Snow and cold

It snowed AGAIN yesterday. What was predicted to be 1-2 inches and then changing to rain ended up being 6 inches (and no rain)! I'm starting to panic a little bit about the rest of the winter being like this. But R is in heaven. He helped me shovel, and we had SO much fun visiting his friend Z. Mostly they played trains inside, but once we convinced them to go outside, we all had a blast.

R will eat snow non-stop if we let him.


Z's mom and I built the snowman while the boys jumped off snow cliffs. I cannot remember the last time I made a snowman - it was probably in the 1970s! It was so much fun and the boys loved it. They found the sticks for the arms, begged Z's mom to get a carrot for his nose, and then were very excited to have their picture taken with their new, snowy friend.


After some sledding and more snow eating, R was lured back inside by Z's incredible train layout and the promise of hot chocolate. After cocoa and snacks, the boys burned up their energy by jumping off the couch.


R's school got out early today for the holiday break, so A took him sledding with one of his classmates while I was home working. Tonight, we headed to the zoo to see their light display and ride some kiddie rides. First up was the all-important train. R loved it despite what he looks like in this picture. He was just so cold!


R and I rode the carousel together. He was getting really sad about how cold he was, so we decided to make funny faces every time we passed by Daddy.



A took R on the spinny tea-cup ride. Of course, R loved it and wanted to go on it again, but we decided to high-tail it back to the car to defrost and head home.


I think R was the coldest he's ever been. The poor guy was a little freaked out by how cold his toes were, especially the part where they hurt as they were warming back up again. Next year, we'll go on a warmer night.

This was our fourth year taking him to the zoo at Christmastime. The first three years he had his picture taken with Santa. And, as much as I don't want to emphasize Santa, I was kind of hoping for another Santa picture just so we could see the progression. We did stand in the picture line for a few minutes tonight, but then R decided he didn't want to see Santa. He wanted A to lift him up to see him, which he did, but then R was satisfied and requested that we move along. So we didn't push it. On the way home tonight, R said: "I really liked when I saw Santa and he didn't see me." But he said it in a very sweet, smiley way - almost like it was sort of magical and special for him.

Tomorrow, we're off to get R a badly needed haircut, then we're braving the mall. Ugh. I thought I was going to get through the season without entering a mall, but I have to get a few stocking stuffers for A and R. Hopefully we can get our butts into gear early enough to get a parking space closer than outer Mongolia. :-)