HBHQ Gets Snowballed

You’d think that we’d never seen snow before the way that we’re celebrating it here…or at least the way that Maggie is celebrating it. Yesterday morning she woke up early and started poking Barry in the nose insisting that he get up. When he’d finally wiped the sleep from his eyes and wandered down the hall after her, she ran up to the window looking into the back yard and yelled at the top of her lungs “NOOOOOOOOOO!!” (which translates into snow)

So we piled on the layers and went outside and Maggie was in heaven and so was Sparky. Sydney, on the other hand, had to take a moment to herself before she got off the back stoop and when she did she too ran around like a mini snow plow. We frolicked in the back yard and I demonstrated my best pitching stance while hucking snowballs at one of the big trees in our yard. Barry informed me that I may or may not have some serious skills when it comes to my pitching of snowballs.

That afternoon when the Little Miss wanted to go out again, I was smart and brought my cup of tea to enjoy because I learned earlier in the day that Maggie just doesn’t get cold. Period. When I was pregnant with her I was constantly warm and often light-headed because I was so hot, and now I feel like I know why. The child does not get cold ever and poor little me does. So, I brought my tea and kept it close by for occasional sips while we rolled out a couple snowmen.

Today when we woke up to more snow, I found that good snow really does make a difference when it comes to rolling snowmen.  The snowfall from last night just wasn’t as good as that snowball material the other day, but we made do and put together a mini snowman.  The squirrels didn’t seem to mind, and immediately stole his entire facial structure. Poor guy.

The prediction is for more snow to dump tonight and all day tomorrow. That’s fine, I guess. We’ve been busy inside also.  Mostly in the kitchen baking breads, muffins, chili and other snow-related things. I can do this for a while longer and can battle the cabin fever by going outside and making forts, but I’m slightly excited for it to melt. Then we can crack open the windows and welcome nicer weather.

But until then, we’re going to be watching the “NOOOOOO” fall from the sky and work on perfecting the best drying techniques when it comes to our jackets and hats. It isn’t so bad. We had our yearly snowy visit from Chach, she is fearless driving her little car in this weather. I’m a wimp; however, we did go across town yesterday just to get out of the house. I decided I didn’t need to do that again, at least with the predicted snow coming.

And aside from cooking and watching the snow fall, we’ve got other indoor activities to do. For example, reading the paper and making sure that we haven’t missed an important story. Maggie, like her dad, likes to read the advertisements. [B-mills edit 1/17/2012: “That’s how you know where the best deals are.” ]

Most importantly, we’ve got a new game that we can play all hours of the day: “Night-Night”. Maggie invented it and I’m almost certain that this game is just part of the developmental process. She loves bossing us around while piling blankets on our heads insisting that we go night-night. She also loves to pop up and yell “Morning!” to whomever is playing with her. Every once in a while I only wish night-night time was as simple as a pile of blankets and a simple “night-night.”

I’ll give it a try here and see how it goes.

Night-Night.

A Date with The B

Last weekend, while Maggie and Sydney were staying at my parents, we got to go on a date. I had worked during the day and at the end of the day both Barry and I came home to a quiet, quiet house.

It was odd since between both Maggie and Sydney we’ve almost always got one of them lobbying for some attention.

I spent an extra long time getting dolled-up to head out the door, only because I could, and we crammed ourselves into our smaller car and hit the road to have dinner in Seattle.

The drive wasn’t pretty because we hit traffic, but being able to sit in a car and chat Barry up without a Pug on my lap or Maggie shouting from the back was just as enjoyable as it was rare. I loved it.

Dinner was a luxurious affair of fancy-pants food, drinks and conversation. Halfway through dinner we realized that one of our ‘shared’ memories wasn’t quite shared. Barry claims it happened in Canada and I swear it happened in the good old US of A. We agreed to disagree, but both of us found it humorous that we’ve been together long enough to not quite remember things.

I never tire of telling Barry how much I appreciate and love him. I think because he is a constant surprise to me, encouraging me in so many different ways. I wish everybody had a version of him in their lives….life with him is rich, full of purpose and adventure.

We capped our night off by ordering an extra large chocolate chip cookie that arrived in a cast iron skillet, just to make sure that all our talk about our future (and getting oldish) wasn’t because we are old. We ate most of the cookie and then hit the town…..or maybe found our car and drove home to a quiet house.

People should go on dates more often with those they love…

Her Style

We’re all prepared for Christmas, with the exception of ONE very, very difficult person to shop for. We’re simply stuck and have ZERO ideas. Other than that, I think we’re pretty excited for the coming events. Linda sent Maggie some Reindeer Dust and we’re planning on sprinkling some on Christmas Eve. Maggie won’t really care or have an idea of what we’re doing, but I have no doubt that she’ll like throwing the stuff outside.

I’ve been feeling myself cranking the Christmas tunes (side note: have you heard the Lower Lights Christmas album? Cjane has heavily promoted it, and we got it. LOVE it. Find it here.) a bit louder and staring at our tree with a bit more feeling of excitement than in years past. I think it must be having a child in the house that is interested in the presents and Santa, or at least pictures of him. We wrapped a present for my dad that Maggie really, really liked and she keeps going and finding it under the tree, shaking it and saying ”Ampa, ________” (I had to put the blank there in case he reads it and then it won’t be a surprise, but I’m pretty sure that he’ll have to open that present FIRST this year.

We’ve been asking Maggie to get her vest on when we’re ready to leave and she totally does it, but it is almost always upside down. The first time she did it we zipped it up (or is it down) and went happily on our way. That night we ended up going out to sushi and Barry had to conceal our laughter when she crammed a bunch of sushi in without hesitating around the big collar of the upside down vest. Since then, I’ve just decided to go with it and every so often we’ll get some weird looks, but I’m secretly really proud that she’s getting her clothes on.  Because the alternative is this:

I’m thinking that it might not be socially acceptable for her to ride along in the ‘Beep Beep Car’ at the grocery store or pick out books at the library without any clothes on. You know? So we’re encouraging her in her fashion endeavors. She NEVER wants help and is very determined.

It isn’t clear who she gets her fashion sense from? Barry? Me? Clearly we had a little help, right? There is no way that I could have buckled my shoes with my chubby feet. And Barry getting his collar to perfectly fan out?