Snow!

We finally had some snow here today, however briefly. It was great snowman-snow though, so Liam and I built "the leaning snowman of Newark" in our back yard. He (snowman) was ok at first, then he slowly started to tilt. On the far-left you will see the snowman as of a few minutes ago--it has started raining so he's really starting to lean and we had to prop him up with the water/sand table. Liam was very excited about the whole snow experience, so we were outside for quite a while. Then we came inside and built a fire in the fireplace and watched The Snowman. This all probably sounds ridiculous to you in Wisconsin--celebrating an inch of snow so lavishly. It's only our second inch of the year though, and it will probably be gone by tomorrow afternoon, so we have to may hay while the sun shines, as they say. Mom--think "All Summer in a Day"-Ray Bradbury, except it's all winter in a day, or two.
Other humorous items to note: a few nights ago I was telling Liam a bedtime story about an "animal talent show" (his request--it's from a little tv program he likes to watch). We were going through all his stuffed animals and deciding what their talents are (crawling, hopping, climbing, etc.). I asked Liam what his talent is and he said jumping. Then I asked if I have a talent and he said "No, you don't have one. And neither does Daddy." I said that I thought I was pretty good at making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but he said "nope." There you have it: just as we always thought our parents had no talents, so we have arrived at the same fate. Talentless and tired. But wiser! Now I know how parents become this way...
Yesterday Liam insisted on making dinner for me. He got out his little wooden vegetables and breads (the "pre-sliced" ones that are held together with velcro so kids can practice knife skills without the loss of an appendage), a play wooden knife, and play cutting board. He got down all our bowls from the shelf, cut all the vegetable and bread, and placed each type of "food" in a separate bowl. I was told, rather forcefully, to sit at the dining room table and wait for him to bring my supper out to me. Finally he brought it out and we "ate" it together, very seriously, and it was just delicious. I complimented the chef heartily on his creation, then I got up to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (but probably not a very good one, for reasons stated previously). Here are some action shots, before I was told to "stop taking pictures and sit down at the table."
And I think that's about all I have for now. For all Scott Fans (you know who you are) here he is after dinner last night (talentless and tired, exhibit A):

Ok. Time to go. I hope all these photos and stories help Grandparents and far away family and friends feel a little more in touch. It will be great to see everyone in March! Hope you're feeling better Grandpa Tom!

Farm show and cake toppers

I'm going to try and get better about posting pictures. I keep forgetting my camera. Also, sorry it's been a while since my last post--we've been down and out with winter colds, so the energy level has been a little low here.
For the time being, here's a photo from last weekend--L. eating lunch in his bowling shirt.

On Saturday we went to the Pennsylvania Farm show in Harrisburg, which was about 1 1/2hrs from our house each way. We had a pretty good time. As usual, we blew through it at Liam speed, which is twice light speed in case you weren't sure. SO many cows (one of which pooped and then stepped in it right in front of us--a real highlight for L.), sheep, many rabbit breeds, chickens, chicks, ducklings, horses, pigs, and TRACTORS. Had I been on my own I would have also gone to the vocational/homemaking area to see the 4-H crafts, and I would have spent longer with the chickens and rabbits. As it was, however, the smell of animal shit made Scott nauseous and Liam was enchanted by the tractors, so we spent most of our time in the exposition hall and food court, eating ice cream with sprinkles. It was interesting to see the Amish farms on the way to Harrisburg and back though. The first thing I noticed was all the laundry hanging outside to dry. Then I remembered we were in Amish country, near Lancaster, and it all made sense. Lots of horses and buggies and woodworking items for sale in the small towns along the way. All in all it was a good day. I could feel a cold coming on--probably the same virus Scott and Liam have had since New Year's Eve. Finally it's my turn. (!)
Today I remembered at the last minute that Liam's preschool was closed for a teacher inservice, so I had to take the day off from work. I was feeling fairly under the weather early in the day, so I let Liam watch a little tv while I dozed on and off next to him (with one eye open of course). Then we went out and got him some new shoes--size 10 1/2 now--and stopped at the bakery supply store. Yesterday I promised Liam he could pick out a few of those little plastic cake toppers for his birthday cake, and of course he wanted to do it right away. He selected the following items: a male bowler poised mid-throw with some bowling pins, an additional set of ten bowling pins and one ball, four fish (koi), a truck, and a stop light. Many of these items were 19 cents each, so it didn't set us back much to say the least. It should be quite a cake... I'll try to take a picture tomorrow so you can see the assortment. After that we had lunch with Dad at his work, then we were off to the mall to throw pennies in the fountains and run errands. He was so sleepy by two o'clock that he conked out while I was carrying him at the check out. I went over to a bench in the mall and held him for about 1/2 hour while he slept. It was so nice--his little cheek was all smooshed up against my shoulder and I could feel him breathing lightly. I don't get to just hold him much now that he's not a baby anymore. It also felt good just to sit there and not be in a rush to get somewhere else.
I think that's enough for tonight. This cold is really starting to creep up on me, so I want to get to bed early and get lots of rest.
Oh, and Liam informed me today that Earl Grey (our cat) wants us to have a dog at our house instead of him because a dog is better at pulling Liam around the park and through the sky on his sleigh than a cat is. Thank goodness we keep the doors LOCKED at all times--I don't trust this kid for a minute! I can just see him trying to climb up onto the roof if I look away for a second.

Fore!

Today was a fairly quiet day. Scott let me take a nap this morning, but then his cold started getting worse in the afternoon, so I watched Liam while he (Scott) rested. Liam is still obsessed with Santa and others, notably the Grinch, going up and down chimneys. I built another chimney out of Legos for him this afternoon, and Scott helped him tie strings around various "people" and Lego men so that he can drop them down the Lego chimneys and hoist them back up, a la Santa Claus.
The highlight of the day was probably when Liam and I were in the produce section at Zingo's grocery store. L. was being particularly funny--he insisted on carrying my list while he pushed his miniature cart assertively around the store. He was imitating me exactly (nearly-four-year-olds seem to have a gift for imitating their mothers)--staring at my list and saying things precisely in my bored, slightly bossy tone of voice, like "nowww...we neeeed... uhhh...onions" or "Mommy, we are out of mushrooms. We need this one here" and he'd put it in his cart. He was all-business about it--very grown-up.So at one point we were standing in front of a a big island of fruit in the middle of the floor. I was trying to put some pears in a plastic bag and Liam was inspecting the limes right next to me. Then it all happened so quickly. I heard him saying something about "and here are some avocados" (meaning the limes) and then something about "we don't need any of those" and then out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something move above the fruit island. I spent a couple seconds getting the last pears in my bag and then it clicked in my head that something wasn't right. I looked up and saw two teenage boys on the other side of the fruit island looking at me with strange expressions of disbelief verging on laughter. All of a sudden I put it all together and realized what had happened. I asked the boys if a lime had just flown through the air at them and they started laughing and said they were wondering if I really just did that because the lime had come out of nowhere. Then I realized that they couldn't see Liam behind the fruit display. It seems that when he had said "we don't need any of those" he chucked the lime clear over the fruit island and it had flown past the boys toward the tomatoes. I (and they) were laughing so hard at that point that I didn't even try to feign a sense of gravity in front of Liam. I just calmly reminded him that we don't throw fruit in the store and took him to go look for the lime and pick it up. We never did find it, and the boys weren't sure where it went either. Ugh. At least he didn't hit some crabby old lady...

Our first entry...

We thought we'd start a little blog to share our photos and experiences with our family Wisconsin. Since we're so far apart most of the year, we thought this would be a good way to include you (especially grandparents) more often in our day-to-day adventures, particularly those of the small orange-haired grandson. It might take a day or two for us to get it up and running, but we thought we'd let you know the address etc. 

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