Anybody out there?

Whenever I say something like this to my husband, "Oh, I should write a blog post about this."  He usually laughs at me and asks, "How many people even read your blog?"  To which I reply, "I don't know, like 3."  Well, 4 including him.  I know he reads it because occasionally while sitting at his laptop his head will snap up and he'll say something like this, "That is not how it happened...or...I didn't say that...or my recent favorite...Man, I am really balding!"  He also tells me that there has got to be a way to track how many people actually look at my blog.  I know this is true because a super blog-savvy friend of mine actually wrote about how many views one of her posts had received.  Can anyone tell me how to figure this out?  Until then, I'm gonna go with a guess of 10.  Are there more of you?  It's ok if you're embarassed to admit that you blog-stalk me.  At least you will never find yourself sitting next to me at a staff meeting for your new job and realize that you actually blog-stalked me prior to meeting me in person.  That definitely won't happen.  Because I'm pretty sure something like that could only happen once...already took care of it for you.

Sunshine

Just a little bit of sunshine on this cold and blustery day...

Sledding!

I am definitely no snow bunny.  In fact, I have been wishing all this snow would disappear since it first showed up a month ago.  Ok, it hasn't been that long, but it sure feels like it.  And there's more on the way.  Strike that.  Just looked out the window.  It's here.  And it's not just snow...this is what we have to look forward to over the next day or so...

* DANGEROUSLY COLD WIND CHILLS WILL OVERSPREAD THE REGION THURSDAY AS TEMPERATURES FALL THROUGH THE SINGLE DIGITS. WIND CHILL VALUES OF 15 TO 25 BELOW ZERO WILL BECOME WIDESPREAD... CREATING A POTENTIALLY LIFE THREATENING SITUATION FOR ANYONE CAUGHT OUTDOORS AND UNPROTECTED FOR MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES...A BITTERLY COLD ARCTIC AIR MASS SPILLS SOUTHWARD... PRODUCING A DEADLY COMBINATION WITH THE STRONG WINDS.

Yuck.  A few days after the snow first arrived and it wasn't deathly cold outside, we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa's for some fun in the sun snow. 

Getting all bundled up and ready to go.

Daddy rigging up the sled.

Now that's sledding. 

Mommy and C

Nana and Papa came over to watch the fun.  Nana watched from inside the house, but Papa took a turn on the sled.

Daddy and C

After we all had our fill of sledding (or rather, after the charge on the bad boy buggy's battery was out) we made a snowman together. 

Hugging our snowman bye-bye before we headed inside the house to warm up!

We did go sledding out at Grandma and Grandpa's last year too.  See...

It's amazing what a new sled and lots more snow on the ground will do to improve the experience.  Both C and I had soooo much more fun this time around.  Last year he was very solemn about the whole thing.  This time he could not stop laughing and talking!  "Oh, we gonna tip over.  Why we goin on this trail?  Hey, why's Grandpa tryin to tip us over?  Shh..I think there's owls on the trail.  Are we gonna look for snakes on the trail.  Hold on tight!  We're goin up.  Etc, etc."  It was so much fun riding around with him this year, and as you saw in the pictures, he was on the sled every time!  He didn't want to get off, so the adults all took turns riding with him.  Grandma took a turn too, but I don't have any pictures of that because I was driving the bad boy buggy at the time.  Also lots of fun!  Thank you snow for a wonderful day.  We've had our fun...you can leave now.

Wrapping up

We wrapped up our Christmas celebrations this weekend with hubby's family.  His sister's family was in town and we had a lot of fun spending time together.  Traditionally, hubby's family does a seafood boil for dinner.  Now, it has been no big secret at all that I have never cared for it.  Yes, yes there are other things in the pot like sausage and potatoes.  But, they've been boiled with the seafood and consequently taste like seafood.  Now, my husband would disagree...but this is my blog...therefore...I state this as a fact...EVERYTHING in the seafood boil tastes like seafood.  Period.  Ha!  Anyway...I guess all that complaining finally got me somewhere.  Because this year we had pizza instead!  My in-laws totally outdid themselves!  They had a whole little pizza-making station set up with tons of fresh toppings.  I thought it was a lot of fun making our own and seeing what everybody else put on their pizze...like shrimp...gross.  I guess that was to help those grieving the seafood boil.  The next morning my MIL(mother-in-law) took Tia (my sister-in-law) and I shopping.  That afternoon the grandparents stayed with the kiddos so we could go on a double date with Tia and her husband.  I had a hard time picking just one photo from this weekend, so here are a few of my favorites...

As soon as we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house...C spotted his little cousin's tea set.  We got right to the business of having tea.  I told him I was going to take a picture of us drinking our tea...and I caught this photo right when he decided to spit his tea out.

My MIL handed a gift to hubby and Tio (my brother-in-law) and said it was for the two of them.  Awkward...but they sure look exicted about it, don't they?  These were a gift from Grandpa, who also got himself one...I guess he didn't think the girls would want to play.  Fine then. 

The battle began as soon as they got them out of the box.  It was sooo funny to watch C run around during the gun fight!  He was so wound up and excited about it!  One second he would hide around a corner with Daddy, the next he would come tearing through the kitchen yelling "They're shooting at me!  They're shooting at me!"  And as you can see below, he even spent some time yelling obscenities at Grandpa and telling him to stop shooting!  Of course, he doesn't know any obscenties so it was just a bunch of jibberish (said in the appropriate tone of voice!) 

Grandma and Grandpa got C and his cousin (baby C..geez double C's on this side of the family and double B's on my side...maybe we all need to branch out in our name selection....moving on...) matching pj's.  They were so cute in them!!!!

Zonkers!

Hubby has had all sorts of extra time to hang out with us during his break from school.  Sadly, we have been cooped up in the house for much of it because the snow refuses to cease!  Ugh!  But...we did get out last week for a little adventure which took us to Zonkers with Grandma and Grandpa.  This was only the 2nd time we've taken C there...the first being when he was just shy of two years old...here we are on that trip riding the bananas!  The train was also a favorite that year.

He, of course, loved the train this time too.  But, he surprised us with his enthusiasm for the snake roller coaster.  This thing is actually pretty fast...even I got that little "whoah" feeling in my stomach and it definitely jerked me around!  So, I was shocked that after our first time he asked to go again, and again, and again.  He couldn't get enough!

This trip was really all about the "soft play" area.  A big play place with tunnels and slides etc.  We didn't even attempt this on our last visit but this time we thought that with one of us helping him he would be fine.  Boy were we wrong.  The kid needed no help whatsoever!  In fact, he left Daddy in the dust on their first trip through.  I kept waiting at the bottom of the slide for hubby to show up...when he finally did, C was already halfway up again.  Hubby decided that C's excellent climbing skills and his own aching knees meant that Daddy was no longer needed.

 

And just so you don't think our adventures only include faces like that one...I will leave you with this...also taken on our big adventure...

Just keeping it real folks. ;)

The day has come

Do you remember when I shared that C had abandoned his bed for a more rustic sleeping experience?  Well, the day has come.  I knew it would.  I knew that one day sleeping on the floor would prove to be just too darn uncomfortable.  I knew that one day C would come to his senses and realize that he had a perfectly wonderful place to sleep right there in his room....er...in my room...which is where he found one of these...

and insisted that we turn it into one of these...

The day has come.

*Just gonna go ahead and answer a few questions you might have...

   - Yes, it was entirely his idea!  Encouraged by Daddy, of course.  You know it's trouble when you hear this coming from the bedroom "Night night bud.  If you get uncomfortable come and tell me...(if you can.)"

   -  Yes, it was just a one-time-thing today for nap time.  We definitely won't let him continue to sleep like this.  Wouldn't that make us bad parents?  Like the kind of people who would force their child to sleep on the floor for months...

   - Yes, he is actually sleeping in that picture.  How?  I don't know...the kid's a contortionist.

   - No, my hamper is never that full!  It is obviously overflowing because I had to move all the clothes from C's sleepy time hamper into the one in the picture.  That hamper definitely did not already look like that...and the clothes from C's sleepy time hamper are definitely not in a pile on the laundry room floor.

Happy New Year!

Ringing in the New Year with my favorite toddler...technically this was more like 8 pm...by the time the New Year actually arrived C was fast asleep and I was popping more advil for my headache and trying to sleep without being able to breathe through my nose.  Bummer.  Yeah, I know you can breathe through your mouth...but who likes to do that?  One, it makes your throat all dry and scratchy...and two, haven't you ever heard that you eat like 4 spiders a year while sleeping...why invite them in?!? 

Shortly after this photo was taken we got a surprise visit from hubby (who was supposed to be at work).  He works security at a rehabilitation center.  A man we'll call Bubba is a patient there.  Bubba gets physically violent with the nurses.   Bubba is also not toilet trained.  So, when the nurses need him restrained to change him...they call on my husband the safety officer.  Needless to say after telling C the story hubby told me on his way home to change, he had this to say to his daddy when he walked in the door, "Daddy has poop in his pants!"  Well, C, daddy actually has poop on his pants, and he looks really angry about it, let's not bring it up again, ok?  Go play.  Just kidding...that's not how it happened at all.  Well, other than the part about daddy looking angry.  But, C and I certainly relished our little New Year's Eve humor...brought to us by daddy...or Bubba...yikes.  I hope your New Year's Eve was also filled with laughter (perhaps not at the expense of your spouse, but hey, take what you can get!)