Snowstorm of a century

As of 2pm today we've had 55 inches of snow this winter. This breaks the previous record from 1898-1899 when DC received 54 inches. I think we can all agree, once and for all, that global warming is a hoax. In fact, I think this also debunks the "world is round" argument, because clearly a round earth wouldn't be able to sustain the 5 foot snowdrifts that are on my lawn right now. Only a FLAT earth could balance that load. We'll cover evolution in the next post, but suffice it to say that if evolution were real, I'd have a fur coat and a live 120V outlet on my elbow.

Luckily we only lost power for a couple of hours on Saturday morning. Heat would have been a problem, as would hot water. But the real crisis could have been having two toddlers at home for six (going on seven) days without television and dvds. They don't care about hot food, or heat, or hot water. They laugh at baths, have no need for food, and somehow generate their own heat through their unlimitless energy reserves. And to parents, these things are all secondary.....to sanity.

On Friday, Ali and I were really excited about the prospect of a day at home with the kids. Quality time, and all that. We baked, and arts and crafted, and played, and danced and such. And Saturday we had fun in the snow. And Saturday afternoon we.......started to get a bit of cabin fever. And then Sunday came and went. And Monday started to clear up a bit, but then Tuesday came with grey skies and dire forecasts. And then for crying out loud we had an actual BLIZZARD today.

Here are my top 10 Blizzard 2010 memories:

10. Jake wandering upstairs this afternoon and telling us he'd fallen asleep in the basement watching cartoons.
9. Sadie demanding to call her mittens "cakes". You don't argue with Sadie.
8. Jake and I starting a snow tunnel at opposite ends and finally meeting in the middle.
7. Getting our power back just as I had three bread doughs rising.
6. Seeing the neighborhood dogs having to poop in their own yards because of the snow.
5. Justifying purchase of four-wheel-drive minivan.
4. Having Jake come back again and again for slices of my homemade bread.
3. Getting $100 use out of a $10 Marshalls pool raft I bought Friday night on the way home from work.
2. Finally cooking a dinner (brined roasted chicken) that Sadie loved.
1. Having Ali here. Sappy? Maybe. But we make a good team and I couldn't have survived the past week without her!

Jake and Sadie on our driveway. Seriously, I've never seen snowbanks like these except at shopping mall parking lots.

Ali shoveling the stairs. Again.

Jake on our $10 Marhsall's pool raft with Tally and Piper.


Here's our 80's party (Violent Femmes in the background):


And here's us outside as the Blizzard was finally dying down:

Spring Recital

Jake's class has been practicing for their spring recital for weeks now. The songs were supposed to be a surprise for the parents, and when we asked, Jake would only say that it was a secret between him and his brain.

A couple of weeks ago, as we were all piling into the van one morning, Jake started quietly singing, "Sunday Monday Happy Days, Tuesday Wednesday Happy Days..." Ali and I did a double take and asked where he'd learned that song -- it's not like we watch Happy Days re-runs around the house. He looked surprised that we'd heard him, and we quickly realized this was probably his super secret recital song.

Anyway, last week was finally the recital, and it was AWESOME! All the parents dropped the kids off backstage, and then we waited while they got into their costumes. When Jake's class came out, all the boys were in jeans and black dress shoes, with white t-shirts that had the sleeves rolled up, and 45rpm records shapes sewn onto the backs. And of course, they had their first initials sewn onto the fronts, Laverne and Shirley style. The girls looked great in pink poodle skirts and scarves, and everyone had sunglasses on.

Here's a shot from the performance:
And here he is at the "afterparty" with Grace, his main squeeze:
Here's the whole gang:


And here's a shot from the behind-the-scenes rehearsal:
See the full video here:

Winking

Here's an inside look at our daily winking practice. By the time the 2024 Olympics come around, we hope to have at least one entrant in the Speed Winking competition. Or, maybe the Synchronized Winking event. I think we'd take a Silver. Everyone knows the Gold Winking medal is owned by the Finns.

Dance routine

Bath time usually ends this way, with both kids half dressed dancing on our bed and trying hard to keep us entertained enough so that we'll forget it's bedtime.

Kids Love Obama

After Ali and Gram got home from their DC adventure, and the kids came home from school, we all made a big Obama inauguration poster and watched the parade on TV. Have you ever seen Sadie look so happy in a photograph?

Here is Jake copying Poppy, who is giving me bunny ears while I take pictures, in an effort to get Sadie to smile.

It was fun couple of days, and nice to see pretty much everybody excited and happy and proud of their country.

My favorite quote of the weekend was when Jake started talking about Obama and what that meant for Bush. Now, we hardly ever talk about Bush to Jake -- following the "if you don't have anything nice to say" rule, but he knew enough about the situation: "And Obama will be President and live in the White House, and Bush has to move out and Bush says, 'Awww, man'. "

Haircuts and Homecomings

I came back from a four-day trip out to San Antonio on Thursday and it was so nice to be back home. Here's my welcome committee:Ali started her Masters program at CSU (my alma mater) this week. It's called Leadership and Organizational Studies, which sounds like what she was doing when she was an at-home mom. But as it turns out, that's also what she gets paid to do at Sunrise, so way to transfer those skills!

To give her a few minutes to do some schoolwork, I took the kids out for haircuts this morning. It was Sadie's first haircut, and she did great! She sat very quiety, with that suspicious, furrowed eyebrow look that she must have picked up from studying Ali's baby pictures (or I suppose it could have something to do with genes). You can't see too well from this picture, but the rest of her hair is still long, she just got a little trim in addition to the bangs. Jake got his standard cut, and chatted up the barber the whole time I was helping with Sadie. "Mommy's at home doing work for her teacher. We don't get haircuts every day, just some days. This is Sadie's first haircut. She likes yogurt" and on and on.

Pappa Ooo Mow Mow

Here's what Ali and the kids were up to while I went grocery shopping yesterday. Sadie might need a little explanation. She's got the wax dracula teeth in her mouth from Halloween, and yes, she's wearing a tutu. Oh, and those are ruby slippers on her feet. And, that blue balloon sculpture she's carrying is the base to a balloon Eiffel Tower (thanks for the balloon architecture kit, Deni & Patrick!) Sadie loves to accessorize.

Good luck tomorrow, Mike/Poppy!

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year!

We had a fun night last night, starting out at the Dogfish Head Alehouse. We went for an early dinner and the place was packed with families and kids. When we got home, we did our usual run around the cul-de-sac banging pots and pans to ring in the new year. Here we are, practicing our technique:

Last week, we were all up in Sea Isle City, NJ to celebrate Christmas with our family. We had a great time and luckily Santa found our milk and cookies and left just a few things for the kids.

One of the highlights for Jake was getting to hang with his cousin, Arjuna. Here they are hamming it up for the camera on one of our beach walks:

And the other highlight was playing with his older cousin, Declan. Declan, you were a great sport with those two!

Here's one of my highlights:

We had so much fun with the family -- luau night, karaoke, great food, and lots of laughs.

Check out some pictures here.

What was that last post about?

We're pretty much back to normal today, I'm happy to report. Besides some lingering coughs, Jake and Sadie were pretty much back to their funny, happy, inquisitive selves. Jake, especially, is a little loopy with all the Christmas talk, and getting ready for a week-long family get-together in Sea Isle City, NJ is just adding to the excitement.

Tomorrow, we'll drive up to the (or, "go down the," as Ali would say, preposition-less) shore. DD and Pop are sponsoring a family get together and we're all looking forward to fun times with about 30 Fergusons and Edelsteins and Carrs and Pucas. We're so happy that it's become the norm that both sets of Jake and Sadie's grandparents are together on the holidays. Those kids really are spoiled. Not to mention all the sweets that Ali's always sneaking them.

Here's a video of me and Jake, working on our Christmas song routine:

Santa, Sickies, Sleep

Here's Jake at the real Santa's Merrifield headquarters, showing that he knows that Christmas isn't all about getting presents. It's also about cheesy poses. We we waited patiently for almost an hour for Santa to arrive, which is actually not a bad wait in this Christmas fun-house that they've built at Merrifield Gardens. This is the same Santa that I went to as a kid. Yes, the same guy. He's 87. After he addresses everyone and leads some sing-a-longs and takes questions from the skeptical older kids, the real waiting starts. We were about 15th in line, and we waited in the same spot without moving for almost another 30 minutes. It was past naptime. And we were out of snacks. We told Jake we'd just write him a letter, and we snuck out and hopped in the car. Jake didn't seem to mind - besides, he already told Santa he wanted a racecar when he arrived by boat down at the lake.

I just realized the last post was about me staying home with a sick Sadie. Well, since then, she's recovered and had a good week, and now she's sick again, along with me and Jake. Jake's such a trooper and refuses to admit that he's sick. He can barely choke out "I feel good" in between coughs. Hopefully these bugs will all pass by the time we hit the road for Sea Isle City NJ this weekend!

Oh, and by the way, I think it's been a little over a month since Jake gave up his pacifiers and we're finally back on track with the bedtime ritual. There are hiccups here and there, but he's pretty much back to stories and songs and then staying in for the night. We haven't had a tantrum in weeks. Way to go Jake!

Thanksgiving Feast

Here's Jake giving his stock "smile" for his class picture today. They had a Thanksgiving feast show where all the three-year-old classes sang songs and dressed up as Indians, Pilgrims and Pumpkins. It was pretty cute, and once again there were more cameras than a Britney Spears paparazzi detail. I couldn't quite make out all the song lyrics, but there was one about an Albuquerque Turkey that when Jake sang later for me turned into the "Albaturkey turkey", which still rhymed.

South Mountain Creamery

On Sunday we drove out to visit South Mountain Creamery, the dairy that delivers our milk. It was their fall open house and they had tours and BBQ and ice cream and hayrides a big barn full of toddler ride-on toys. It was great.

We got to see the milking operation and the tiny dairy where the milk is bottled and packed up for delivery later the same day it's milked. They had all kinds of equipment packed into the dairy house where they make yogurt, ice cream, butter and cheeses. I loved hearing about everything, but Sadie and Jake were ready to see the cows. We walked up to the barn where all the calves live - about 20 or 30 of them. Sadie loved every minute of this. She loves animals and these calves were pretty friendly and happy to have visitors.

I just need to set up this video, though. I was taking a little movie because the kids were being so cute with the calves, but when Jake asks us if these are baby cows, both Ali I turned our heads to talk to him and when we looked back Sadie was backpedaling and had a terrified look on her face. At the time we had no idea what happened because she'd been having such a great time with the cows. When we got home and watched the movie, we realized that the cow surprised her with a quick lick to the ear. The quality here isn't great so you might have to watch it twice to see it. We watched it about 35 times.



This is for Stacey and Cara: Cow says, "Don't be scared Sadie, we just like the salt in your ear"

Here are some pictures.

Jake at the Dentist

Jake had his first visit to the Dentist last week and he did great! No cavities!

Back to School Night

Last night was Back to School Night at Merritt Academy where the kids have been going for two weeks now. It was fun to hear stories about the kids and to talk with their teachers (without the kids running around or crying or jumping or talking or screaming or....) We learned that Jake takes his weekly jobs very seriously -- this week he's Door Holder. He loves to make and play with Gak, and to build with blocks and play with trains. And he's in love with a little girl named Grace. Hee hee!

In Sadie's class, they talked about how she's still adjusting, but doing much better and feeling more comfortable every day. It was nice to hear that for someone like Sadie who had never been in daycare, she was doing great. To help with the transition, they've been letting Sadie wear her backpack all day. Apparently, it's her security blanket and she tries to put it back on if they take it off and hang it up. We knew about this, but didn't quite know the extent of her addiction. Her teachers showed us some pictures of the kids finger painting. They were all in just diapers so their clothes didn't get custom paint jobs, except for little Sadie, who was wearing her diaper.............and her backpack. It was too cute. But, they said yesterday was the first whole day where she didn't wear her backpack!! So, we're making progress!

First Day of School

Today means big changes for 75 percent of the family. Jake and Sadie are both starting school and Ali is going back to work (and by "work" I mean work that someone pays you for). Jake has been in preschool before, and recently he'd been going three mornings a week. I'm really excited for Jake. He loves to learn (and teach), and loves being part of a group. I think he's going to love it.

But Sadie, poor sheltered Sadie, is in for a surprise. Ali said the drop-off this morning went well, so I was somewhat relieved. I think Sadie will really enjoy the playground and I think being around all the other kids her age will help her come out of her shell a little. Time will tell...

Jake gets his hair done

Yesterday, the doorbell rang and three of the neighborhood girls were giggling as they all stood in front of Jake. As they stepped aside, we saw what they'd all been up to for the past hour. We told the girls the little hair clips were ok, but please, no lipstick.

New Shoes

It's been kind of a tough week or two, at night anyway. The kids have been hitting us on both fronts, and slowly breaking us down. Sadie goes down without a complaint, but then we hear her off and on all night crying. Jake sleeps through the night, but has been putting up a big fight about bedtime every night. Sadie slept through the night last night, so that's encouraging. It looks like her canine teeth are popping through, so maybe that's part of it.

But last night Jake and I went on a long walk before bedtime and he was in a great mood and I got to thinking about all the great little things that have happened the past two weeks, even though the nights have been rough. I ordered a few pairs of new shoes for the kids and when they came, Sadie was so excited. Ali got this great picture of her trying on the first pair. When I came home from work she was still so happy about them, wearing one pair and carrying the other pair around to show off. Jake liked his too, but he was more concerned about seeing how fast they were. He kept sprinting from one side of the house to the other to test them out.

Another fun development has been watching and listening to Sadie work on her words! All of a sudden she started practicing, and saying "Thank you", "Mama", "Dada", "Jakey" and "Ball". I don't know which was her first, but I like all of them. And she does the two cutest animal impressions. If you ask her what a tiger says, she opens her mouth and gives the quietest "roar" I've ever heard. You can barely hear it. It cracks us up. And if you ask her what an elephant says, she happily raises her arm up like an elephant trunk. No elephant noise, just the arm movement.

Jake and Sadie have really started playing together more and more and it's so much fun to watch. They take turns pushing each other around in the little baby stroller, or climb all over the couches and each other, giggling. Sadie obviously idolizes Jake, and wants to do everything he does. He was jumping the other day, and she stood there watching him for a minute, and then tried her own little jump-step. Then she got her serious face on and practiced and practiced her jump while Jake moved on to something else. If Jake is walking around outside and steps on a leaf, Sadie will follow right behind and step on the same leaf with the same foot.

Ok, one more. Backpacks. I don't have a picture of this, but Ali got the kids new backpacks to get ready for their new school in a few weeks. The only thing Sadie loves more than her new backpack is her new shoes. She wears her backpack all over the house. And she's constantly bringing Jake's backpack over to him to wear. Whenever we get ready to go somewhere, she gets her backpack.

Growth updates and Paci Wars

Today we took the kids in for Sadie's 15 month checkup and Jake's three year appointment. Height-wise, both are still off the charts. The doc said Sadie is just about where a normal two-year-old would be. This time Jake got to do some new stuff, like check his eyes by "reading" an eye chart, and getting his blood pressure checked (uh, for what -- stress??).

The chart below compares the heights and weights of Sadie, Jake and me over the first three years. Height data is on top, and weight data is on the bottom. My baby book is missing three-year data, and Ali's baby book is missing (period).


It's interesting to note that both Jake and Sadie are taller than I was at their ages. Jake is now a full two inches taller than I was at three years. Sadie is over an inch taller than I was at 15 months - and almost three inches taller than the average girl her age.

Paci Wars

So, yesterday on Jake's birthday, we decided to try retiring Jake's pacifiers, which have been the only comfort object he's had since birth -- no interest in stuffed animals or blankets or anything like that. But when it comes to pacifiers, he's always felt most comfortable when he's in bed with one in his mouth, two in each hand, and a few others scattered about. Ali decorated a little box and we told him that now that he was three, it was time to let the Paci Fairy come to take his pacifiers, and that she'd leave him a toy. He was into it, and he didn't seem to mind not having pacifiers as we read stories and did our normal bedtime routine. But when the lights went out, the battle started. He probably came out non-stop for close to two hours. He didn't say anything about pacifiers, just that he didn't want to go to bed, or that he couldn't sleep. Finally, around 11pm, we gave him a pacifier and didn't see him again until the morning.

We thought maybe last night's debacle had to do with all the excitement at home and at school because it was his birthday. We went through the normal (paci-free) bedtime routine and everything went well. But the drama started again as soon as the lights went out. He was crying and hysterical and would come out of his room as soon as we put him back in bed, for almost an hour. When we finally gave up and gave him a pacifier, he immediately went to bed and didn't come out again.

We had a quick parental pow-wow and came to the conclusion that Jake is obviously physically addicted to pacifiers and we better start looking for ones that won't look out of place when he's in high school.

And we remembered that with his other big steps (potty-training, crib-to-bed transition, etc), he's always let us know when he's ready, and he is clearly not giving us those signals now...

Jake turns 3!

Happy Birthday Jake!

Here's Jake three years ago:

And three days ago:

The mini NASCAR circuit

Jake had another fun day riding his Lightning McQueen car around. Today, he perfected the spin-slide-break move on our driveway (see video below). We also set up a few courses and he did really well handling the turns and being careful not to run over the cones. He didn't quite get the slalom course, but I wonder how well Jeff Gordon was driving on his 3rd birthday.



Sadie, by the way, is also fascinated by Lightning McQueen. She hovers patiently waiting until Jake parks it, and then she pounces. I've seen her run to it, and literally dive into the driver's seat. She was happy to just sit there gripping the wheel, until she figured out that she could reach the gas pedal. I'm not sure who was more surprised by that - me or her.