Friday, December 8, 2006

Snow Day







Well, it's finally here, the first snowfall of the season! It's actually a bit late this year, although it is New England-you never know what the weather will be like. It's only the first week in December so it's not unheard of for us to have snow but very often we already have a good coating by this point. At Thanksgiving last year we already had a few inches on the ground. This year we've been really spoiled by mild weather, it was in the high 50s this past weekend. No such luck this weekend! Secretly, for as much as I complain about winter, I DO love days like this. When the snow is light enough that it covers everythign but doesn't make a mess and doesn't require hours of shoveling. Ben of course, is beside himself with joy over this event. He hasn't played in it yet today by his choice....perhaps the wind and the temperature are discouraging him. (take a look at the thermometer - that's on our back porch taken at 11am and it hasn't gone up at all).








So, thanks to cold, snowy days like this we are hibernating in our cozy place. Making hot chocolate, doing puzzles and holiday crafts and just enjoying being indoors and snuggly. I must remind myself to read this post come February when we're all climbing the walls with cabin fever. In the meantime, happy snowday everyone!!!








Monday, December 4, 2006

Time as a concept


Ben is having a hard time understanding when Christmas is coming. This isn't surprising given his age and the lack of ability to understand time. This morning we got a small snow gust....snow mixed with a big wind that lasted about 10 minutes and did not result in snow landing on the ground. Ben was so happy to see the snow, it was really adorable. But it also promted a lot of questions. Such as, "Does this mean Christmas is today?" So we talked about Christmas again, and that it's a few weeks away and what our plans our etc. This seem to satisfy Ben for a little while but I'm awaiting more questions this afternoon after his nap.

I do feel sorry for him and other kids his age in a way. The whole concept of Christmas must be very confusing for them. There are signs up everywhere wishing people Happy Holidays, every add on TV is promoting the best gift to get whomever you need to get a gift for, holiday sales, houses covered in lights (our street has a great display) and of course the classic holiday movies on in the evenings. So it's really no surprise that Ben asks if it's Christmas every day, because when you look around, it really could be. I'm thankful it's not as I still have plenty of shopping and crafting for holiday gifts to be done. But I know it will be here soon enough and then gone faster than we can imagine. Each year I'm blown away at how quickly retail shops get the holiday stuff on display and start pushing people to buy. It usually starts the second week in October now- before Halloween is even here they have moved most of it to the back of the store to make room for Christmas lights and ornaments and those huge inflatable snowmen for the lawn. Then, on the 26th all the holiday merchandise becomes the ugly stepchild of the local Target or Wal Mart and Valentine's starts covering the store in reds and pinks. This year, as is my hope most years, at our home we're going to try to enjoy the holiday a little longer, just to be thankful that we have it. Not to rush through the big dates in the year and in our lives, but to just relax and enjoy the time at home with each other. I realize "enjoy" may translate into pulling a three year old wound on cookies and new toys off the ceiling while trying to nurse an overtired 3 month old, but hey that comes with the territory.
On a totally separate yet somewhat related note, I have reconnected with an old friend recently and that got me thinking about the concept of time as well. It's both strange and comforting how time can change things in a number of ways and yet not alter them so much that we do not recognize them. It's been years since we had really talked and in that time we've both experienced so much; living in different states, traveling to various places, I have two children, she's preparing for a lifechanging move. It seemed a bit surreal at first, to be talking about such important things in the same room where we had worried about our crushes noticing us in high school and yet it felt very natural, like time hadn't really changed us at all. The things that we all may worry about and get excited about change as we age and our worlds expand and we grow along with it, but the people we are inside don't alter that much. I find it so encouraging that while I get to see Ben through his anticipation of Christmas and so many other events awaiting him I too have many wonderful things to anticipate and great friends to share them with. I hope that both of my boys are happy in life and find good friends that they can always connect with.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Gobble gobble!!!


This photo is of the wild turkeys that visit our backyard almost everyday. Strangely enough we haven't seen them for a week. Wonder if they heard what day was coming up?
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This will just be a quick post to wish everyone happy eating, visiting and football watching. Ben is watching the parade now and is fascinated by the Broadway Kids Camp singing group - hmm, a hint into the future? We'll see. Later this morning Nate & I will be going to my mom's to have dinner with her and my grandparents. Ben & Tim will be going to his brother's house this afternoon to celebrate with his mom and brother. So it's another Turkey day apart for this family, we've done something similar to this each year so it's nothing new to us. Odd thing is too, it doesn't feel that weird, maybe we're just used to it.


Anyway, I will post an update on our activities later tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Here we go...Day Two

Ok, so this is my first blog entry on this new blog. I had one going on MySpace but it was very infrequent and I didn't like the layout and honestly, never really felt motivated to do anything with it. But this weekend I was visiting the Mothering Dot Commune boards and checked out a fellow mama's blog and got inspired. So here goes nothing.

The main reason for doing this is to provide a place for friends and family to see pictures of the boys and get updates without clogging their inboxes. I also thought it'd be a nice way to record our adventures and experiences for our own sentimental value.

So this week is my first week of being a full time stay at home mom to both of my boys (Ben 3, Nate 2 months). Up until now Ben was still attending daycare while I was trying to get reaquanted with what life with a newborn is like. I had been working since Ben was 8 months old and he was attending a great daycare center affiliated with my employer (and Tim's). But now with two kiddos, it just doesn't make sense to be turning over my paycheck everyweek so that someone else can be with my children.* If I made more money then this might be a very different story, but as it is, it's not financially logical for us to have both boys in daycare, and emotionally I don't think I could stand not being with Nate all day at this age. Although Tim suggested renting him out during his colic spells in the evening and I'm thinking this could help buy some holiday gifts.

Anyway, today is day two. So far so good. I'm following good advice given to me by a dear friend when Ben was first born "Get out of the house at least once a day." Sometimes that means going for a walk, goign to the children's museum or just going to the post office to check our mail, but no matter what it is it does help to break up the day a little bit and I think it helps all of us feel a little more connected to the world around us. As much as I like our new apartment we need to step out of the cocoon sometimes. Today we ventured out to the bank and then the library, where Ben was thrilled to find a Thomas the Tank Engine video he hasn't seen. (I didn't think this was possible.) It was very quiet in the children's room today. Most times, when we are there there are lots of other kids and Ben has a good time playing with them and sharing stories. Our library is wonderul about welcoming the kids to the children's room and providing them with a lot of group activities they can explore if they want to. There is always a big tub of blocks for kids to use and a puppet theater for the felt, homemade finger puppets. Over the summer they had a pirate themed reading program and a large pirate ship and a cave with burried treasure for the kid to play with. (Both made out of cardborad and paper mache). Needless to say Ben was very sad when summer came to and end. This week they have some Thanksgiving decorations up, which Ben likes to look at but they aren't nearly as fun as pretending to be a pirate. Today it was different, very few kids. Ben was also fairly anxious to get home. I think the cold that we're all battling was wearing him out.

I'm still a little anxious about how I'll handle this new role. I've been a mom for a while, but having two is very different. I'm sure it will have its challenges and there will be days where I'll wish bedtime would hurry up and get here but I'm really looking forward to this new adventure and the surprises it holds for all of us.


(*Please note that I'm not bashing working moms here, having been one myself and been the past co-host of a working moms support board. I think each family has to do what's best for them. In our case right now, that means me staying home with my kids. I expect this will change in the future as most things do.)