snowflakes & fingerpainting

Happy New Year! 

I really should've taken pictures of Noah on New Year's Eve.  He was bouncing all over the place until about 11:30 and then, when I took a few minutes to check email & Facebook at about 11:45, he got very quiet.  When I checked on him at 11:54, he was out cold - snoring even - and I was laughing!  I debated if I should wake him or let him sleep, started turning lights off and added a blanket. At 11:58, he coughed a little, sat straight up, pointed at the tv and said, "MOM!"  So he made it to midnight once again (technically...) but this year, we didn't throw a single streamer, didn't drink "kid champagne" and didn't bang a single pot or pan.  With a "Happy New Year," Noah went straight to his room, crawled into his bed and fell back to sleep.  :)

On Monday, we had a surprise snow fall and I made the mistake of asking Noah if he wanted to play outside.  Josiah overheard and repeated the word "outside" approximately 4,768 times until I finally agreed that we would all go out.  After 15 minutes of putting on cold weather-appropriate clothing including snow pants, coats, mittens, hats and in Noah's case, long underwear, we all headed outside into the cold.  Though I am not a cold weather person, somehow, my winter-born children are.  Noah went screaming into the yard and had three snow angels made before Josiah and I were even down the front steps.  Josiah tried to keep up, but mostly, Noah ran circles around him.  Of course, there was only about an inch of snow but that didn't keep Noah from getting out the sled and pretending the slide was a sled hill.  :)  Josiah just watched.  I took pictures.  Ten shivering minutes later, I told Josiah we were going back in, despite his cries of "NO!  SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!"  (at least he wasn't saying "outside" anymore...)  The boys did a little shoveling and then I finally hauled Josiah back in the house where it took another 15 minutes to get all of the cold, snow-covered clothing off and fresh clothes on.  To keep Josiah from yelling "outside," I pulled out the fingerpaints and let him have at it for the first time.  He was hesitant at first but I think in the end he had fun. Another artist is born.  ;)

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