hot chocolate never run out and your neighbor shovel your walk for you. ;)

first snow ice cream

I'd never made snow ice cream before.  I guess, growing up in Arkansas, we didn't always think of these things on the rare occasions we got enough snow to make it.  But, as I was thinking about things to do with Abby on our snow day today - it came to mind.  

I was surprised to find that there were so many different recipes for it.  Some people use milk and sugar, some people used condensed milk, some people use syrup, others honey, some people use warm milk and some say it should be cold..etc etc.  We decided to keep things simple.

Snow. Milk. Sugar. Vanilla.  Mix & enjoy.

Abby helping me make our first batch. 

sprinkles were a must

Abby very much enjoyed it.  She ate about 3 bites before I tried a taste.  It was utterly inedible.  I had put way too much sugar and too much vanilla in it and it made me shiver thinking that Abby was eating (and enjoying) it.  So, we threw that batch out and decided to try again.  

Abby wore her hat, her boots, and one mitten all morning long.  She wouldn't take them off.  She told me she was getting ready to go play.

Also?  That alien shirt she's wearing is her favorite.  It glows in the dark.  She gets to wear it on extra special days...like snow days. ;)

Well, after the overloaded sugar batch, we decided to give it another go.  This one turned out much much nicer.  We used more snow, we colored it, and we let it re-freeze a bit after mixing....which gave it a better consistency too.

our colorful batch!

Abby had to sample each one...of course.

she was SO pleased.

I'll post more snow pictures later.  We got somewhere around 16-18 inches at our house I believe.  We took Abs out for a few minutes earlier today and...well...let's just say we're going to give it another try after her nap.  I think I hear people shoveling for us now, so maybe that will make things more manageable.

abbyisms

Just wanted to jot down a few abbyisms of late.  Some of these I've probably mentioned before.

- She has a few words that I kind of like better than their real-word counterparts.  I'm constantly using her words instead of the real ones and I have to catch myself.  One of them that I've mentioned before is "jumpoline"  instead of trampoline.  Ever since she tried it out at my parent's house, she's noticed them in books and talks about it on occasion.  I mean, "jumpoline" is so much more descriptive, no?  Another is "clothescases" instead of suitcases.  Again - it just makes more sense.  How many suits to really put in your suitcase anyway?  Lately, she's started calling salad dressing "salad dip"  And, really, I think that makes more sense too.  Especially for her - since she really is using it as dip.  But where does that word "dressing" come from anyway?

- I love that she's at the age where she can talk to me about things that happened during the day.  Today, after her nap, I asked her what she had for lunch today.  It took her a minute or so to get it all out, but she very clearly told me she had "raisins, and dip, and milk, and grass, and salad dip"  She calls salad "grass"  But, she'll call lettuce by it's name if it's by itself....most of the time.  Kyle and I laughed when she asked for "grass and salad dip please" at dinner the other night.

- She absorbs everything.  It's amazing to watch and observe how she learns. Just amazing.

- She is ALL about her babies right now.  She feeds them, rocks them, reads to them, changes their diapers (constantly), has tea with them, dances with them, pushes them in the stroller, puts them night-night, kisses them, shares her stickers with them, gets them dressed, feeds them, packs their diaper bags...you name it, she acts it out with her dolls.  And her dolls are not limited to just the baby dolls - she has several stuffed animals and puppets that qualify for this kind of attention too.

- I'm in no hurry to potty train, and I don't think Abby is either - but she is definitely showing more interest lately.  We're letting her take the lead.  She got a book called "Elmo's potty book" for Christmas. She likes it.  Whenever she gets to the last page, she starts cheering for Elmo and congratulating him on "going potty - Elmo's a big boy now!" Funny.

- She's been eating really well lately.  It's been great.  She'll eat basically anything with a little bit of Italian dressing to dip it in.  Tonight, she ate a bell pepper (dipped in dressing), hummus, orange slices (dipped in dressing) and toast with jelly (also dipped in dressing)  It's so gross, but I'm glad she's eating well.  Last night, we went out to a new Thai food place.  They didn't have a kid's menu, so I just shared my noodles with her.  It was a new flavor, a new kind of noodle, and she had no problem with it.  She ate it up happily.  I hope she continues to enjoy a variety of foods....at least most of the time.

- Abby likes ice cubes now and asks for them in her water.  She's also taken a bunch of white pom-poms (the little craft cotton balls) and put them with her tea set so that she can put "ice cubes" in her tea.  She also feeds the fake ice cubes to her babies.  Poor babies.

- We finally got Abby a real pillow.  It's a travel size pillow, so it's still smallish - but it's big to her and looks big in her crib.  We couldn't find a travel size pillow case, so we used the only spare pillow case we had around the house for now...Kyle's old Ninja Turtle pillow case.  Abby was quite excited about her new "big girl" pillow...but the 1/2 turtle, 1/2 people pictures on them confused her just a little.  :)  Kyle and I secretly love she now has a ninja turtle pillow in the midst of her dolls, kitties, and pink blankets.

- Yesterday we ran across an 80-90% off sale at a local FAO Shwarz store.  Score.  We got a few toys - $150 worth for $30.  One of the things we impulsively picked up was a bag of gummy bears (for .40 cents)  Abby kept asking "bite? bite? bite?"  I told her she could have ONE bite after we were done paying for it.  Except.  I was saying "Abby, we have to buy it first"  And after a while, it dawned on me that she was getting upset with me because "buy it" sounds like "bite"  She thought I was just being mean and kept teasing her, lol.  Once we switched to saying "pay for it" she said "Oh.  We pay for it.  Then get back.  Then say thank you.  Then we eat it?"
Yes.

- When Abby sees something she wants, she often asks "You want some???"  Not because she's asking US - but because that's the questions she wants US to ask HER.  It's actually kinda funny, but we're used to it now.  But, if you don't answer her right away - not only will she keep asking you the question she wants you to ask her - but she'll also start giving you the answer.  Example:
Abby sees Kyle putting some jelly on toast
A: Jelly! You want some?
K: (ignoring her)
A: "You want some???"
K: (still ignoring her)
A: "You want some Jelly please???????"
K: (nothing)
A: "You want some? Sure. Yes. Yes jelly. Sure."
K: "Oh, do you want some jelly?"
A: "ok"

Anyway, I'm sure there's a billion more I could put down here, but that's what I remember off the top of my head.  She's a fun kid.

You Capture - 10 best

In my photo library, I have 17,000 pictures that I took in 2010.  Of course, that doesn't include the ones I deleted.  When I saw that Beth wanted us to pick the top 10 from the year to share today - well, I didn't know where to start.  

I don't know if these are my 10 best pictures of 2010.  I'm pretty sure they aren't.  But, they are a few of my favorites - either for the memory they hold, a response they got, something.  when I flipped through those 17,000 pictures - these are ones that I paused on. 

One of my goals is to continue to take pictures in 2011, but to take better ones.  I want to develop this hobby a little further this year...and I'm hoping to continue (restart?) You Capture as a medium for that. 

So, enjoy!  I can't wait to see everyone else's top 10 pic picks. ;)

January 2010

Abby - 13 months old

 

Lavender at a farmer's market in Portland, OR

me and my bff

signs of summer

A sweet little inch worm.  Richard Scarry, anyone?

 Apple picking in the fall

announcing baby #2! 

fall pumpkins 

Abby's 2nd birthday party theme

Now, go see what everyone else is posting at I Should Be Folding Laundry.  :)

25 week ultrasound

As previously mentioned, my 19 week ultrasound and bloodwork showed that one of my blood levels was oh-so-slightly low.  It was below the "normal" range by .1 and, considering all my other numbers and stats, it is *really* nothing to worry about.

Nevertheless, the docs want to keep an eye on two things that this low number could, in theory, effect.  The first is my blood pressure and the second is the baby's weight.

Well, my blood pressure is not a problem.  Yesterday it registered in at 85/40.  I've always had low BP and I doubt that will change.  To measure baby, we got another ultrasound.  :)

With Abby, we had 2 ultrasounds.  One at 12, and one at 20 weeks.  With this baby, we will have 4 or 5 total - just so they can make sure the weight is fine. So, I'm not complaining - I'll take any peek they give me.

So, yesterday we went to the hospital and met with the tech and the doctor.  Everything looked "beautiful"  The baby is measuring in the 60th percentile at the moment for weight, so really, again, there's nothing to worry about in that arena.  But, just to double check - we will go back for yet another ultrasound in 6 weeks.  Score.

I was surprised at how babylike this baby looked.  I know that sounds silly, but I was just amazed.  On screen, I could imagine just picking it up and holding it on my chest.  I could really imagine what he or she is going to look like - even feel like.  It was weird.  It also made me realize that I really am looking forward to having a little baby.  It's not that I haven't felt that - it's just that I'm usually busy and preoccupied and don't spend hours daydreaming and wondering and what-if-ing like I did with Abby.

But yes, I'm definitely looking forward to this.

Anyway, here are a few of the pictures.  They are pictures of the pictures I took with my phone, so I apologize for the quality....I gotta go hook up the scanner at some point.

Baby #2 - hands by face.

1.  

being shy

body shot

So, there you are.  Another peek at our future little one.

The pregnancy is still going well. I've started having a little heartburn here and there.  Not enough to take medicine for, but enough to think twice about what I eat.  But, overall, I feel good.