Snow Much Fun

Churches were closed today. Most people are still staying at home. After lunch, we went outside to play in the snow again. It was sunny and slightly above freezing, so the snow was beginning to melt and was packable for snowballs, but not for rolling balls into snowmen. It was also good for packing a path for sliding.

First we built our snowman, handful by handful, outside Daddy's bedroom window and beside the snowdog.

Kevin was putting the finishing touches on when he pushed too hard and the whole head fell apart immediately after shooting this shot.

We rebuilt his head even better than before! What a lovable snowman (and little boy!)

I had brought out some little carrots in a plastic bag for the nose and whatever else we might want them for. As I suspected, Kevin asked if he could have a snack of them. He plopped resting against the snowman and munched some carrots.

We tried sliding again beside the apartment. Better than yesterday with the packing snow, but not a steep enough hill.

So we went to the bigger hill down the road where we saw kids sliding yesterday. A bunch of big boys were there having a snowball fight. As soon as we arrived, they went across the street to continue their fun. I thought that was so sweet of them!
The sliding here was quite good on the box.

Then Kevin decided going down IN the box.

I noted that someone had left a round metal tray, so we used it. What GREAT sliding on the tray!!! Can't believe I never took a picture! ha! It was so warm with the exercise of sliding that I removed my coat!

On the way home, Kevin climbed the stone wall, then discovered he was stuck up there and had to walk a long way before he could come back to civilization.

In cleaning up, we found a Lego box given to him at Christmas which had not been opened and built yet! The box made two trucks and a gas pump. He does so well with the fine motor skills required, attention to detail, and following directions! A great activity for him!

Snowed-In Day!

We didn't make it outside until after lunch. We spent the morning organizing Kevin's toys and school papers which were a bit out of control!
Angel time!

If you pop up the pic, maybe you can see the halo he drew on his angel.

We tried using a box to slide down hill, but had no success. The snow was soft powder. We tried to make a snowman, but only succeeded in making a small mound of soft snow.

Snow in Chapel Hill!

He broke the icicles off Daddy's car.

An icicle!

If sliding doesn't work, rolling does! He still had his icicle in hand!


He tried to climb this wall while holding his icicle.

Best shot of the day!

Oops! He stumbled and broke his icicle, but he found this large frozen chunk of ice and insisted on carrying all the back back to their apartment.

I suggested we add it to the "snowman."

Once it was there, it looked like a snowdog! The face is on the right end and tail on the left. The silhouette face is fairly realistic with nose, ear, eye, mouth.

Our snowdog and snowboy!

We went inside and made brownies. After he did the lion's share of the stirring, Kevin cleaned off the mixing spoon.

We watched The Sound of Music today (a few times). He was dancing with his doggie to the music.
I started on the mountains of laundry and helped Steve hang some pictures on his bare walls. Kevin helped me pack up the last bits of Christmas. Kevin and Daddy put a puzzle together while I fixed dinner. Thankfully Daddy did some grocery shopping before I came, knowing that we might be stuck all weekend!

Here is Kevin's milk at the end of dinner...

Daddy was on the phone while Kevin pounded him with a pillow.

The one-sided pillow fight went on for a long time, then Daddy started tickling.

It ended with bumping heads. OUCH!!! And Kevin needing some Tylenol as he went to bed.

Boys Will Be Boys

How fortunate that I flew today instead of tomorrow! With the weather reports, it doesn't sound like anything will be moving tomorrow! But we are hoping to have LOTS of fun in the snow in the morning!!!

After picking up Kevin from school, we stopped to visit Mommy's grave. Someone has STOLEN her wreath AND stand!!! WHY??? It was turned backwards the last time I was here, and again when Noelle was here two weeks ago. And now gone. The Valentine mylar balloons which Noelle brought are still there. If it were a kid, wouldn't they have taken the balloons? Would an adult be that mean to desecrate a grave??? Kevin found a stick and placed it on Mommy's grave. What a sweet love offering!


At the apartment, I was getting some cuddle time from my boy while we looked at the puzzles in a Highlights magazine. ...until Daddy tried to take a picture, and then boys have to be boys.

We went out to dinner tonight as the snow was beginning to fall. Steve chose a fun restaurant -- Spice Street. The food was better than excellent! Kevin devoured a good portion of my soup and salad!

The music changed to an exotic beat and a belly dancer appeared! She danced around the room, then engaged a man to dance with her. I said to Steve, "She is going to come dance with you," and she did!!! Unfortunately, I did not have my camera nor do I know how to use his IPhone. Steve was VERY cool! The other people she danced with were just silly, but he was suave. Then she danced with KEVIN!!! Adorable!!! Steve grabbed his IPhone but not in time to catch a dancing shot. She started to walk away, saw that he was going to take a picture, and came back to pose with Kevin.

When we left, Kevin exclaimed how much he liked the place and that he wanted to come back again on a Friday night to see the belly dancer!

On the way to the car, he bent down to dig some flowers out from their snowy blanket. Steve said, "Yellow flowers under snow." I told him that sounded like a poem! Kevin continued marching through the flowers,

then was impressed by his shoe treads in the snow. On the way to the car, he danced through puddles. I asked if his name was Greg.

What I Found Today!

While organizing stuff to begin putting Christmas away, I finally found the pack of activity books and Christmas stickers I bought for Kevin, then lost! Plus, I noted toe/foot marks on my wall! About 5 year old size feet. I wonder who... and I wonder how he did it? He had to have been sitting on the floor at the top of the stairs to the basement...

and put his feet on the wall.

And why did he have such dirty feet???
Which to do: wash off or leave for memories?

The Day After

Yesterday, I thought -- tomorrow I can rip down all the bits of red tissue paper tied ALL OVER my house. This morning, as I stumbled down the stairs, I reached to rip one off the banister, then thought -- Nope! I can't do it! I have to leave them there a while longer!

Going Home

Saying goodbye to Grampy.

We had one inch of snow on the ground this morning! We skipped doggie park in favor of playing in the snow! Guinny was tied to a tree instead.

An angel. Note the "hair" created by footsteps! Mommy's hair, of course.



This character is not an angel, but he is cute.

Once packed up and in the car, Kevin started crying -- actually sobbing -- for at least 20 minutes! "I miss Guinny Winny. I love Guinness. Why can't he come too?" Poor boy. Nothing appeased him.

My itinerary for this trip was a bit risky even in good weather, but the timing worked. We arrived at the airport in Buffalo starving for lunch, but the good restaurant near our gate was closed. That left us without better choices: a hot dog, popcorn, and cookies.

Kevin had mentioned a couple of days ago while in the car that he needed to write thank you notes for his gifts. Grandma was negligent in remembering. On the plane, he said, "I didn't make my thank you cards!" I reminded him that we had a notepad in his carryon and that I could mail them for him. His face brightened with delight. He wanted me to write "Thank you" and the person's name. Then he sketched pictures and signed his name. That took up much of the short trip to Cleveland. On the next leg of the trip, we both slept! Conversely, on our trip last week, I barely had enough activities in my bag to keep him busy for the entire trip!


As we came down the escalator to Baggage Claim, Daddy got down on his knees to be at Kevin's height. Kevin rushed him, knocking Daddy over; then the two wrestled, squealed, tickled, and rolled all over the floor for at least 10 minutes or more having a blast! What a happy reunion!



We gathered Kevin's luggage -- the suitcase he brought plus one of my suitcases with his Christmas presents. I also packed 2 large paper shopping bags to empty my case into so that I could bring my suitcase back home. I walked with them to their car, said my goodbyes, and walked to the other terminal through the parking garage. On the other side, I could hear some wails that sounded familiar. Steve emailed, "Kevin cried the whole way home, about 20 minutes, in total anguish – both for you and Guinness. But once we got home he was ok."

Steve and I both said that this trip has to happen again sooner than later!!!

Grampy called me as I was traveling home and said that Guinness was missing in the house. He found him sleeping on Kevin's bed!!! Guinness was missing Kevin too!!!

Sunday

Our trip to doggie park this morning became a nature walk. We talked about pine trees versus spruce trees and collected samples. We walked in the middle of a grove of huge spruce trees where there is a "sanctuary" inside. We found a tree to climb.




Here is our collection, although some pieces never made it home: pine and blue spruce needles (We also saw green spruce. Kevin noted the difference before I pointed it out!), spruce cones -- open and closed and eaten by a squirrel. We also found lots of squirrel nests in the trees. Kevin found a burdock!

Then we were off to church. Kevin decorated his nametag with a pink angel which he said represented Mommy. He said that I was the purple angel, since purple is my favorite color.

As is typical even in his own church, he wanted me to stay with him in his church-time class. Since I have never been involved in the education program of our church, I really had no idea what it was like. The teacher read the story of Jesus healing ten lepers and only one said thank you, using one photo to illustrate the story. That story that could have been easy to illustrate with small figures or puppets, or role playing. Then, the children were given 2010 calendars to color -- each month illustrating a Bible story, but they were not told what the January story was which they colored. TWICE Kevin told his teacher, "My Mommy died. She is in heaven now." The teacher heard him, but did NOT say a word in reply! Then it was free play time. What? Why couldn't they have done a thank you song or played a game or role played the happy former lepers? It was definitely more babysitting than teaching. They lined up to go back to church too early and had to stand there for about five minutes.

We went to lunch at Cora's -- which has awesome fruit presentations. Kevin loved his waffle covered in fruit.

A closer look...

Since Thursday, Gankie and his thumb have been indispensable. I asked him if he was trying to look like a nun from The Sound of Music!

Cora's gives out free fudge pieces.

The Blacks invited us over this afternoon to see Kevin and for Kevin to play with their toy poodle Sasha. They gave him a large bag full of little toys! I hope they all fit in his suitcase tomorrow!




Kevin asked about Aria at lunch, so I told him that I would show him pictures of her on my computer. He loved them! He noted she lives in a beautiful house, has two nice big, yellow dogs, and her Christmas stocking is identical to Mommy's (an angel playing the harp)! He commented on how much he liked her and misses her.

Tonight, Kevin ripped red tissue paper into strips and tied them everywhere around the house. He told me that he was decorating my house. Here are pictures of five of the millions! (I'm going to have "fun" getting rid of all of them in the days to come!)





He wanted me to play more Christmas carols on the piano tonight. Then he asked for Sound of Music songs.

While at Blacks, it started to snow and stick. By tonight, we have about one inch covering the ground. We prayed that it will stay until morning so that we can slide down hill! Kevin also prayed asking God to tell Mommy that we love her and miss her.

At the beginning of the week, I suggested to Kevin that Guinness could sleep with him. He was not overjoyed with that idea! However, he is so used to Guinness now and loves him so much that I thought it just might work tonight. After we read our bedtime story, I called Guinness in, he jumped on the bed, and I said "Goodnight." I expect they both will snooze peacefully until morning. Guinness will want to wake up before Kevin, so we will have to be diligent to not have Kevin awake at 7 AM too!