I spy

Isaac is full of mischief and humor and I ADORE him. He makes me happy. Today here are the things he did to make me happy:

Just now he said to me , "Hey mom, look at me." My little goof ball had his pants pulled up to his arm pits, and that made both of us chuckle.

I asked him if he wanted a Toaster Strudel for breakfast. While it was cooking he sang this little ditty, "Toaster Struuuuudel, Tooooooasterrrrr Struuuuudel, Toooooooasterrrr Struuuuudel." Toaster strudel AND a song. It hardly gets better.

"Hey mom, you wanna snuggle with me?" You betcha I do.

He brought in several books to read to Seff. "Isaac, bring 'em to me and we can read them on the couch." "No, I'm gonna read them to Seff." He spread the blanket on the floor and let Seth crawl in next to him, and read Seth a couple of books.

We went visiting teaching together. He heard we were going to a specific house and he gasped, "Mom, the Coupes love the Nationals! We gotta go home and wear our National clothes!" He was a little resigned to have to wear, "just our regular clothes." (I put that one in for you E)

We were driving home from visiting teaching and Isaac was playing "I Spy" with himself when I heard this "I spy...a mama who loves me." You betcha I do. Our eyes met in the rear view mirror and I grew in love with him all over again.

I spy...a little boy who makes his mama's eyes twinkle and her heart sing with laughter.

Give 'em your best

Isaac's best friend, Nathan, is moving to North Carolina. I am not sure if he really gets it but he gets how to be a best friend. Nathan's mom was coming over to our house for a tea party and Isaac was going to go to Nathan's and play there (with Nathan's dad).

As we were getting ready, Isaac hollered from his room, "Mama, I wanna give Nathan this." When I went in, I noticed Isaac holding our big fire engine. Uh, it was a used toy. First I had to battle with my pride. I tried to talk him out of it. Seth really loves it and their mommy doesn't mind playing with this particular toy either. Second I had to battle with selfishness. I really dont want to give it away. I really tried to talk him out of it. We cant get another one. So I just ask straight up "Why do you want to give that truck to Nathan?" "Cause he likes it."

Sometimes I get a true glimpse at who Isaac really is. He is generous and observant. I realize that this is the toy Nathan ALWAYS plays with when he comes over to our house, his favorite.

My mom makes homemade bread. Once, when we were talking over the phone about some finer points of the recipe she said, "Then wrap up your best, prettiest loaf and give it away."

So Isaac gave Nathan his best fire engine, and taught his mom a life lesson.

Oh what do you do...

In the winter time when all the world is white?

Do you find a snow slide

Or sit snug inside,
And watch snow fall lazily?

(This is probably one of my FAVORITE pictres of Seth. Love this boy. Also noted is that we have made a batch of cookies, a pan of brownies, and now we are making home made bread...while we watch the snow lazily dance down.)
Is that what you do?
So do we.

(Note: A couple of these pictures are from the pre-storm-storm)
For Tim because he requested it. And hope you are feeling better mom, hugs and snowy kisses from the South.

What's in a name?

My little niece was born February 7th.

We knew she was going to be a girl, but her name was a surprise. What was it going to be? I was sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation of hearing the name.

C'mon, what's it gonna be? I'm dieing here. So what is it? Grace. Ahhh. Cute. Love it. Breathing easier now.

Snow storms in the DC region the big snow storms also have names. For real. And for some reason I am taken in with the names. Again I am sitting on the edge of my seat. Come On! What's it gonna be? Snowmageddon came and went(feb 5-6) leaving us a record breaking 32.4 inches of snow. Whew. And just now we are beginning to see the flurries of...wait for it, wait for it....Snoverkill, as in Snow-over-kill. Ha ha.

From our front porch...every car on the street got dug out with the exception of our poor

Zoom Zoom car.

The radiator is warm but not hot. A great place for these two little fellas to toast their buns. Our Pathfinder is under there some where.

I may snicker at DC's whimpiness when it comes to snow storms, but it seems more legitimate that it's a bad storm if trees fall. And there were MANY that killed over...literally toppled over. This is the TOP HALF of our ever green tree in our back yard. Darn it. (Note: Eric would not let Seth or I sleep in the back room that night.

He's a cute worrier. We'll keep him.)

We have enjoyed the snow, and have especially enjoyed having Eric home for 3 work days...and probably another tomorrow. Isaac asked his daddy, "Do you work any more?" Ha ha. We are trying to teach Isaac to throw snow balls and not ice chunks. Seth likes the snow just fine. Snow that's all folks. Signing out from the center of Snoverkill.

You should know better than that....

Seth was pulling at a toy Isaac was playing with. It's good for Isaac to share but Seth cant have everything he wants. As I was pulling screaming Seth away, Isaac pipes up, "Seth had it first." So I interject, "Isaac why did you take it away from Seth?" The question that is meant to be a lesson, you know, the you-should-know-better-than-that question. But Isaac took my question literally and said, "Because I like it. It's cool." ".....oh."

Why would I ask such an accusatory question. I should know better than that.

ICE! ICE! Baby!

That is what kept going on in my brain when we went to visit the ICE! exhibition. Not the music but the words. It was a agreat family date, though a little expensive. Ice sculptures were everywhere, hence the "ICE! ICE!" And we all looked the same in our blue parkas once we got inside. Exactly the same. I tied a scarf around Seth, but Isaac was one of the masses , and I thought I'd lost my precicous "Baby!" once but he ended up being right behind me. Whew.

Before picture...

After picture...we sorta look like big puffy smurfs.

Isaac LOVES his new gloves. Kept him warm. Than ks Grandma & Grandpa.

The ice slides were cool (pun intended). It was our favorite and Isaac went about 8 times. (I think usually you go down once.)

Eric flew down the slide. He had fun too.

If you go, might I recommend you use scarfs to help distinguish one another. Seth and Santa. The coat was too big and Seth couldn't walk. Yea for Eric's muscles.

Let the royal rumpus start!

We left 2009 with smiles on our faces (see Isaac's picture). Isaac and I are agreed that a festivity without hats is not a party. So we went to Target in search of our head toppers. But alas, Target had no new years hats. Are you kidding me? No hats. So we made our own and I think they were 500 X better than any we could buy at Target. I'm thinking this may be a new tradition.

Unfortunately the coolest hat, Eric's, is not pictured. Eric was the designer of Seth's hat, but really the masterpiece was his own. It was Napolean'esc with red spikes running down the spine. Drats. Hats off to Eric!

Eric won my heart by buying a disco ball. I can't dance, but I can fake if if there is disco light. And we had poppers, those things are just cool. This was my favorite new years eve party to date.

"Tur-duhl" might be our favorite Seth word.

I wore the most un-cool hat of the evening.
Isaac really was all smiles. I am including this picture because it is makes me laugh.