Snow Days

Last week, we were lucky enough to have Daddy home with us for two extra days because of snow! We had 20+ inches here, so Dave did have to spend a lot of his time 'off' on snow removal detail, though. While he was outside shoveling, the kids would periodically go to the window to check on him and yell, "Daddy! Daddy!" Jack even blew a few kisses. He is really into Daddy lately... he looks for him during the day and looks out the window to try to find him. He also likes to snuggle on Daddy's lap before bedtime. It's very sweet!

While snowed in, the kids found plenty to do. Ben learned that the slide is an excellent place to practice playing the drums.

Jack worked on saying "cheese" and practiced his super cute smile.


And Mairead had time for some art projects. She is super busy lately with OT, school, speech, playgroups, etc, so it was nice to have some down time.

The pictures don't really do the storm justice- there was SO much snow! Thanks to Daddy and Grampy (and a little help from WhiteTail Property Management) for digging us out!

Ben keeps pointing out the window and yelling, "Playground! Playground!" When Jack looks out at the snow he says, "No-ing. Oh no, it's a mess!"

All three kids are doing so many fun and adorable things lately. Jack blows kisses to any animal he sees- outside, on tv, in a book, etc. Ben is getting really good at shapes- he recognizes and names circle, triangle, heart, star, moon and 'skway-ah.' Boston accent, much??? They are both starting to have more interest in letters and numbers. Ben loves W, and points it out every time he sees it. Jack calls many letters 'D' and loves to 'count.' When there are items to be counted, he points to each and says, "free, nine, six, seben," etc. They both love books and ask for "book, read, story, more?" and take several books to bed so they can 'read' on their own. They are also in love with Blues Clues and try to sing the 'mail' song. Mailbox seems to be their favorite character and they point out mailboxes whenever they see them.

Sometimes, Ben will wake up very early- say, 4:30- and start saying, "Downstairs? Downstairs" Blues Clues? Ok!" Usually, he will eventually fall back to sleep and we are grateful for that. Jack gets right to the poing and just yells, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" If that doesn't seem to work, he starts with "Daddy! Daddy!" until someone goes to get him.

Mairead is doing great and is constantly surprising us. Yesterday, she ran up to me and said, "Mom... it's time for a costume party. Mom and Mairead and Jack and Ben. Find elephant and lion and tiger. Let's go!"

I almost fell over.

First of all, those were the kids' costumes from Halloween and she has not see them since about a week after Halloween.

Second, that is far and away the highest amount of words she has EVER used at one time.

Third, it was a novel idea and involves pretend play AND engaging others.

She then ran to the closet where the costumes were for a few weeks after Halloween until I finally put them in the basement.

I am tearing up thinking about it because all these little gains make me believe that she can keep improving and that she is capable of just about anything. I suppose that if she can survive a stroke and beat the odds, she can do pretty much anything, right?

She is doing so many great things, lately. Answering direct questions more readily, more pretend play, etc.

The other day, someone colored on the wall... probably Ben, but I am not sure. I was trying to get her to understand that this was not a good thing and I said, "That's not nice. Mom is sad about this." She got all upset and said, "How about Mom feel happy?" This was huge and new for her so I was psyched.

She is always singing songs, talking to her 'friends' (stuffed animals), and trying to engage the boys in play. I wish I could think of some specific stuff because she has been freakin' adorable lately.

I will try to take more pictures to post-- I just usually have my hands full- both literally and figuratively!