Snow

We're probably now towards the end of "the biggest snowstorm the Northwest has seen in over a decade". Ten inches of accumulated snow on our back deck (not counting the snow that has already been blown away and the compression of the snow under it's own weight). And it started snowing again this morning.

Now it isn't anywhere near the amounts my brother-in-law and his wife are experiencing in South Dakota, but for parts around here... it's big. Just check out the snow drifts against our front doors.

Ours:

Theirs (now keep in mind that their front door is elevated above ground level):



I can't say I'm upset, though. For the most part, the winds haven't been too bad here and it's rather peaceful outside.... at least until you get to the main streets. Then it's just a muddy, slushy, icy mess. Which is why I've been avoiding the roads and didn't leave the house for 5 days (except to check the mail). However, mostly it is because Derek forbade me to drive in this weather. But we're starting to run low on food supplies, so I will have to venture forth once again into the powdery white snow.

It has been rather peaceful here with the snow all around, and being set back from the main road, we don't hear or see the traffic. This past weekend, Derek made a snowball and threw it at the railing on the deck. A most momentous occasion, Derek had to take a picture for posterity.


The snow was probably around 8 inches high and this was after Jessica did her late night frolic on the balcony, sweeping snow off the railing and tromping down the snow on the deck. Otherwise, it would have been 12 ... no.. 14 inches high. At least. In fact, it would probably have been as tall as Jojo.

"Meow!"

Ok... well... hmmm... Jo doesn't look so tall here. Must be because she's hunching over, trying to get away from the cold. She must not have liked it when Derek tossed her into the snow on the balcony. He said she did the whole Roadrunner pedaling feet thing trying to dig out of it and get back in the house.

Anyhow, where was I? Oh, yes... since we had more snow this morning, this is what it looks like now:


Derek says Mother Nature is in awe of his accomplishment and doesn't dare disrespect him by blowing the snow away or completely covering it with more snow. (This is where I smile and nod my head "Yes, dear")

One thing I do like about snowy winters, is when snow settles on the branches of the trees.

It just looks so lovely and peaceful. Until the branches get so overloaded, that the branches break or the tree topples or ... let's just not go there right now, shall we?

In uploading all these pictures we took this week, I stumbled upon a few pictures from the boys' visit this summer that I had forgotten about. I just love finding hidden treasures, don't you?

The day before the boys flew home, they were packing up their things and Juliana was following them and digging through their clothing. Mitch decided to see what she looked like in one of his shirts.

They also, dressed her in one of their hoodies, which made her look like a Jawa trader from Star Wars, but she wouldn't stay still for any pictures. Ah well.

The day after the boys left, Juliana went into the room they stayed in, and walked over to the mattress Jonah slept on.

"Jonah? Are you under there?"

"Jonah was scared away by my expert wrestling moves. Rar!"

It was very cute to see... I think she missed them already. She was patting his mattress and looking at me with a puzzled look. It will be good to see them again.

What does this mean?

Lately, Juliana has been grabbing for any pen, pencil, marker or other "object of impalement" (you have to say this with a louder almost panicked tone) that she can. This morning, while she was sitting on my lap at the computer, she reached for my pencil. (it's woodless and the tip was very dull, but I was watching her the whole time). Since she was rather calm, instead of taking the pencil away, I grabbed a piece of scratch paper (8.5"x11" rejects from the printer) and plopped it down in front of her. She started to move the paper out of her way, so I held on to her hand and did a squiggle on the paper.

With that she was off. During the time it took Derek to take his morning shower and get dressed, our little Picasso created two masterpieces.

Can you spot my starter squiggle?

Here it is:


So before the page became completely coated in lead on the half she was working on, I took the paper away and stuck a new one in front of her.

This was when Daddy came out from the bedroom all groomed and spiffed up for work. So I took the papers and pencil away from Juliana and we showed Daddy her artwork. And in case you are wondering where the wrinkles came from... She then grabbed the papers and excitedly waved them about the air and rubbed them against her stomach. (We've noticed that she rubs her tummy when she's rather satisfied with something that she's done. Not all the time, but quite a lot.) So there you go.

Now, does anyone know what she's trying to draw here? I couldn't understand the words she was trying to say while she was pointing at various parts of the pictures. Maybe one of you who have had kids already can interpret. I'm still honing those skills.

Biding my time

Just a short post for those of you wondering... I'm still waiting for my moment to get a picture of Jessica with her glasses on. It's like hunting wild game. You have to be patient and wait for the right moment. Especially considering the fact that she has been wearing contacts over 90% of the time lately.

Oh, and for those of you with teenage girls who are glued to their cell phones (if they have one), Derek has come up with the most torturous of punishments. Since kids these days text so much (their world seems to revolve around this mode of communication), if you ground them, they'll still text. But instead of taking the phone away, Derek has threatened (should she ever need punishment) to take the sim card out of her phone and then give her back her phone. She could then hold the phone, and she could even push the buttons, but she wouldn't be able to talk nor text on the phone. I don't think I've ever seen Jessica's eyes open so wide in horror before.

Something to keep in mind...

Growing too fast

I could be talking about any one of our kids, but I'm talking about kids in general.

Things have been so busy trying to get things ready for the holidays, that I haven't had much time to update the blog. But then, today, my brother sent me a nasty email demanding an update. (Ok.. ok... it wasn't nasty, but he did comment that he wanted an update on his niece).

So without further ado...

She actually consents to wearing things in her hair these days... if only for 3 minutes. But, hey! That's 3 minutes longer than she did two months ago. She seems fascinated by hair accessories. I only experimented with the clips this one evening. The rest of the time she likes putting a headband or a hat on, then taking it off and putting it on whomever else is nearby... be it me, Jessica.... or Daddy!

She's starting to pick up more words these days. Her favorite ones to repeat are still "Hi", "Daddy" (or sometimes "Da' Eeeee"), "WoWo" (our cat Jojo), "Jie Jie" (big sister in chinese/Jessica), and when someone gets hurt "Ow-eee". Once in a while she'll try out a new word, but not consistently yet. Sometimes she'll blurt out a random word from a conversation Derek and I might be having at the time. When I ask her if she needs a diaper change, she might nod or shake her head, but every so often she'll say "yeah" before running over to the changing table. (Wooohooo! Praying for early potty training!)

One of her favorite things to do these days is play with the laundry basket. She'll push it around through the kitchen, around the island, down the hall and back around to the kitchen again. (it sounds like a long distance, but our place is really quite small)

When she tires of pushing it, she'll load it with toys or dish towels or will even climb inside herself and sit down. One day, I needed to get a load of laundry from the dryer, and she insisted on staying inside the basket. The result?


She thought it was toasty warm and didn't budge for a few minutes.

"See? I'm okay!"

It looks like she has a full set of teeth in the picture above, but she only had 14 (was missing two lower teeth still, the ones in front of the molars). As of this past week, however, those two teeth have come in and it's rather strange looking at her smile without any gaps. I kind of miss those toothless smiles she would give.... Like this one when she was just weeks old:

These days she gives us smiles like this:

What a ham. It's like she and the bear are both fixing their collars. (Side note: I've always loved the feet on this bear... )

Continuing on the theme of growing too fast... Last month, Juliana and I went down to Issaquah to spend some time with Teresa and her family. They live in Portland and were up here for a Husky game and staying with her Mom. Austin (Teresa's brother) played some music for us:

Peter (Teresa's youngest) was helping.

The boys were playing Xbox a bit this last trip and the lighting wasn't so good downstairs. The pictures came out really dull and grainy, so I'll share with you a picture that was taken this past summer on one of their other visits.

From left to right: Arthur, Peter, Juliana and Benjamin. Three boys and they all look like their Dad. Okay, I'll admit, I do see a lot of their Mom in them, too, but we like to give Mark a hard time about his little clones running around. He knows this too... and he tolerates it. Sometimes, I think he even encourages it.

See Benjamin on the right? He was born up here in Bellevue, before they moved to Portland and back then I used to get my baby fix by visiting with Teresa (or Tamara before she and her family moved to California, but that's another story for another day). Here's a picture of our visit to the zoo back when he was around the age that Juliana is now.

It seems like it wasn't that long ago. And now I get to watch my own little one grow up in a blink of an eye. Eep! Someone slow the clock down! I'm not ready!

(*Looks over at Jessica and her boyfriend Richard watching a movie on the couch*)

ACK! I'M REALLY NOT READY!!

(*Peeks in on Juliana sleeping peacefully in her room*)

Whew! Still a little girl.