Buckins

Miss A seems to learn at least a half a dozen new words each day. Some we work hard to teach her and some she just seems to pick up on her own and surprise us with. I should probably be keeping a running list of all of the words that she knows but honestly? I can't keep up. And I feel like even if I weren't the crazy busy working mom that I am, I still think I wouldn't be able to keep up. Despite all of that, I'm trying my best to not miss a thing of what Miss A is doing.

Tonight when I was helping Miss A get ready for bed, I was getting her into her pajamas and narrating the process and when I got to the part about buttoning her buttons she turned to me and repeated the word buttons as if to make sure that's what I said. When I repeated it back to her she said it again and then continued to repeat it over and over and over again! It must be a fun word for her to say! The cutest thing about it though is not the fact that I've started her on a mild obsession with saying it but actually it's HOW she says it. She can't quite get it and mispronounces it and if I were a Speech therapist I might be all particular about it but I'm an Art teacher instead and if anything I think it's just adorable. Here she is saying 'buttons' in her own way...

I love it! I JUST LOVE IT!!!

Helper girl

Miss A's new favorite thing is helping out around the house. One of her favorite chores to help out is easily the one the comes after meal time though. She is all about working her little "guns" and showing how strong she is by helping to move her highchair back to where it belongs after she's done with it.

Change of pace

I wish I could update this blog more often than I do. Lately I've just had no time whatsoever to do anything like that. Taking pictures and recording our best memories have taken back burners, backseats, and end of every line to everything else I've got going on these days. This is what happens when a new semester starts, you're teaching FOUR different classes (and two of those are brand new and don't even have a curriculum plans in advance), you're tasked with doing the set design and creation of the annual school musical, and you have a mentor group of which you started also with a promise to crochet little amigurumi for each of the girls' birthdays (UGH. So love-hate!).

Obviously I have enough of my proverbial plate.

This weekend I had the lovely opportunity to slow things down a bit. My parents ended up spending the weekend at the Charm City Inner Harbor and Miss A and I joined them for almost the entire Saturday. My mom and I walked around by the harbor and people watched and also took Miss A to the children's museum (Port Discovery) while my dad worked. Unfortunately I don't have a ton of pictures to show of the more exciting parts of our day because I was less interested in taking pictures of all of the action and more interested in being a part of the action. I would say that I regret doing this because Miss A was so adorable at the museum but I absolutely don't. I was able to make some great memories with her that I will remember better than any pictures that I could have taken.

When all was said and done, we all went back to my parents' hotel room and just vegged until it was time for an amazing dinner at our local favorite - Phillips. Miss A was all played out from all of the excitement for the day and while she normally might be bouncing off the walls, she had no problem hanging out with my mom and taking in some reading. This is the only picture I took of the whole day and I think it's hysterical...

It's hard to tell but Miss A is reading the hotel guidebook that instructs you how to go about ordering room service and using the concierge.

But to make up for all of the blogging that I've not been able to do and the pictures I've not taken, I give you a little bit of a leftover that I had forgotten about. (I'll try and do this every so often because I've actually got a fair share of leftovers that never make it to the blog.) Eating yogurt is something that Miss A loves to do these days and is very good at as well.

Oh wait! Did I say EATING yogurt? I guess I should have also said WEARING yogurt too!! She might be better at the latter more than the former.

We survived the double-blizzard of 2010!

Well, kids, tomorrow it's back to work, school, and daycare for all of us! But after 11 straight days of being mostly home bound, I can honestly say that I'm not only ready to go back to work but really wanting to go back to work!

We got a total of about 26 inches of snow and this is more than I have ever seen in all of my life. Over ten years ago when this area was last hit by such crippling inclement weather, is was really more ice that was the problem than the snow! And I still think that we actually only had a whole week off from school and nothing more than that. But this snow storm? If you count President's day (which I do since everyone was talking about bringing us in then to start making up days) then we have two more full days outside of weekends even that kept everyone home. That is AH-MAY-ZING!!!!!!

Miss A has never seen so much snow in her life (but to be fair she isn't even two yet!) and I definitely was just as amazed at it...

Though she wasn't quite as dazzled by it as all of the rest of us, she did manage to at least touch it by her own volition.

And since everyone was gearing up for such a storm, we couldn't find a decent sled for her in a 30 mile radius so D attempted to make her one that didn't quite work out but it was a valiant attempt at least.


And while everyone else was racing outside to play in all of the white stuff, I happily stayed inside to do the thing that I love the most but never seem to have time to do - CROCHET!!!

I whipped up this hat in about an evening without a pattern by request of some of our PA relatives (namely Samantha and baby Alyssa) and Miss A is modeling it beautifully. It will be going out in the mail come this week when I'm no longer stuck in the house and the postal service is back on track and ready to go.
And then I think I just started getting silly and slap happy and got it in my mind to make a gnome for myself and it worked out pretty OK despite the fact that I (again!) had to do it without a pattern! I decided to name him Sherman before I was even done making him and upon finishing him Miss A promptly hijacked him from me and made him one of her growing fleet of "babies."



The snow has all but melted and it's looking like there's still a good 12" remaining on the ground that will probably disappear within the next week or so if we're lucky. Kind of bittersweet since them melting also means that all of the amazing icicles that we've marveled at will also be on their way out soon too. [Pics below of icicles were taken by D and not me!]




The above pic of the icicles is shown with D's keys held up to better illustrate just how large they were in comparison! Incredible!!!

A few days ago the weathermen started forecasting for us to be hit by another huge snow storm but it's looking like that's changing and we're going to see rain at most. *Hurrah!!* I never thought I would pray so much more for rain than snow. I guess the biggest lesson of all we've learned is "never say never."

The beginning of the beginning

I admit it. I completely doubted all of the weather forecasts that we would be getting all that much snow. I mean, despite all of the reports, I thought we'd be getting 12 inches MAYBE 16 but that's really all I thought because come on! Isn't 24-30 inches ridiculous to even think about? Especially for this area when at this time last year we were able to wear shorts by the end of February?

Fat chance that's happening this year!

The snow started yesterday late morning time and it has continued through the day, night, and now another morning. It's not showing any signs of slowing down and the 40 MPH winds are drifting the snow to the point where it's going to be hard for some people to even be able to open their doors. I have yet to even think of going out there in what the weather station has no deemed a full on blizzard. Perhaps we'll be able to go back to school by next Monday at least. I wish I were exaggerating.

In the meanwhile, Miss A has amused herself by trying to repeatedly steal the empty jug of milk from the garbage pile. Mind you, we don't encourage playing with trash in our house but when you've got a little girl who is just trying to make the best of things while essentially being trapped in her own house? Well, all kinds of rules (within reason) are bent to help keep people happy and busy.


Whenever the snow does let up, Miss A has a newly altered winter hat to wear to keep her pretty little head cozy and warm. I was able to extend the ear flaps and frame her face better with no more than an hour of crocheting and I'd say it looks a lot more like an aviator cap than it did before.



Until we're able to finally get out of our house to be able to have some fun without all of this snow, it's looking like we just have to hunker down and deal with being stuck inside of the house. Miss A is already going a little stir crazy with cabin fever and has given us a sampling of what she might be like in her adolescence if we ever have to put her on lock-down...


For those of you not well-versed in text talk, MYOB means "Mind your own business." (Don't worry. I had to look Google for it's translation too.)

Let's just hope this isn't a preview of what Miss A's teenaged years will be like.