Snow Day

Well, it did warm up above freezing for a couple of days, so we enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood.  Owen got tired so he ended up riding on the front of the stroller, straddling the wheel, for the second half of the walk.  He liked it so much, he now requests to do that!  And it was Hadley's first time sans-carseat facing forward in the stroller.  She was speechless.  :)

Today was a snow day.  All schools city-wide cancelled class because of a lot of snowfall last night and this morning.  I think we probably got about 6-8" last night on top of the 4" we already had from a couple of days ago.  J spent about 2 hours clearing our driveway and sidewalks with the snowblower.  When the sun came out in the afternoon, we were all about it!  Too deep to sled, but we made a "snowman", snow angels, and (added bonus) watched the motor graders and backhoes clearing the streets and driveways!

More pictures of the accumulation and even a skier beyond our back fence!

Lastly, Owen was playing with the baby carrier one night, so I set him up with his own baby to carry.

And I'll have to get a picture at some point, but Hadley got her first tooth over the weekend.  Getting ready to chow on some Texas BBQ soon!  :)

Just to Illustrate My Point

I just had to document that I'm not overly sensitive to the cold.  This was the temperature I photographed from the car's thermometer yesterday morning when I dropped Owen off at school.  That's a negative 3 degrees Fahrenheit at 8:25 in the morning, people!

And the local paper had an interesting blurb about the cold temperatures, stating that this has been the coldest January since 1850.  That's right, 1850!  Probably when they first started keeping records around these parts.  The average temp has been 5.6 degrees, when the average is usually 20, and we've been above freezing all of twice so far this year.  See?  It's not just me.

OK, that is all.

Fireside Chat

Not much going on these days.  Still trying to keep warm and hoping for either warmer temperatures or snow.  It's just been steadily cold without much variation.  (We might get up to above freezing at some point this week!)  Even the cat knows the best place in the house.  (They've been so cold that they usurp your chair within seconds of your departure to try and absorb some of your remnant body heat.  Wimps!)

Anyway, Miss Hadley has been scarfing down all baby foods presented to her.  Prunes make her happy for a few reasons.

She's gotten much better at sitting, too, though I wouldn't put her on a hard floor just yet...  She definitely prefers to stand with assistance than sit on her own.

The kids' favorite friends came over to play.  The boys are a month apart, and the girls are less than 2 weeks apart.  Think Hadley has hair envy?

Let's just say that it's difficult to self-photograph while holding a baby.

The other day, Mommy wanted to have a beer while she watched football, but Hadley (who was in my lap) was fascinated by the beer bottle.  So much so, that I removed the contents to a glass and let her hang on to the empty bottle for a while, because she was hindering my intake!  How about that for a beer ad?  She's even color-coordinated.

And here's our potty-trained boy!  So proud of him for accomplishing that pretty quickly.  When he saw this picture, he said "hey, my eyes are closed!"

Brr!

Yesterday was the kids' check-up with the doctor.  We went for Owen's 3-year and Hadley's 6-month in the same visit!  

• Owen is over 38" tall (75%) and 32 lbs (50%), so he's slowing down a bit, but completely healthy.  Yea!
• Hadley is 26" long (50%) and 14.25 lbs (15%!), but her head is at the 90th-percentile!  So, she's a bit of a bobble-head.  Ha ha!  The doctor is a little concerned, since her growth has been dropping percentiles, so I'll have to take her in to be weighed every month.  Hopefully, she's just little and there's nothing more serious going on! Here's her cute, little foot (shown to scale with a matchbox car) while in the jumperoo.

Since she hit the 6-month milestone, we've been introducing solid foods, which is always kind of amusing.  So far she's sampled rice cereal, sweet potatoes, avocado, and prunes.  Here are some of her first moments with sweet potato.

And, lastly, it has been pretty ridiculously cold here in the last week or two!  Next week, depending on who you believe, the forecast has a HIGH temperature of 2 degrees Fahrenheit for one of the days!!  (Two other days have highs of 4 and 6.)  And there are several days in the double digit negative temperatures for lows during the night.  Oh my.   How have we been surviving?  Layers and lots of them!

Continuing our water woes in this house, the recent negative temperatures caused a pipe INSIDE our house to freeze!  (It was a bathtub faucet near a north-facing wall that apparently needs more insulation.)  Luckily, it's thawed out now, but we are about to have more extended sub-freezing temperatures, so cross your fingers that our temporary, free preventative measures will be enough this time around.  In the mean time, we'll be trying to enjoy the cold and snow!

6 months!

Yes, I'm a little behind, but I took this picture on the right day.  Hadley is 6 months now. Shots and doctor check-up are scheduled for next week.  We've been a little pre-occupied with potty training, illness, and staying warm when it's been -5 degrees in the morning!