Weeeee!!!!!!!!

Playing in the Snow

Snow Princess

Well, today is Snow Day #4!  I can't believe I only worked one day this week, but I didn't have to use any vacation days!  This has to be a first for my work to be closed for so long.  We woke up this morning to a beautiful blanket of snow on the ground.  The afternoon weather report said that DFW got anywhere from 2"-7" of snow depending on where you are in the metroplex.  I measured about five different places in our yard.  They all measured 4 inches of snow!  That's not nearly as much as we received last February when we got a foot of snow, but it's definitely plenty of snow to play in.  I found Mia's pail and shovels to play with outside.  They work for snow just was well as they do for sand!  Mia loved playing in the snow.  I even helped her make a snow angel!  I kid you not, two people walked down the street on snow skis!  When we were both thoroughly covered in snow, we filled a bowl with snow and brought it inside to make snow ice cream.  I had never attempted that before, so I googled it.  I found a recipe that called for 4-5 cups of snow (I used about 6), 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup milk, and 1/2 cup sugar.  It was really good!  I gave Mia a bowl of it, and she loved it!  She gobbled it up, then said, "More snow ice keem, Mommy! More! More!"  It was a hit!

Inspecting her mittens (or "mimmits" as she calls them) to make sure she's ready to go outside.

 Fun in the snow!!

 Hard to see but this is Mia's snow angel!

 Eating yummy snow ice cream

Keep Those Snow Days Comin'!

Snow day #3 yesterday was fun, but I was feeling a bit under the weather.  However, Mia was still zipping around going 90 to nothing, so I kept up as best as I could.  I was incredibly happy to find a sticker book in Mia's art supplies that she got for Christmas.  She made some "sticker art", and that kept her occupied for quite awhile.  It's interesting to see how her art turns out.  In a way, it kind of shows how her mind works. 

For lunch, Mia and I bundled up and walked two blocks to our favorite diner, Norma's.  Norma's has been a staple of Oak Cliff cuisine for decades.  Corn muffins, chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots, and then peaches for dessert.  Yum!  The sidewalks were basically a sheet of ice, and I carried Mia the whole way there and back.  I was pretty tired when we got home, but it was good to get out of the house for a little while.

Mia must have been pretty tired, too.  Even after her nap, she sat quietly on the couch with a cup of dried cranberries and yogurt-covered raisins (a favorite snack combo of her's) and watched Hello Kitty.  I tried to capture this rare moment of stillness with a picture, but she kept leaning around me to see Hello Kitty.  Funny girl.  The rest of the day was spent like we usually do with books, toys, and coloring.  We also danced a lot to Mia's Silly Songs with Larry cd.  All in all it was a great day!

Showing off her sticker art

Trying to see HK.  I guess I was in the way.

Snow Day #2

I have never had two consecutive snow days from work until now.  Today was my second day off due to the icy roads.  Mia's daycare was closed also.  I couldn't stay in my pajamas all day again, so I got us both dressed.  We didn't go anywhere, though.  Mia had toys and books strewn all over the house.  She's getting really stir crazy.  She's a two-year-old ball of energy, so it's hard for her to stay cooped up in the house for two days.  I tried to keep her occupied.  We read books, colored, played with her toys, etc.  She likes going upstairs to our family room, so we spent some time up there.  Wesley and I have been sorting through tons of boxes and papers up there, and it's still kind of a mess.  Mia doesn't care.  She just pulls out a bunch of toys and either lays in the floor coloring or sits on the futon watching the Disney channel.  I think she was craving a change of scenery.  I just found out that her daycare is closed again tomorrow, so we have Snow Day #3 to look forward to.  I kind of feel like a stay at home mom right now.  I love it!  I've been doing laundry and keeping the dishes washed.  It's a good feeling.  I'm gonna have to get creative on Mia's entertainment tomorrow.  It's far too cold to let her play outside, so I'll have to come up with activities we haven't done yet.  I'd better get to thinking about that!

She had so many toys piled around her room. It was like a mine field!

 Mia started tossing all of her toys in the crib.  I guess when you're bored you just make up your own games to play.

 Reading Garrison Keillor's "Daddy's Girl".  She crouched like this the whole time she was reading it.  I guess she felt comfortable like that.  I would have had to sit myself down on the floor.

 

Old Man Winter

We got our first snow day of the winter today.  A huge cold front descended on us and brought sleet, snow, and freezing cold winds with it.  I just read that tonight may be the coldest night Dallas has seen in 15 years with an expected low between five and ten degrees.  Brrrr!!  We put Mia to bed with three blankets on her!  Knowing her little hot-natured self, she'll probably kick them off at some point, though.  Mia and I got to stay home and have a snow day, but Wesley had to go to work.  He made it there and back home safely.  He's going to take my car tomorrow though because my 4 wheel drive is better than his (or so he told me).  I don't like the thought of him driving on those icy roads.

Mia and I had a fun and relaxing day.  Other than locking herself in her room this morning, the day was without incident.  It took me five minutes and a paperclip to get her out of her room.  She wanted to watch Hello Kitty, Mickey Mouse, and (new to her repertoire) Strawberry Shortcake all day.  Sometimes I feel like I'm reliving my childhood with those shows.  Plus, she has Hello Kitty dolls, a Raggedy Ann, and a ton of Sesame Street books.  She and I stayed in our pajamas all day long.  I loved it!  I got some cleaning done, but we kept things pretty low key.  We've been trying to teach her colors.  She's getting better at it.  I held a pile of her necklaces in my hands and asked her to pick each color.  When she got it right (which was most of the time), she would put that necklace on.  She loves games, so that worked pretty well.

New Class

Today was Mia's first day in her new class.  She doesn't usually mind changing classrooms, so I didn't expect her to have a problem.  I was right.  When we arrived, she ran over to the breakfast table and took a seat.  She said, "Bye Mommy!" just like she does every morning.  It was super easy.  When I picked her up this afternoon, she was telling me the names of all of the kids in her class.  Some of them she already knew, but she'd learned the names of the others as well.  She didn't want to leave, but I coaxed her out the door with promises of letting her help me look for buses.  It's an "I Spy" game we play on the way home.  Whenever Mia sees a vehicle she recognizes, she yells, "Bus, Mama! School bus!" or "Big truck!" or "Van!"  She's been calling the city transit buses "school buses" also.  I've been trying to tell her they are city buses.  I guess she misunderstood me because the next time she saw one she said, "Silly bus, Mommy! Silly bus!"  She wants to identify everything she sees.  She points out every blade of grass and speck of dust it seems.  She asked for a snack this evening, but it took me a few minutes to figure out what she wanted.  I guess she's decided to call Lucky Charms "Charlie Browns".  Too funny!

Here's Mia supervising while I cook dinner.

 

She got impatient for her dinner.  She climbed up on the side of the high chair, and started eating her veggies before I could put her in the seat.