Dressed In White

It snowed, again.  I hadn't kept up with the weather this week and as I opened the curtains in the nursery this morning, I was a bit shocked.  More snow!  I asked Hugo if he'd looked outside yet.  His response was of great annoyance as he muttered how he wants it to be warm when he plays outside.  He like the part about there being no school.  I felt bad for him.  He really hasn't had much fun in the snow this year.  It has been too deep for his short person and I have been stuck inside with the girls.  I could have made it more fun.  I really could have.  Next year will be the year of family fun in the snow.  Promise.  I just hope it will snow!  Next year that is, we really could use a break for the rest of the season.  I am worried where all this snow melt will go this coming spring.

Time Outside

Hugo's second snow day of the week and, and, and... I was a lame-o parent. I couldn't find his snow pants or the sleds! Snow pants, even the sort that fit a four year old, are kinda big. I have *no idea* where they are. Really. And we own like three sleds and a giant blow up inner tube, I couldn't find them either.

I called Cesar at work to ask if he knew where the sleds were, because I remembered watching him sending Hugo down the hill on the one that looks like a surfboard with a pull rope attached to the top last weekend. I really wanted to find that one hoping to pull the girls slowly around the yard while they giggled with delight as I snapped pictures and Hugo danced circles around us. Hee, hee, hee!

Cesar texted back that the giant blow up inner tube was in the shed and that the surfboard sled was behind Hugo's igloo.

My husband has been out of town the past two nights. He has missed out on witnessing the heavens open and spilling forth more and more snow and ice upon us. There is no way we are getting into that shed till Hugo's birthday, in April. Maybe. And the surfboard sled behind the igloo, the snow swallowed it up like quicksand. I pulled on Cesar's boots, which are taller than mine, and stomped all the way around the igloo looking for the missing sled. Could not find it but got lots of snow in my boots. Awesome.

We made the best of it though. Hugo ran around the yard, while wearing his pajama bottoms instead of snowpants, checking out the snow drifts formed by the plowman and he tried to find the entrance to his igloo. Then he cried because he made a snowball with his bare hands. I do know where his gloves are, promise, he chose to not where them. The girls watched us from their vantage point of a Rubbermaid container with a blanket in the bottom. They watched and watched. They each tried twice to vacate the plastic tub, but with the surprise of the cold, wet snow on the palms of their hands, they weren't going anywhere. Snow = baby force field.

It was a good 15 minutes.

Iced Over

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful is the state of our yard right this minute.  I like to walk around and survey the property in it's winter beauty.  Amazing how different the place looks from season to season. 

I am beginning to feel bad for the trees.  Our pines have lost branches.  I also discovered something disturbing, the lilacs were budding out.  Buds!  Real honest to goodness, green buds are encased in icy bulbs on the tips of the lilac branches. 

A benefit of the snow fall is that all the weeds in my garden are mostly covered over with the blanket of snow, ice, snow we've just received.  The tall weeds, which I neglected to remove from my once upon a time flower garden, are now feeding our population of birds with their bountiful seeds.  This makes me happy.

The house itself is warm and cozy.  I do need to pull my boots on soon and attack the icy snow layer that is covering the veranda.  Cesar worked on it yesterday while he was home.  Today is another day, and he is back to work and the temps are rising.  As the snow melts off the roof it drips and falls onto the veranda below.  We end up with standing water between the outside wall of the house and a barrier of snow and ice preventing the water to flow off the veranda to the ground below.  Leaks slowly find their way to the windows on the first floor.  Not good.

Hugo had no school again, third day in a row.  He is pleased as punch to be home.  Go Fish, books galore, and Lego Batman are his best friends right now.  I may have to drag him kicking and screaming to Preschool tomorrow, or are we in for more snow?  His friend Parker is due to arrive any minute.  Ruth Ann has to work + she is bringing me milk and bananas so I don't have to go out at all!

Time to pull my boots on.

p.s. Our plow man showed up at 4 o'clock in the morning.  How do I know this?  Marlo, who I had thought was sprouting one molar, was up half the night with 4 molars poking through her gums!

Powder Room Door

We are in the beginnings of a blizzard.  I can hardly believe it.  Not a flake to be found so far this winter, and now, a full on blizzard, and not of the delicious Oreo variety, hee hee!

So, I walk in the door and what do I spy?  Why the cutest Papa adoration happening right before my very eyes, and it was not of the usual Hugo kind.  It was Miss Marlo adoring her Papa while *sitting* on a stair step like a big little girl.  Love her.  She was even swinging her feet back and forth while chirping away. 

Look at that cute flower clip in her hair.  It was amazing that she left it in for nearly 20 minutes.

Here she is, back to adoring her Papa's every move.

 In this shot she was saying something to me.  I'd love to share, but missed out on the translation myself...  One day soon we'll know all her thoughts and then some.  Can't wait.

Out of no where (or maybe the living room), Sabine showed up to adore her Papa right along with her big sister (I might have helped Sabine into position).  Look at Marlo eyeing up that drill.  Normally, she would have been all over it.  I began to wonder if she was stuck on her stair step.  For one so bold, she can be surprisingly tentative, like in progressing out of her particular physical position.

Marlo noticed me again and began to clap.  She loves it when I tell her she is a good girl!  Claps and claps her wee hands together.

Then Sabine looked at the camera, so I had to share.  They look so grown-up, sitting there like little birds on our stair steps.

And then the girls blinked at the same time and naturally, my mad photog skills caught it!

Sabine talking and Marlo showing off her mad clapping skills once more.  This girl loves to clap.

Eventually, Brave and Bold Sabine crawled off to find her bottle,  Marlo just couldn't keep her eyes off Papa.

Or was she really, truly, stuck?

The hanging of the door, after sooooo many years of not having a powder room door, was just so completely riveting, that it completely captured the attention of our 13 month old daughter for like... forever.

But then the door wouldn't shut.

Turns out it's off by a smidge.

We need to buy a band saw now.

So the door will close you know.

A powder room with a door that sorta closes and which has missing panes of see (blink) through (blink, blink) glass, is well, kinda sorta like a powder room with no door.

*Marlo was indeed stuck by the way.  I finally coaxed her to slide off her one stair step onto her padded bum all by herself.  Silly girl.

*I also must confess that it was my idea to reuse this glass paned door.  It used to lead out onto the veranda before we installed the doors in the arches last January.  I couldn't have the house part with them, we have a pair and I hope to think up a home for the second door.  Did I just hear my sweet husband curse my name???  I need some inspiration about the glass and the privacy issues.  Any ideas?