Date Night! (Sort of)

Can we go outside now? How 'bout now? Now?

So, we thought winter was over, and it isn't, but it's getting a little ridiculous. It has snowed everyday since Tuesday, with considerable accumulation. We've either had wet flakes or we've had freezing rain, and it's just been all around yucky weather. I think Mother Nature was trying to make up for our lack of usual winter precipitation all in one week.

Either way, the constant gloom and snow, combined with my usual late-winter cabin fever, was making me go slightly crazy. I've been suggesting things like going to the museum, or the planetarium or just about anywhere, but Sean has been pretty content to stay inside and avoid the nasty weather.

It hasn't helped that Aiden is becoming VERY rambunctious. He's been so sweet, but he just has bundles of energy and no outlet for it. He's been somersaulting across his bed, jumping from couch cushion to couch cushion and crashing his bike into anything he can find. I made the mistake of saying "I bet you'd like to go to the park", and Aiden looked into my eyes with such hope and said "Park? Um, yes? Me? ".

Together Aiden's energy and my mopey attitude must've gotten to Sean because he finally asked if going out to dinner might help. I agreed that yes, setting foot outside with a destination other than school or the grocery store would help. We're probably just going to go to Panera and then look around the book store, but knowing we're doing something a little out of the ordinary is wonderful. Sean and I used to spend hours wandering around the bookstore together, and even though we get yanked over to the Thomas train table in the kids section now, it's still nice just being out with no particular agenda.

Also, next winter Aiden will DEFINITELY be in Tumbling Tykes.

Can't Hold Her Licker

Aiden and Bear, who may not be the same species but still act like they are brother and sister, got into a licking war last night. Usually Bear will let Aiden run all over her without batting an eye, but last night she kept pinning Aiden down and licking his face and hair. When she was done his hair was sticking up straight and his pajamas were so damp we had to change him.

Just In Case You Thought Winter Was Over

Sometime in early February I told Sean the snow was done. Obviously my amateur meteorology skills leave something to be desired. He said there'd be one more good snow before we were done, and a week later it snowed about five inches. As of yesterday, when it was a gorgeous 41 degrees and sunny, we knew spring was finally right around the corner. It must be!

Then I got home from school and checked the weather. It was the most honest weather report I'd ever read: it said there were so many different weather patterns converging all at once that they had no idea what was going on for the next few days, but it would involve snow. Or rain. Or sleet.

So here are some pictures of whats actually happening, and yes, it involves a lot of snow.

Happiness Is A Full Cookie Jar

I think he's reached chocolate Nirvana.

Snowy Monday

We've had a wonderful weekend (a four day one for me!). We've spent most of our time cuddled on the couch in front of a roaring fire watching the Olympics. We've caught a lot of skiing since Aiden has realized that he goes skiing just like the people on the television and loves to point it out by saying "Ski! Me! Ski! Yep!".

The temperatures outside have hovered in the twenties with icy winds and a small storm expected tomorrow, but our house has been so warm and cozy that just staying inside with each other has felt like a wonderful vacation. Valentine's Day, Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras are all small holidays if not totally unnoticed in our house, but the way they're all clustered around these few days I have off, combined with the fact that T.V. coverage of war and crime has been replaced with sportsmanship, have added just a little extra happiness to our lives this week.

Together Time

So, when I started back to school this semester I was a little excited to see how well Sean handled having Aiden all day. Frequently, when I would call him over the summer and complain that I couldn't possibly deal with this child one second longer, Sean would launch into a speech on how I was so lucky to have all day with him and how he'd give anything to be able to spend more time at home. Needless to say I wanted to see what would happen.

Mostly, it's been wonderful. I come home to a freshly vacuumed home, a load of laundry in the washer, and Aiden fed and happy. I did get a little vindication one night when we were going to bed though. Sean finally turned to me and said "so...after his nap and before dinner, during those three or so hours...what are you supposed to do with him??? We've played with everything in the house and I just don't know what to do!!!". Other than that, they seem to love having three days of alone time together.

I was starting to really miss getting that time with Aiden, but Sean has started working a few hours a day with the Census, until he starts his actual job, which gives me and Aidy a little bit of time together too, and the whole family seems to have found the perfect balance of work and play, together and alone.

Today was our first big chunk of time together alone in quite some time. It was wonderful.

English Exercise: Oh Boy

In my English class, we've been reading a lot of Thoreau. He talks about "seeing" the world, with eyes, intellect and emotion. This week we had an assignment to write 500 words on something we truly 'see'. Naturally I chose Aiden, but now I'm reluctant to present it in class because it's kind of personal. So I thought I'd put it here instead!

"Everyday, I spend the majority of my waking hours trying to see my child. Seeing your own child is like trying to see just one petal on a rose, you simply can’t ignore the whole flower. I can’t look into his face without seeing an eon’s worth of generations there. He has my nose, a steep slant tweaked at the very tip, covered in pale freckles like confetti. He has his father’s mouth, as shapely as an archer’s bow and pink like the inner flesh of strawberries. He has a head of renegade curls from his grandfather. He has his great grandmother’s eyes. In him he has genes and hopes that have been passed from England and Ireland and Bulgaria to South Carolina, to Iowa, to New York.

. I am constantly calling out, chasing, searching for his little body around the corners of our house. I’ll see a leg protruding from under the table, his body splayed out, cherubic face peering at me from between scuffed wooden chair legs. I’ll see molasses brown eyes crinkling in delight as he shares secrets with his long loved Dog, it’s fur patchy and it’s neck gone limp from living in the crook of his elbow. To me, the best time for seeing him is late at night, even though he’s asleep and his room is too dim to make out much more than a dark head of soft brown hair. The darkness is a heavy blanket over him, calming the frenetic energy of the day and rendering his features, so often shaped into expressions of wonder, as serene as the night itself. That is when I see, in the very peacefulness of his sleep, the costume of mischievous little boy is discarded. Instead, I see the goodness and innocence that the world believes has long gone missing.

Oh yes, everyday is an exercise in seeing. It’s harder than you can imagine, even if in this moment I can see his rounded baby cheeks as sweet and white as meringue, or his tiny dimpled hands that are an exact miniature of mine, because tomorrow they will be different. They will be a little older, a little more unique, and little more separate from me. So I try my hardest to see what I can while it’s in front of me. I do my best to remember and to hold on to what is in the here and now. I know, like a hearty gust of wind that scatters a dandelion’s gossamer topped seeds, tomorrow will come and scatter this away."

Tuesday Fun

School has been completely crazy, and next week will only be worse: I have two papers due, a presentation and a test next Wednesday. Mondays I have class from 10am until 3pm, when I race home just to head back out to work at 4pm. Wednesdays I have the same class schedule, capped off by a three hour journalism lecture. Fridays are a little bit better. That being said, I've been enjoying my Tuesdays and Thursday off.

Usually we've got a few errands and chores, but yesterday we didn't have a darn thing we had to do (other than all that homework during naptime) so we spent the day reading books to Aiden, doing puzzles and just enjoying each others company. Aiden is going through a little developmental growth spurt, and he's picking up all kinds of new sentences in addition to eagerly naming shapes and colors.

Still, sometimes he's just our silly little guy: