Kite Flying in January!

We've had some nice weather these past couple of days. And some not-so-nice weather, as a matter of fact. But we'll just talk about the nice days. We took a trip to the park to fly a kite. And we wore shorts! Don't you want to live here? Come on!

In the Rain

One day when it was raining, Nana let Emily play with an umbrella outside. She had so much fun! Sometimes she'd forget to hold it over herself and she'd get wet, but she didn't care.

And then Nana had this crazy idea to go walking in the gutters! Oh wow, did she have a great time!!!

I think what made this so cool (to me) is Nana HATES HATES HATES getting her feet wet. Hates it. We tease her all the time by sprinkling water on her feet and she screams and dances. So when she rolled up her pants and walked Emily in the rain, I was so shocked and grateful because Emily had such a good time and there was no way I was feeling like playing in the rain.

But all fun things must come to an end... She was very sad. But, we went inside and took nice, warm baths.

Snow Adventures!

It snowed yesterday! Big, huge flakes! Emily was very impressed. She kept signing "snow" and making a swooshing sound. She wanted to go outside, but I was reluctant. It was cold, dangit! But then I looked at Emily, looking so sad as she watched out the window at the big flakes falling. So sad, huh? So, we got on our gear and ventured outside. Emily didn't know what to do at first. She just stood there. I had to nudge her to go out the door.

She didn't quite know what to think. She looked back at me as if to say, "Wow, what's going on?"
Then she made some tracks in the snow. I showed her how to make a snowball and eat it. She LOVED eating snow. (In fact, we ate leftover snow today!)I love this photo. She's trying to figure out where the snow is coming from.

I showed her how to catch snow on her tongue.
"Hellooo." Then Daddy came home and I got to go inside and watch from the door. That's how this momma rolls.
The mittens were probably a bit too small, but they kept her fingers warm. But she acted like they made her paralyzed from the elbow down.
Don't you just love her boots?

Outside

We went outside yesterday to bask in the sunlight that we were blessed with. The skies were beautiful! Emily hasn't been feeling well and I figured a trip outside would cheer her up.

In this last photo, I had asked her "What's that?" to get her to look at the camera, and in return I got this expression. It looks like she wants to say, "Duh, Mom. It's grass!"

See Ya Warm Weather

I hate cold weather. It makes me ache and my skin gets dry and itchy. And I get cranky. I get crankier each year. I just hate it. I want to go south with the birds. I'd much rather be too hot right now than too cold. Blah!

How is it I used to play in waist deep snow as a kid (knee deep to those that weren't height challenged)? I would make snowballs with my bare hands and eat icicles from our roof (I didn't know the cat would get stranded up there and use the roof as his toilet). I would pretend my steamy breath was smoke from my pretend cigarette.

I loved sledding on the ski hill and coming home to take a warm bath. I loved climbing under the covers and warming my cold, crisp sheets by kicking my feet.

Not anymore. Poo on cold weather and poo on snow and sleet and poo on any outside degree under 70.

Here, now that I've poo'd on your good mood, look at Emily. She's cute and pretty and enjoying one of the last warm days of this year.

I'm Dreaming of a White Groundhog Day

It's snowing right now. Big flakes. Emily likes snow, but only from inside the house. We went outside for a couple of minutes. I was showing her the snow and talking about how each flake is different and she was just watching those flakes fall out of the sky. I caught one and I showed it to her and she opened her mouth like she wanted to eat it. So I fed it to her. We did this for a couple of minutes and then she decided she was done.

Snow

I opened the back door to let the cat outside and I saw that it had snowed! Isn't it amazing what a blanket of pure white snow can do to the junk in your back yard? Snow makes everything pretty. Snow makes everything peaceful and quiet. I took Emily outside to check out the snow and I spoke to her in a hushed voice. I didn't want to interrupt the reverence that the white dust had created.
See, even our trash bins look pretty. We were outside for about three minutes when Emily decided that she had had enough of the cold. Maybe if we had a huge hill with lots of snow she would like it better!