Five little monkeys, sitting in the bed....
"Calling all monkeys! We're having a party over here."
Christmas Eve we managed to get through the snow and to the mall to see Santa before he left to deliver all the presents. We really didn't prepare for this. If we had, I would have put him in his plaid tie. He looks pretty cute though. We thought we'd have to be in the picture with him, but they managed to get one where he looks fairly happy and isn't arching his back to get off Santa's lap. We wanted to spend Christmas Eve with Grant's family, but because of the weather, it was called off. We were happy to find that it was 50 cent wing night at "Fire on the Mountain", the best place in Portland for wings, and got lots to go. Yum.
We gave Parker just one present.
He climbed over it at least 10 times.
And after Grant ripped the corner of the paper, off he went. There were little scraps and then bigger pieces.
Then he kissed the picture of the kid on the box. He won't kiss me, but he'll kiss his box!
Here it is all set up. A space train set.
We rearranged the furniture in our living room so that the tree is completely blocked off from Parker. The only way of getting to it is to climb on the couch. Grant was sitting there watching over him.
Parker loves when Grant brings out his trombone. I do too. You know, I met Grant in 7th grade band class. If he had not played a musical instrument, maybe we would have never really crossed paths.
Good Christmas. I was bummed that the snow kept my mom from getting up here to celebrate with us, but we met her the following day to exchange gifts. I will post a picture in the next couple days with some of his favorite gifts.
While Parker napped, Grant and I went outside to make snowmen. Well, the snow was covered with an inch and 1/2 sheet of ice, so we explored a bit and came insdie.
Our front steps were completely covered.
A little pose that shows off my 2 pairs of pants, shirt, 2 coats, gloves, scarf, and hat. Makes a person look heavier than they really are! :(
The sheet of ice that breaks right off the top layer of snow.
Sun bathing on our deck. This was yesterday.
This man, that would like to remain anonymous, ran across our deck in his underwear at 12:30 at night! That is one crazy guy! Notice the black bar across his face to hide his identity.
Grant built a mini igloo dome on our stairs.
Once you get through the ice layer, it's all powder.
Taking a break.
Our tree out front all frozen. The lights on it are coated in ice too. We just planted a bunch of new plants this summer. I hope they recover after all of this.
Tree popsicle. Yum!
The mound of snow where are steps once were.
I love the wall of snow you see from inside the garage.
Our sweet little house in the snow.
I started out our day by making breakfast. This was Parker's first taste of pancakes... and he is a fan-- whole wheat of course.
I can't remember a time when we have had so many days of snow in a row. I have had the whole week off of school. I worry that we'll have to make it up in June, but we'll probably add minutes onto the school day to make up the time. I have sure enjoyed this extra time off with Parker though. Makes me want to be a stay at home mom more than ever. I mean, just look at this cute boy-- who wouldn't want to be with him all day instead of 32 5th graders! I have used this extra time off to do Christmas cards, buy and wrap presents, catch up on emails, play with Parker, clean, run lots of errands, and sleep in. It's been great. Well, except for the following.....
Yesterday Parker was walking around the living room and tripped and fell mouth first into the brick fireplace. His upper and bottom lip had gouges in them, his chin has a scrape, and he chipped off part of his upper front tooth. He was crying hard for a few minutes and there was a little blood. I called Grant at work almost in tears, gave him Tylenol, then called Kaiser. We got in for an emergency dental appointment. The tooth is not broken up to the nerve and the Dr. didn't think that he would lose it. I am so upset that my cute boy is not going to be as cute with this broken tooth. I'll try to get a picture of the actual tooth. Everyone tells me that this is just the start of many injuries to come. Noooo! :( Is this what my parents went through with our injuries? Stitches, sprains, several broken bones, surgery. My mom used to say that the Albany hospital should have named an exam room in the emergency room after us. Hopefully, Parker won't be quite as accident prone as his mom. Grant never broke a bone until 4 years ago when he decided to go for a walk in the ice storm and fell and broke his ankle, which required surgery. I told him not to go! He has to walk a few blocks in the snow to the bus stop... makes me a little nervous, but so far so good.
I love looking out the window and seeing the white snow. It makes everything look so clean and pretty.
Grant broke off a small icicle for Parker and I to suck on. It was a beautiful day today--
We made it to our favorite Thai restaurant for lunch and to the grocery store.
Last week Parker and I bought new argyle sweaters.
