We are ready for spring...

Enough snow already! It's time for spring. The continual snow is keeping up cooped up inside with runny noses and loud coughing. Everybody in this house is ready for some warm weather.It is making us crazy. Which is why we give out looks like this (below) when asked to share our muffin.

And, makes us tromp around the house wearing hats like this!
So, anytime now, we are ready for you spring.

Our Nieghbors built an Igloo!

Like, a real one! Kieran can nearly stand all the way up in it. It's the talk of our street. So, we had to wander over and explore.



It's beginning to melt as the weather warms up but for now it is still standing.

A Valentine's Day Baptism

Last Sunday was Jude's baptism and it was, very sweetly, on Valentine's Day. He had a great time and showed the whole church his bouncy moves and great smile. We were lucky enough to have lots of friends (thanks friends!) come and Grandma and Granddad Crowley come from Philadelphia. A special thanks to John for taking pictures. Callum enjoyed it as well, and was particularly interested in holding Jude's hand, for some reason. It was really cute. We shared the baptism with another family, which was really nice.

Mittens on the radiator

We have had

a good bit

of snow

around

these parts!

Happy Valentine's Day...one more sweet

Oh, these boys are so loveable! There are a million more things to share like Jude's little jiggle dance and Cal's continued love of lining things up or how they are so sweet together and Jude just want to follow Cal everywhere and be just like him.

But the story that must be told is the one about Eysha and the box basement. What Callum lacks in creativity naming his stuffed animals, he makes up for in his stories. Eysha is his imaginary dog that lives in the basement or as he insists on calling it 'the box basement'. Eysha has lived in the box basement for a few months and he sleeps most of the time, though sometimes he bites Jude's 'toesies'. During the day he goes to the park to play with his friends and then he comes home at the end of the day. Eysha is mostly a pretty harmless shard of Cal's imagination. Though, the other day I got a stern talking-to from Callum for going into the box basement and waking Eysha up. It's difficult to for me to know exactly what Eysha is doing at any given moment and it seems like it is usually just the opposite of what I guess he might be doing. Funny how that works.

Valentine's Sweets: Saturday

We do lots of lists. If Cal is getting upset and wants something NOW that we don't have, like food of some kind, or is he is struggling to deal with an upcoming transition. We write up a list. This was our list of things leading up to our trip to the American Museum of Natural History. He dictated to me all the things that were going to happen. We would drive in 'mama's car', listen to farmer in the dell, see some butterflies at the museum in New York City, sit on some chairs (?), and Jude would fall asleep in the car.

It is particularly helpful if he wants to eat a snack we don't have. He is eager now to be the one that writes the lists, which are illegible scribbles of course, but he feels good about it.

Valentine's Sweets: Friday

Jude's favorite books! He frequently crawls over to the bookshelf and DEMANDS that one or all of these books come off the shelf and be read. The monkey in the ABC book makes him laugh every single time. For most of the other books he really just wants to quickly turn the pages.

Valentine's Sweets: Thursday

Cal transitioned into a big boy bed a few weeks ago and he couldn't be happier. He has to sleep with all of the above crew. The are, in order of appearance, Teddy, Baby, George, Mousie, Teddy, and Peter the bear.

Valentine's Sweets: Wednesday

Jude's crawl is really more of a half crawl/ half leg bend. He is really fast, especially when he is after the cat, but the best part is trying to figure out how he does it without tweaking his knee out of its joint!

Valentine's Sweets: Tuesday

Callum has two modes for his artistry. It is either terribly spare (bottom valentine) or lots and lots of stuff in one spot (top valentine). The 'lots and lots' version was made with glitter glue and took two full days to dry there was so much saturation!

Valentine's Sweets: Monday

Feels like I've been behind on updates to the blog lately and I'm missing the chance to document things happening around here. And, so much is happening and it's all happening so fast! So, this week as a little pre-valentines treat I'm posting a little something everyday starting with this one. I think of these posts are memories because I know that we will eventually print up this blog and have it as a sort of baby book. So, this is a week of little memories. I hope you forgive us the indulgence!
Our Jude is 10 months already and loves banging things together. I call it his clackity clack.

Snow!

We got a good bit of snow this friday night so had a weekend of playing out in the snow and finding things to do inside. Like making some glitter glue valentine's cards. Thanks Grandma Pat for the glitter glue...we LOVE it. Outside we 'helped' out alot with shoveling and filled our dump truck to the brim. Jude even took a little dip into the white stuff...just to toughen him up. His Minnesota mama insisted!
It was also a good weekend for long naps that leave our cheeks rosy red.
And, some chocolate snacks.
But, by the end of the day all stops had been pulled and it was just a house full of toys, two tired parents, and two CRAZED boys. How far away is spring?