Snow Day the Second

Remember when I said I'd blog about the second snow day when Auntie Kathleen and Grandma Jill sent me some pictures? Well, this is what I've got so far. That's Gwennie and Auntie Kathleen, outside of Pioneer on the last weekend of March. We had a great time - got there Friday night, Grandma Jill and Papa came on Saturday for a pancake breakfast, then we bundled up and hit the sledding hill. Gwen rode down the hill with Uncle Scot, snowballs were thrown, and snowmen were built. Gwen keeps asking to go back.
Kathleen has a lot of really great pictures, so when we get them transferred, I'll add more.

What She Said

This was Gwen's party outfit for Henry's shindig last month, complete with shiny shoes.

Jim has work! He's doing wireless security installations. It's contract work, no benefits, but it's keeping the roof over our heads and food on the table.

I, on the other hand, have poison oak. I have to write that because that's the thing about posion oak - when you have it, it takes over everything. We've spent the last two weekends doing yardwork, which in our yard means pulling out Scotch broom and Himalayan blackberry vine (all stickers, no berries,) and poison oak. The yard looks - well, like the woods, only with a lot fewer invasive and/or hazardous plants. But we did clear out the area around the cement pad. We want to turn that into a play area for Gwen this summer.

Gwen's been busy in the yard, too. The neighbors handed down a pair of little gardening gloves and a trowel, and she carries around her bucket from last Easter, collecting dirt and "worms."

My friend Staci was asking me if I wrote down what Gwen was saying,and I said I blogged about it. So I guess I'd better.

The big phrase in the past few weeks has been "Come back here!" As in "hey, 'quirrel, come back here!" or my favorite, "Horsie! Horsie,come back here!" That one's usually in the car, and Gwen shouts it as we drive merrily away. She uses it for the neighbors' cats,too, and occasionally her mom and dad.

"It's my favit" is big right now, too, used for just about anything she fancies at that moment. She used it just now when I put the kettle on for my tea. "It's my tea!" she exclaimed (honestly, that's the word for it, I'm not just being a lit major.) "My tea! It's my favit!" Then she took a long pull on her sippy cup. "My _______" is another favit around here, too.

She's still a cuddly little thing, handing out hugs and kisses to just about anybody who spends more than five minutes with her. Those were a big hit at Auntie Timi's birthday party this weekend. She gives all her little friends hugs and kisses, although Ryan is not so sure he's into it. I think he'd prefer a handshake most days. Adessa thinks it's great, as long as she's prepared for it.

Gwen loves her Curious George books, Dragon Tales and Sesame Street on TV, Winnie the Pooh, and her "beebee" Rutherford. She 's a little disturbed this morning because I cut a lemon for last night's dinner: "Tha's beebee's fooood!" Beebee has blankets, diapers, and a crib. And I have issues, because Beebee's crib is actually the ottoman, and Gwen dumps him in there and puts the lid on it. She puts Rutherford in a box! My Rutherford! In a dark box! I hate it. Gwen's insistent, though, and since I insist on her sleeping in her crib, I have to honor the fact that she wants her baby to sleep in his. Even if I do want to sneak in and get him in the middle of the night.

My favit things right now? I got a snuggle and a "I love my mama" as I carried her to the breakfast table. She loves to help me cook. She loves music, and she sings and plays her instruments all day long. I love to watch her run, with her knees prancing in the air, and her curls bouncing on her back. I love the way she holds my face while I'm reading her stories, and the fact that she's starting to "read" them back to me. Most of all, I love the way she says "Le's haf a fammy hug" and then throws herself between Jim and me, with her little arms squeezing us tight.

The Dread Pirate Blueberry Beard

The Pirate contemplates her plans.....

Yes! World domination is within her grasp!

Gotta love Pancake Sundays......

Snow Day(s)

Gwennie and her Grandma Betty reading a story. The book did not meet Grandma's standards, but Gwen thought snuggling with her was great.

Well, as usual, it's taken me so long to get this post up that I have a whole other family snow day to blog about. But I'll start with this one...

We took a trip to Sacramento towards the end of February. We stopped on the way to see Cutts and Theresa and Gavin, since we hadn't seen them since Gavin's first birthday last May. He was much bigger than Gwen then, but Gwen is much taller than him now. That's still kinda funny to me - I'm still used to thinking of her as little, but she's just not. She's a tall girl. We had a great time and great pizza and the kids were both up too late because none of their parents wanted to stop talking.

Then we went off to Grandma's house. Gwen was asleep when we got there, but she woke up a little when we came in. She raised her head to look at Grandma, dropped it back down, then reached over to hug Grandma. Then she woke herself all the way up, and ran to hug Grandma's leg. She's got a real love affair going with her great-grandma, and it warms my heart to see it. She played with her all weekend long, and as soon as I figure out how to post a video, I'll show you the dance they did together. And the chase game with her Papa, too.

The next Grandma Jill came over and we bundled up and went to the snow! We drove up towards Truckee, and stopped off near a hill next to the parking lot of a gas station and a snow park. It was great - all the daredevil older kids were out on the snow park itself, which left the very tame tobaggon hill free for families and littler kids. Grandma Jill bought Gwen a sled (a pretty purple one, mind you, although the snowpark guy laughed at her when she asked for pink.) But we didn't really use it - just built a tiny little snow person and threw a few snowballs and generally explored what snow actually is. I don't honestly remember the last time I was in any real snow, so I kind of had to re-educate myself. Hint- snow is not firm footing, and it will collapse underneath your foot, leaving you thigh high in cold wet stuff. Fun!

Lots of fun, actually- look at this girl, rocking her winter gear:

Building the little 'nowman with Daddy:

It was hard work. Massachusetts Boy was not happy with the snow quality.

He's little, but he's cute! Gwennie loved him.

Playing with Grandma Jill

Riding the sled with Mama - wheeee! (If you thought the snowman was small, you should have seen the slope we were on.)

Jim and I were having fun, too -no, really, Jim was having fun. He was just concentrating on aiming the camera.

We tried to get a family portrait before we left, but Gwen was cold and grumpy, and completely uninterested.

Snow Day part 2 is coming soon, but I took zero pictures that day, so Grandma Jill and Auntie Kathleen will have to help me out...

Thursday at the Park

Gwennie at Ryan's birthday party, in her princess dress (thanks, ML!)

It has been pretty rainy the last little while, but it cleared up enough last week to get in some serious park time. (The good thing about the rain? Gwennie loves herself some puddles. She's a champion puddle-stomper!

Thursday was a pretty good day all around. We went to Storytime at the library, which means "Nuuuuuuuuu buuuuuuuks! accompanied by the new books dance. Ryan and Stacy were at the library, so that was an added bonus. And I had won at bunko the night before, so we went to pizza for lunch. We sat upstairs by ourselves, and the kids chased and chased each other around the tables, before and after stuffing themselves with pizza. They ran so much that Gwennie crashed out for her nap without crying, which is always a huge bonus.

After we fixed the pigtails-

we hit the park.

We played in the sandbox while we waited for Ryan.

Then Gwen made cookies out of tanbark.

Gwennie calls these next two "going on slides!" (She's helping with the post.

Then we headed over to the volleyball court, where we played with a friendly kitty, but Mama didn't get very good pictures of that. Got a decent one of Ryan and Gwennie rearranging the tanbark, though.

This is a very fun thing to do at the park.

So is going on the red swing. Gwennie doesn't do the baby swings anymore! (Mama pauses to be a little sad.)

Thursdays are fun! Mama is still getting the hang of this blogging thing! (The pictures keep moving around, and the spacing gets weird, and what is up with no "undo" function?)

Party Girl

Gwennie and her stripey tights. Rutherford is fascinated by them.

And this week's phrase is: Right Now. "Play game, Daddy? Play game righ-now?" "Want milk righ-now, Mama." It's not nearly as rude as it may seem - it's not really a demand at all. It's a timeframe more than anything else. Gwen's got righ-now, I haffa-way (I have to wait,) and layer (later.) She's actually better at later than at have-to-wait. You can practically her her little brain cells begging, hoooow looong? Hooow looong do I haffa-way?

It's been a busy, rainy week for social butterflies. The rain started on Tuesday and effectively canceled our usual Wednesday hike. So everybody came over here for a playdate instead. That's her playdate dress up above. Gwen was a very gracious hostess, and only got upset over sharing once.

We moved the slide inside for the playdate, and it's now living in our foyer. We don't use the front door all that much, so that's ok. Gwen hasn't actually been sliding all that much, but she's making her father happy by performing physics experiments, sending Rutherford and various other toys down it.

Thursday Gwen wore her brown Sesame Street shirt. No pictures, it's not that cute, but it did make a boy at the library ask his mother if she could take it off, because it was his turn to wear it. And when we went to Adessa's house that afternoon, she poked Gwen and shouted, "Momo!" several times, until Gwen and I figured out what she was saying. Gwen's face said it all - why is she call Melmo Momo? There are a million names for the small red monster of Sesame Street.

Saturday was Ryan's party, and Gwennie wore her pretty party or princess dress (the name changed accordin to when her father was around, mostly.) Guess what Gwennie got for Valentine's Day?

We love the Dollar Store! We love shopping at the Dollar Store late on the night before the holiday, when the manager is ready to make a deal! Whoo hoo!

The most amazing thing about this dress? She wore it for the entire party, mac-and-cheese-lunch, birthday cake, and all, and I was able to hang it back up in the closet. I'm still shocked. Because usually she ends meal like this, with one hand in her high chair, and the other one waving a PBJ in the air.

She's seriously into hats and scarves righ-now, too, but that's a post for another day.

Stewart Sickies

Here's Gwen, before the virus sank its nasty, scritchy claws into her, and while she was clean.

Phew. We are finally coming out of the worst family illness we've had in a long, long time.

It started - oh jeez, two weeks ago, just before the Inauguration. Gwen got herself hurt over at the neighbors. She managed to scrape a fair chunk of skin of of her middle finger. It's mostly better now, but it was fairly traumatic for everyone, the neighbors most of all, I think. (I can't imagine anything worse than having someone else's kid get hurt on your watch - yeesh.) The injury wasn't ER-worthy, but it was definitely the Worst Thing that had ever happened to our Gwennie.

So that started a few nights of interrupted sleep, and partial nights of sleeping in the "big bed" as G. puts it, which sequed right into the weekend, and the beginnings of a fever. In the meantime, I'd gotten a gig subbing at my old school, in the 6th grade classroom. Which is my favorite sub job, because those are the last of my students. I didn't teach all of them, but even the ones that I didn't still know me as a teacher, rather than just a sub. Plus I love 6th graders - I love the curriculum, love the fact that I can really tease them, and love checking out how the cute lil' 8-year-olds I knew have gotten all scrawny and long and awkward. And smelly, whoo boy, hugs take on a whole new meaning, and whoops - so has this paragraph.

But check it out: I got a standing ovation from 20 12 year olds on Tuesday, when I told them I'd be there all week (their teacher had a new grandbaby.) A standing o. How cool is that?

Anyway (it's my blog and I can ramble if I want to) I had to work on Monday, and when I got up, Gwen was burning up. Full fledged fever, runny nose, whole thing. And I thanked the stars once more that I am not a single mom, because what would I have done? As it was, I cancelled Daphne, and Jim canceled his appointment for the day, and stayed home with her. All week, or at least until Friday. I started fading on Tuesday, was full out sick by Thursday, and just gritted my teeth through Friday. Because a) um, standing ovation! b) the teacher was counting on me, c) we really need the money, and d) my last class of kids! It was a great week with them, really. I just could've done without all the snot in my head.

Jim was still ok on Friday, when he had a consulting job, but by Saturday he was definitely feeling it. We all just groaned around the house and Costco (we were seriously out of food and supplies.) Jim's starting to come out of it now.

So. All of that, and it was mostly set up. Because I really wanted to blog on Sunday, when Jim slept way way in, and Gwen and I ate our pancakes and eggs by ourselves, and I was looking at my beautiful (pink-nosed, red-rimmed eyes, cold-infested) daughter. She is so much fun right now. She's talking more and more, and she's just such a little person. I don't even remember exactly what she was saying or doing, I just remember thinking - remember. Snapshot this moment right into your head, this feeling, this child, this morning. Because oh boy, she is some good stuff right now.

She's a nuzzler. She hugs my neck tight, then pulls back and studies my face carefully, selecting her placement. Then, with all the precision of a surgeon, she'll tun my head and lean in. Half the time she just rests her mouth against my cheek, and I'll stand there, poised, waiting for the smack of the kiss, and it doesn't come. The nuzzle just lasts. What does follow, almost every time, is the turning of my head the other way, so the she can place the partner kiss on the other cheek. Then one on my nose. Or my eyes, on at a time, very very gently, my little snuggly girl. Of course, this morning the eye kisses came after pancakes, and were a little, um, sticky. But still. When a little pigtailed girl offers you kisses, you do not turn them down.

I deliberately didn't take photos ove the weekend, because we were all less than our best. But here's one from yesterday, when we had lunch with some of my girlfriends. I'm telling you, some seriously good stuff, in her twirly pink poodle dress and shiny shoes.