Week In Review 2/16/15 to 2/22/15

"A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder." -Susan Orlean

Well, they said it was coming and it did!  Snow was in the forecast for early in the week and it came!  It wasn't a ton, but it surely has stuck around and been awfully slick!  It was scheduled to start  Monday afternoon...the Winter Storm Warning for our area was supposed to go into effect at 4pm that day.  I had to chuckle when the snowflakes started falling at our house at 4pm ON THE DOT.  If that wasn't a precise prediction then I don't know what was!

Monday afternoon, before the snow started falling, Joseph and I rushed to the store for a few last minute items.  I always laugh when bad weather comes because our family doesn't drink milk and no longer eats much bread (at least not at home...I have trouble resisting when at a restaurant!).  So while everyone else rushes to the store for "milk and bread" I rush to the store for a variety of other random things.  Harris Teeter at Friendly Center was C-R-A-Z-Y Monday afternoon right before the storm.  I took a pic of Joseph patiently waiting in the cart for checkout and I have to say, the number of people in the background of the photo do NOT do justice to the crowd that was there!!!  I found myself wondering why in the WORLD I waited until the last minute to go?!?!  And I'll admit, at some point during our trip to the store, a "Take and Bake" Pizza made it's way into our cart!  ;-)

 
Once the snow came we did manage to get out and have some fun in it.  This was really really slick snow (not powdery at all), mixed in with some sleet, which made for pretty perfect sledding conditions on our driveway!  Joseph was flying!

Looking down our street

David and Joseph testing the sled on our street...no traffic to interfere on this day, that's for sure!

Up the driveway for another run!

Our front yard, looking towards the street

Looking down our street, the other direction

The lake near our house was starting to freeze over at this point. 

So slippery...have to hold onto Daddy!

There were a couple of days this week that Joseph and I literally stayed inside our home all day, because it was just too cold to go out!  3, 4, 5, 6 degree temps are just not something we are used to seeing here!  Joseph was so sweet and snuggly in the mornings when he would wake up in his sleep sack, with his stuffed animals.  :-)  I love the cuddliness of this boy!

Joseph has really developed a love of walking around the house with his daddy's shoes on.  So funny!  He loves to come find me, point to the shoes, and say "Mommy...Dada's shoes!!!"  I caught him showing them off a couple of times this week...

Recently I blogged about how much I love toddlerwearing, and about how much Joseph still loves being worn.  Normally when I wear him now he is alert and active and enjoys seeing the surrounding sights.  On Thursday, however, he came, grabbed my hand and said, "Mommy, nap Boba."  I asked if he wanted to take a nap in the Boba and he said yes.  I was surprised because it's probably been a year since he actually fell asleep in it, but I was not about to deny that request, so into the Boba he went.  And about 10 minutes later, he was dead asleep on my back.  Pure sweetness!

The Boba saved the day on Friday as well when we attended a funeral in Burlington.  It was sunny but soooooooooooooooo cold out, and there was an area outside of the church where we and the rest of the family had to wait for a few minutes before entering the sanctuary.  Having Joseph in the Boba and having my fleece wrap wrapped around us, Joseph and I both stayed warm.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE TODDLERWEARING?!?!?!  LOL.

On Saturday, we took a walk around the lake and couldn't believe how snowy the trails near our home still were!  We took another picture of the lake, which was REALLY frozen at this point!

It was a great (although very cold and snowy) week!  Tomorrow is my dad's birthday and so, although I'll blog about that next week, I want to go ahead and wish him a very happy birthday!!!

Week in Review 2/9/15 - 2/15/15

"All you need is love.  But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." -Charles M. Schulz

On Monday of this week, I dropped my Joseph/Carson/Jesse birthstone bracelet (the one I got in early December, just after we lost Jesse, and promptly snagged and broke a week later :-( ) to our jeweler to be fixed.  On Tuesday, I picked it up.  I was almost giddy with happiness to be able to put it back on!

I notice that often when Joseph is on my lap he loves to play with my bracelet.  I always tell him "One of those tags is for you, and one is for Carson and one is for Jesse.  Carson and Jesse are your siblings and they are in Heaven with Jesus."  I love seeing him take such an interest in it and pray that he will grow up with a very real knowledge of his siblings that aren't here on earth with us.

One evening this past week, Joseph crawled up on David, who was laying on the love seat, and fell fast asleep before we could even get his jammies on.  Love this sweet snuggly little boy.

Face still dirty from dinner ;-)

Joseph loves to line things up in an orderly fashion.  I took this picture of his vehicle arrangement one day this past week.

It was soooooooooooo cold here this past week.  So thankful that little man has good, warm clothes to get him through the winter.

Early Friday morning Jojo and I helped my parents (who are the chairs of their neighborhood community watch) host an appreciation party for the Greensboro Police Department at their downtown headquarters.  So many people from their neighborhood made or bought treats for the officers.  We had a great time!  Thank you, law enforcement, for all you do!

All of the officers were so sweet to Joseph

They let him pick out a stuffed animal to take home with him.  He picked out a Winnie the Pooh bear. 

So much food!!!

Later on Friday morning, I arrived home to find a very special Valentine's delivery from my sweet husband.  He sent me beautiful flowers!  Valentine's Day is special to me for another reason, as well, as it marks the anniversary of the day David proposed to me.  6 years since he asked me to be his wife in 2009!  What wonderful memories!  When he got home from work he also had a card and some candy for me, and Joseph and I made him a little treat basket with some goodies (including a packet of peppermint gum labeled "I CHEWS you to be my Valentine because I know we were MINT to be!"  I know, I'm SO cheesy).  We exchanged these gifts on Friday night, the night before Valentine's, and had our date night on Saturday night.

Love my beautiful flowers!

Saturday we went to the annual Mardi Gras party and parade in my parents' neighborhood.  It is always a great time!  It's a pot luck and there is SOOOOOOOOO much food.  Everything is New Orleans and Cajun themed and there is a band and parade.  Our friends Heather and Brandon, and their little ones A and G went with us this year.  It was cold, but we had lots of fun!!

Here were some pictures of Joseph and I getting ready beforehand at home...I don't think we were overdone, do you? ;-)

And here are some pictures from the event itself...

Saturday evening, my parents kept Joseph while we had a romantic Valentine's Dinner at Lucky 32.  I forgot to take pictures because we were having so much fun, but I'll just say it was a really nice, relaxing date night with my sweety.

This coming week's "Week in Review" will have SNOW pictures, so stay tuned!

Week in Review 2/2/15-2/8/15

"What could be better than wearing a hug?" -J. Clair K. Niala

This week, I was really thinking about how much Joseph still loves being "worn" as a toddler.  Like most people who start "wearing" their young infants, I assumed that once Joseph could walk my babywearing journey would basically be over.  But once he got to that age and I saw how he still loved being on me, we embraced the art of toddlerwearing (Google "toddlerwearing" and you can find lots of articles about the benefits of this practice, still extremely common in most African countries but seen less here in the US).  Obviously we don't wear him all the time, but we do so with a pretty good frequency since he enjoys it and it's a great workout for us!  Anyway, I realized I didn't have a ton of pictures of us wearing Joseph since he's gotten bigger (I just don't really think to take them), so I really focused this week on capturing some shots of that, as well as some of our other shenanigans.  :-)

Now that Joseph is bigger and heavier, I generally wear him on my back in my Boba 3G, but I decided to try in some of our older carriers just to see how they were now that he was bigger.  I got out my Moby Wrap and my black sling.  To my surprise, they both still worked quite well (the Moby Wrap in particular claims to be usable until a child is 35lbs, but most of the time moms have trouble making it work past infancy because of it's stretchiness.  I don't know if it's because I have a relatively light child, or if I just got fortunate, but we made it work!)  I really miss wrapping him, so I'm looking at trying out some woven wraps soon from our local babywearing group that are geared to be more durable with a child his size.

Still rockin' the Moby at 27 months!

I was wearing a black shirt here, and my sling is also black, so it's really hard to tell that he is in a sling and not just wrapped in my shirt, lol!

One evening this week Joseph discovered that my running shoes had been left out and decided to try them on.  He walked around a good 30 minutes with them on, shuffling so they wouldn't fall off.  So funny.

David and I both come from families that love sports - football, basketball, baseball...you name it!  I really think it's in our blood, and by Joseph's toy choice some days it looks like we are passing it right along...

This was not staged...I just happened to glance up from the couch, see what he was playing with, and snap a pic.

David took Friday off so we could have some extra family time, and we took a walk around the lake in our neighborhood (like we do virtually every weekend afternoon and every time he is off).  It was really cold and super dreary on Friday, so Jojo had to be bundled up on my back!

Later Saturday afternoon, our wonderful next door neighbors, whom we love dearly, dropped off some homemade brownies for us!  They were delicious (I say WERE because they were gone within 3 days, and the dish they came in is now in my dishwasher to be washed and returned...yummy treats don't last long around here!).  We promised Joseph he could have one after dinner that night, but when we left him unattended in the kitchen for a before dinner moment, we discovered he was trying to help himself a little prematurely.  Busted!

Saturday was sunnier, warmer, and a much prettier day overall for walking.  So now only did we walk, we stopped to take Joseph to our neighborhood playground.  :-)

Joseph had fun on the baby swing...

Then had fun on the big-kid swings with some help from mommy...

And from daddy...

 Thanks for reading...see you again soon!!!