January 27

…WE GOT ANOTHER SNOW DAY!! A real one this time.
We have had snow a couple of times this season but no more than an inch, and Aaron has been sadly asking when he will be able to build a snowman since the first day of cold weather. I was so glad we had a chance to do it today. A cold settled into my head yesterday and I felt pretty crummy, but I loaded myself up with medicine and headed out to play while Ash did some shoveling, some photography, and provided a sledding barrier.

okay, so here we are, finally getting to make a snowman. Aaron loves the story of Frosty and gets kind of emotional about the whole snowman melting away thing. But once we got out there, he was all over the place. He did not want to be tied down to working in one spot on a snowman when there was so much to explore, and so much snow to eat.

Here’s what most of the pictures look like…me working on the blasted thing while Aaron is on the other side of the yard.

but we did get him focused for the key moments.

but, then…he wanted to eat snow.

Ash took a shoveling break to get her photo taken with our frosty friend.

When we brought out the carrot for his nose, Aaron said he wanted to bring out another one so he could eat it. You can see that in his right hand. Here, Ash is pretending to take a bite of Frosty’s nose and Aaron is trying to bat her away.

and this is why I will happily build the snowman alone.

We bought Aaron a saucer at the start of winter and this is his first time trying it out. We have this tiny hill in our side yard, and he got going pretty fast! The top of the snow was just a bit crusty, so it was slick. In this picture, he is careening towards my car parked in the driveway. After the first time he ran in to it, Ash came and stood in front of it every time he came down.


Happy Snow Day!

January 26

Well, we had a little snow last night, and much to our surprise, we woke up this morning with NO SCHOOL! Once the sun was up we could tell that it is really just slush, so we aren’t quite sure why we are at home, but our standardized tests are done for the semester and a snow day is FIIIIIIIIIIIIINE with us!
Here’s the kind of silliness that you can expect to find on a snow slush day.

But, more snow was in the forecast, and between 2-3 it started again in earnest.
Ash headed out to put up our wipers…


and Chris took my camera out on the front porch at night.


This resulted in a little over three inches, with the bottom layer of slush now frozen underneath, so…

January 25

Aaron had so much fun yesterday in his activity pad that he came home today and went straight to it. We had a hectic evening because Chris wasn’t home, but he still managed to get in about 45 minutes of time working on this. I wasn’t playing with him this time, I was at my desk and he was on the floor behind me. He kept calling me when he finished things and I would turn around and be astounded by what he did all by himself!
like this connect the dots…

and this letter/symbol thing! ALL BY HIMSELF! Unbelievable! He figured out what each symbol stood for and wrote the letters down!

then he tried this one, which was a lot longer, and got frustrated. But he did get the word “very” in the top left, see it?

and then, in the sweetest way ever, he flipped to a blank page and drew a picture of us holding hands. I’m on the right. He said he drew himself “with the pinkeye.” This was so exciting because he has never drawn a person with arms and legs before :)
It’s a milestone :)

then, he added “our toys” under our feet and then added Daddy, “he’s the tallest” and then drew a circle and added his name. I just LOVE THIS!

January 24

Today I told Aaron that if he was a cheerful boy in the morning when we dropped him off at school (Monday mornings are typically fussy and clingy) I would do a fun activity with him RIGHT when we got home. He did a great job this morning and as soon as we got home we got on the floor together and did some pages in his giant activity pad. He amazed us with what he did!! This page was a tracing activity, see the faint grey lines? He traced this Eeyore ALL by himself! WOW!

January 23

Here is Aaron on Sunday spending a REALLY long time with his Poingo, (kind of like a Tag Reader) a Christmas gift from NanaGrampy. This kept him occupied for at least 2 hours on Sunday.

January 22

Another blog photo, brought to you by Ashley. I was getting a little hubby hug in and Aaron had to jump on the pile. He is a HUGE fan of group hugs, especially with him in the middle of his mom and dad.

January 21

Hey a MOZY MILESTONE! I have more files backed up than not!! WOOHOO!! Maybe this thing WILL finish someday!

January 20

a GIANT thank you to Ash for grabbing my camera and taking these pictures. I have to admit, I really like being in pictures sometimes.

January 19

We a doctor appointment at Walter Reed today…and caught a BEAUTIFUL sunset over the pencil as we headed home. Wish I had my actual camera with me.

January 18

Chris and I went to the funeral of a former colleague of ours, Gene Wood, who retired a few years ago and died of colon cancer. He was my very first team teacher when I started teaching at the eager age of 21. He was a life-long teacher and had a incredible impact on many lives. I wish I had a picture with him in it to post today. I will need to get my hands on the department photo from several years ago that has all of us in it. It was in a frame at the service, which was very touching.
On the way home, it had started to dump freezing rain. We thought we may score a 2-hour delay out of it, but I woke this morning to hear that school was closed! This is our first “snow day” but it was really an ice day, I guess, of this school year. It was REEEEEEALLY treacherous outside. It has been melting away all day, but this morning it seemed like EVERYTHING was coated in 1/2 inch of ice.
Aaron went down to Ashley’s room and was “ironing” her red blanket. He said it was too bumpity. He “plugged it in” under her bag. :) What a cute little guy!


Here we are playing a little Add-A-Bug in front of the fire on our day off. Aaron had really bad luck and have to keep giving up his bugs. He was frustrated.

January 17

Today we have a day off of school and we just did some relaxing. I got a decorations down slowly but surely, and now the entryway is full of boxes and bins that need to go back into our storage cupboard. As I said in an earlier post, it was a cars Christmas for Aaron. Here is an AWESOME toy that he got from Nana and Grampy, a Cars Piston Cup Racetrack. Those cars get shot out of the starting gate REALLY fast! To me, this is really a big boy toy, no escaping it. :(

January 16

We went on an adventure today! Ashley has been suggesting that we make a winter trip to the zoo because she learned from one of her students that the animals are much more active. The National Zoo has 7(?) new lion cubs, born in August and September, that debuted in December and I have been wanting to take Aaron to see them. So we got all bundled up and met Ashley’s friends for a very fun time. Yes, it was cold and windy, but the big cats and the pandas were very much out and about, and the lion cubs were just too cute for words. It was awesome to see the whole pride together and interacting. I think I love lions.
Here are just a couple of photos, but I got TONS of great ones. You should check out the whole album here on facebook. The link works even if you don’t use facebook.