A Day in the Life of Henry

Soundtrack for this post, if you're so inclined

6:45 (20 minutes before Dad's alarm) Wake up

7:00 Eat breakfast of chips and salsa and yogurt milk fortified with Miralax

7:25 Help clean up

7:40 Watch TV

8:40 Play

9:40 Practice walking

9:45 Get bundled up and go with mom to run errands or play

12:15 fall asleep in the car on the way home

12:30 Eat lunch with shirt off. Oatmeal or macaroni and cheese.

1:00 Take nap

3:30 Wake up, watch PBS kids with Megan

4:30 play

5:30 bug Mom in the kitchen while she's making dinner

6:00 refuse to eat dinner, while simultaneously raising Dad's blood pressure

6:45 Movie night! Watch something Dad is willing to watch, like The Princess Bride or The Apple Dumpling Gang. Get bored quickly.

7:30 take a much needed bath

8:00 Off to bed, to dream of doing the exact same thing tomorrow!

Lots of Valentine Love

My kiddos picked out this lovely card for me for Valentine's Day. It's actually a birthday card, and you can't get the full effect because when you open the card, there is a loud recording with the cats meowing to the tune of "Happy Birthday."

I hope you all feel as loved as I do.

Snowmageddon: The Aftermath

Saturday we forced our kids outside to enjoy the snow. We're now the proud owners of a snow fort that ought to last until June.

There's only one snowblower on the block, so different guys took turns clearing a strip up the sidewalk to make things passable

After 32 hours of continuous snow:

INSIDE

OUTSIDE

We've stayed in our pajamas for days

Sledding on a cookie sheet -- it actually works really well

Megan is a big help with shoveling

They're not really into plowing roads here. That's a car's side mirror that you see poking out of that snow mound on the left.

We upgraded from the cookie sheets and borrowed some neighbor's sleds. You can see from the look on Henry's face that it was all worth it.

This has been an unexpected break from work for Mike, and a fun time with the kids, but we're definitely getting a bit of cabin fever and are about ready for things to go back to normal.

P.S. It's snowing again, right now!

Snowmageddon

In D.C., we've been pummeled by snow for the last 22 hours, and it's projected to continue for another 8.



So far we've gotten 20", which is pretty serious business for this region. To put that in perspective, here is the D.C. list of the top ten snowfalls of all time:

1. January 27-28, 1922 ... 28 inches
2. February 11-13, 1899 ... 20.5 inches
3. February 18-19, 1979 ... 18.7 inches
4. January 6-8, 1996 ... 17.1 inches
5. February 15-18, 2003 ... 16.7 inches
6. February 11-12, 1983 ...16.6 inches
7. December 19-20, 2009 ... 16.4 inches (Snowpocalypse)
8. February 15-16, 1958 ... 14.4 inches
9. February 7, 1936 ... 14.4 inches
10. February 16-18, 1900 ... 14.3 inches

Notice that number 7 on the list was in December, which the news dubbed "snowpocalypse." Since this storm is bigger, they've decided to refer to it as "snowmageddon." They're a little over the top out here. The VA governor declared a state of emergency before the storm even hit, and Arlington county sent everyone an email warning us to stock up on supplies and be ready to not leave our homes for 3 - 5 days. People panicked and bought everything off the shelves. Kim tried to go to Cosco yesterday, and turned around and came home when she saw how long the lines were to check out.

Here's what our street looked like yesterday after the storm had been going for a few hours

And here's what it looked like this morning when we woke up

I had a hard time getting out our front door, which is under a covered porch

Everybody around us seemed to lift up their windshield wipers like this, so I followed suit, not knowing if there is something strange about east coast storms that makes this a wise move. The only thing I can think of is that you would want to do this if there was freezing rain so that they wouldn't freeze to the windshield. I doubt there is a purpose during a normal snowstorm.




State of emergency be damned -- I love snow. I love how quiet it is while the snow falls, and how the snow reflects light at night so that it seems to come from all around. I love layering up and rolling around in the snow, building forts and throwing snowballs, and I love staying inside in my pajamas and moccasins with a book while the world gets buried.




58,000 northern VA residents are without power right now, so assuming that doesn't happen to us, I'll update this post with some final snow totals and pictures later tonight or tomorrow morning.

The Tooth Fairy

Well it is official -- Megan is growing up.

When Megan got her teeth cleaned by her special dental hygienist, Aunt Crystal, in December, Crystal stated that Megan had two loose teeth on the bottom. We were a little surprised, but thought nothing more of it, being that it was Christmas and all.

Then last week we noticed that Megan's bottom tooth was really loose, just like a real kid. Mike was in shock that his little girl could be big enough to lose a tooth. He was in such shock that he called his dental savvy parents concerned that there must be something wrong with Megan's teeth to be coming out so early. But no -- they calmed his fears and kindly told him that it is a little early to lose a tooth, but not that early, and no, there wouldn't be a dark hole where a permanent tooth should be for years, maybe only a couple of weeks. Mike was still in shock.

Megan was going to be the special helper at preschool, which means that I go to school to help, and she gets to do Show and Tell first. With the prospect of being able to show off her tooth ("it's part of my face!") we were able to talk her into letting us pull it out. Mike distracted her with a story about a flying pink unicorn, and I pulled it out real quick with a paper towel. TA DA!




Now for the line of questioning:

Megan: Is my face going to fall off? Will people laugh at me?
Dad: Part of your face did fall off. And no, no one is going to laugh at you.
Megan: Is the Tooth fairy real, DAD?
Dad: No. It's just Mom.
Megan: Mom, you are the Tooth fairy?
Mom: Yes, I am the Tooth fairy.
Megan: Where you the tooth fairy as a kid?
Mom: No honey. But put your tooth under your pillow, and see if there is money left under your pillow when you wake up.
Megan: Can I have a toy instead?
Dad: You don't get to ask for what you want, you just get what you get.

Megan comes running in the next morning, holding her dollar: See Dad, the Tooth fairy IS real!
Dad: (shakes his head)

I mean, what do you say to that. Even with all Mike's logic, magic wins out in a five year old's mind. Maybe she is still just our little girl, minus a tooth.

Shenandoah River

As a last minute impromptu adventure, our friends found a cabin for rent on the Shenandoah river over the MLK weekend. Their son is Henry's age, which made it easier to share a sleeping space.

The cabin sat right on the river -- we were ready to see how much they wanted for it so we could stay out in that beauty, live off the fat of the land, let our hair grow long and forget all we used to know.

MLK day was surprisingly warm after suffering a bitterly cold snap for the last few weeks. We had a great time playing outside.

My sultry wife

Since we were in such a pretty setting (with such pretty people) I tried out a number of different things with the new camera.

Good thing Megan brought her rain boots

Nature is awesome.