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Snow, sleet, sledding, secret ingredient cookies & sleepy babies

Posted on December 17, 2007 12:15 am by TheAngelForever

Storm #2 of the not even officially winter season is heading out (I think). As of this morning we had 5-6 inches of snow and the ice kept on coming all day. Our plan was to stay home, watch movies, dig out, and bake cookies. Some of those were accomplished. We are partially out from under the snow and ice, we never had a chance to watch a movie (thanks to a certain little monkey), and we ate cookies that were delicious.

By mid-morning JL finally decided that it was time to head out into the snowy cold "fun" and took NHL with him to get out some energy. The poor kid was experiencing some serious cabin fever from being in the house since early Thursday afternoon. Here is Darth Daddy with his camera of course!

Now please note the dorky Abominable Cameraman taking a photo here while measuring the snow fall:

Finally it was time for NHL and JL to dig out at least the front area of the house:

After some time they finally made it further down the sidewalk to clean up more of the snow. Look at the little guy following his daddy – AWWWWW!

Digging, digging. . . . and yes more digging!

I went back inside to check on the little guy who was keeping warm. As you can see he was having a blast playing, but you can also see his poor little nose was very sore looking. He now cries when he sees a tissue coming toward him.

A little while later JL came in to get me for some photos. The boys had decided to take a break from cleaning up snow to play in it. Here is a mosaic of their sledding fun.

The smiles one both of their faces were just SO big!

Soon after this the boys came inside to get warm and eat lunch. We had lunch that NHL picked out – tomato soup with alphabet noodles in it. Mommy thought he might get a kick out of them and bought them. After this we noticed that NHL was getting tired. We knew he would not go to his bed. Instead we got him to snuggle up on the couch under a blanket. After fighting the nap we finally noticed that he was quiet and calm. Here is how I found the little guy. It still amazes me how kids can fall asleep in the most odd ways.

Meanwhile another little boy in the family was miserable. He refused to eat solid food, wanted to be held and could not sleep. He would settle, get into his crib and wake up crying within 20 minutes or so thanks to his poor nose. Here is how he greeted me after one of the mini-naps. The shine on his nose is vasoline to help the sore areas from constantly wiping all of the dripping.

While NHL was napping JL was ambitious and made some chocolate chip cookies using the recipe from Deceptively Delicious. The secret ingredient in these cookies are whole chickpeas. NHL woke up just in time for the first batch to come out of the oven. JL made one recipe which yielded 40 cookies (Seinfeld’s recipe says it will make 2 dozen – what size cookies does she make?). As you can see NHL approved and wanted more than the two that he was allowed. They truly were YUMMY and you never would know there was something like chickpeas inside.

Now both of the boys are in bed and the house is quiet. The 7 month old was a struggle since he was beyond overtired, congested (did the milk thing to help), and two teeth are really coming in. He also learned a lesson – you do NOT bite mommy when nursing and laugh. If you do that mommy will pass you to Daddy and say "No BOOB for you!"

Night-night for now since the morning will be here soon to finish digging out.

Categories:
food glorious food fun jl jsl nhl photos sick kid teething weather weekend winter yummy

Storm 1 over . . . storm 2 in progress

Posted on December 16, 2007 12:39 pm by TheAngelForever

The storm from Thursday has come and gone and dumped about 10 inches of snow here. My poor aching back still has not recovered. Why? Well, Thursday night JL was up sick hugging our toilet (they certainly were not friends – that’s for sure). This meant that I was the lucky winner of taking care of all 3 boys and digging us out. Tons of fun since we were not able to get the snow blower from my aunt and uncle fixed and here in time (note to self – get that DONE quickly).

Here are some pictures from the last storm Thursday night as it was at the worst. These were taken when JL was coming home. His commute home is normally a 30 minute drive in BAD traffic. Well, it took much longer than that. He finally arrived home about an hour and forty minutes after he put his car into drive. Even my poor mother had her fun. She typically goes 5-10 minutes to get home. It took her over 40 minutes to get out of the parking garage at work and an hour and a half total just to go partially across the city. There were NO plows out and it was miserable to say the least.

This is a photo of JL coming down out street at about 6:30 Thursday evening. Not the best photo, but it gives you the idea of how "lovely" the conditions were.

As you can see from this next photo it was coming down quickly and had gotten a lot deeper since I went out to shovel earlier.

And now a car going down the street on that "fun" evening:

Friday everyone stayed home. I did not want to dig out and take NHL to school and he was really tired. So we stayed home and I dug us all the way out.

Yesterday we went to get things for the house (FOOD) before the next storm hit over night and today. JL was feeling better so everyone went out. This is how it looked yesterday at about 10:30 (about the time I was freaking out over the ice damns forming again):

Last but not least my boys ready to brave the cold temperatures. The poor little guy didn’t know what to do. He was just happy that we were going to get him some "cushy" tissues for his poor bleeding nose.

So here I sit moo-ing the little guy who is refusing solids today while the other boys are digging us out of 5-6 inches of snow while the sleet and freezing rain continues to fall. More photos to come later. I am off to see the sledding NHL and price out a move to Florida so I can be warm near Mickey Mouse!!!

Categories:
jl jsl losing my mind my boys nhl photos sarcasm sick kid vent winter

NHL’s Chanukah Party 2007

Posted on December 13, 2007 8:13 pm by TheAngelForever

Yesterday was the rescheduled Chanukah party in NHL’s classroom. It had been on Monday, but thanks to the ice storm it was pushed off. When we arrived all of the kids were waiting for us at the circle area. We went over and they "lit the candles", said the blessing, and sang a few songs. After that the teacher explained that the kids would rotate around the centers will all of us. There were 5 total and we went to all of them.

Here are some photos of NHL from when I first arrived and one of JSL with his Chanukah bib on. The last photo at at the first center that we explored. This center was the pretend (dress-up/kitchen) area that also displayed all of the show-and-tell items for "H" day. NHL brought in his travel "Hungry Hungry Hippos" game.

Our next stop was the math center. Here they had a menorah set up to count candles.

Then we went to the fine motor center. Here they had dreidels to spin and play with. As you can see they had sheets to show the kids how to play. Please note NHL’s teacher took a photo of all of us and I had fun taking a picure of the dreidel whirling around.

Next we went to the hands-on center area where they had latke tasting for everyone. Here is NHL testing them out with some sour cream and apple sauce.

Then we went out to the hall where the motor center was set up. Here the kids had to sit and wait their turn. Then they got onto a scooter and pushed their body on their tummy down the hall. They had to get some Chanukah cards and bring them back to a sheet to make matches on and identify them. These are some photos of NHL doing this activity.

At this point it was already getting late. We barely had time at the block center on the rug. No photos of this, but I did take some of random Chanukah art that was in the hall and within the classroom.

Then it was time to have some brownies and get presents. The kids (and teachers) made the parents photo frames with their photos in them. The teachers also gave a bag of goodies to the kids. It was a very nice hour in the room and we were able to see how centers run, just with a LOT more people in the room. I was floored that almost every child had at least one parent/grandparent there.

With that I will share one more photo of my fun Chanukah socks. (Hey L this is just for you!)

Now it is time to get the big kid into bed. We already have at least 6.4 inches of snow outside and they claim a bigger storm coming Sunday. The bad news – our snow rake temporarily broke while JL was using it on the roof. He did the side that gets ice damns more, but the other side will be finished at a later time.

Categories:
fun holidays jsl nhl photos school weather

Crib hair!

Posted on December 12, 2007 10:23 pm by TheAngelForever

Not long after I posted the photos of NHL with his hat hair JSL had his own crib hair incident. The proof is a little blurry since he was in my arms as I was taking the photo (and chatting online with my cousin – hey M). Here is what I was able to capture quickly:

Coming soon photos from my B-day on Sunday, more Chanukah photos, my friend Moosekin’s visit yesterday, and NHL’s Chanukah party at school today.

Baby teething/cold permitting I will edit and post soon.

Categories:
jsl photos

Chanukah Party & Family Day (12-8)

Posted on December 10, 2007 4:16 pm by TheAngelForever

Thursday evening my brother (Uncle I), sister-in-law (Aunt M) and niece (SG) came into town. Due to NHL being really sick Friday we were not able to have dinner with them that evening. Saturday morning all seemed to be well. The high fever disappeared almost as mysteriously as it had appeared. Thanks to this we felt it was fine to make plans and see our family.

Aunt M and Uncle I requested lunch out at the newly opened PF Chang’s. We all said that was fine, so I made a reservation for 12:30 for the nine of us (that included the two babies). We had a very nice lunch, looked around the crazy mall quickly and then stopped at Target. We needed to go there for more Aveeno diaper rash cream as well as frosting and sprinkles for Aunt M’s Chanukah cookies.

After that it was time to head back to my parent’s house. At Nana and Papa’s we all decided to let the kids have some of their Chanukah gifts. Nana and Papa gave NHL the new Fisher Price Smart Cycle. It seems like a great "toy" for in the house during the winter. It will provide him with muscle movement (PT), and nice hand/eye coordination with the joystick (OT) using educational games. Here is a mosaic of NHL opening the gift. Note when he finally sees what is inside. Also included are some photos of him riding on it.

Meanwhile JSL was enjoying his first Chanukah (check out the cool shirt that Nana and Papa got him). It was so fun watching him get into his new toys. He sat on the floor for quite some time playing, talking, watching and enjoying the farm toy that Nana and Papa gave him. He loved finding the places that would make music and kept experimenting with everything. Here are some photos of him including when he got there in his snowsuit, playing with Papa, modeling his "My First Hanukkah" shirt. Unfortunately we never had SG and JSL in a photo together with their matching shirts on. In addition to the farm toy he LOVED the Glow Worm from Uncle I, Aunt M and SG. When we got home Saturday night he kept singing with it. When it would stop glowing he would kiss it on the face and talk to it trying to make it go again.

Of course the Smart Cycle did not come assembled since Santa does not do that for Chanukah – *wink* Thanks to this JL had the opportunity to put it together for NHL. Here’s a shot of that fun.

NHL was quite bored waiting for his Smart Cycle to be ready. Part of the time he watched Papa’s new "baby" play Noggin.

By this point he was starting to really need something to do. Aunt M had him help SG open her Chanukah gifts.

Then he was quite sick of waiting. Note the sour puss.

Since I was getting slightly bored I took the following photo of my shoes and dreidel socks:

SG was quite content when mommy read her a book and Papa came over to chat with her:

Once NHL’s bike was set, everyone just stayed together in the living room waiting for the other family members to come to the Chanukah party.

Even the Chanukah Puppy was just hanging out:

Finally everyone arrived and it was time to eat. Here is a mosaic of all of the family gathering around the lit menorah enjoying our meal together. Oh and of course the goodies!