Oh, the weather outside is AWESOME...

We had a second snow adventure after CJP's afternoon nap, which lasted a looong time. (The adventure; sadly, not the nap.) Cody and Daddy set out to measure the snow. It was up to the little man's waist (which concerned him quite a bit).

Next, the science:

16 inches and counting. I was excited to shovel -- having been a condo owner all these years, I had forgotten the intense satisfaction of those first few shovels full of snow. And how short-lived that satisfaction is. It was great to be able to claim 24-weeks pregnant status and get back to icing cookies. In theory -- but CJP would have none of coming inside. He stayed out there beside us, armed with his little blue spade and a plastic golf club, and was VERY helpful.

Check out the red cheeks!! (And yes, the only way I could coax him back in the door was by letting him bring Mr. Scraper.)



Also, Cody stayed in his jammies all day. : ) Night night, Snoopy!

Sleigh Ride!

To give a sense of scale, here's how the snow was stacked up when we came down at 7:00 this morning:

And here's how it looks three hours later:

It was still coming down when we grabbed a bar of Mr. Zogg's and started waxing up the skis on our sleigh. Cody was kind of into it.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!!

Here's what we awoke to this morning:

And it is STILL coming down! We probably have at least 12-15 inches so far, and it keeps snowing harder. Jonathan is in heaven. And Christmas came early for Cody:

Before we could venture outside, though, we had to put together the Nativity set. Remember last year??


This year was slightly more...interactive. For instance, at last check, several sheep, a donkey, and a wise man were on the roof. (Notice Mary "sledding" down the "MANGER ROOFTOP!") No one is claiming responsibility.

I Love You, Snoopy!

That's a direct quote. Our neighbor, Diane, has a giant Snoopy on her lawn that lights up at night. It's the last thing Cody wants to see before bed -- he climbs up into his window and says, "Night night, Snoopy! I love you!" and then first thing in the morning, repeats the process, only with, "Good MORNING, Snoopy!!" He likes to go check on Snoops throughout the day, too, mostly so he can shower him with kisses.

Seen and Heard

I know that if I don't write these down, I will forget them, and I don't ever want to. I am continually amazed by the thoughts that come out of his cute little mouth. To wit: On Thursday, Cody ran into the kitchen wielding the ice scraper, which he had smuggled in from the garage, and said excitedly, "Daddy scraped Mommy off the CAR!"

I said in reply, "Do you mean that Daddy scraped the ice off of Mommy's car?" He looked at me like I was an utter fool, and said, "Uh-huh! Cody SAID!" A preview of ages 11-17, I suspect.

Friday morning, as we were driving home from the market, with Cody actually quiet and staring out the window, he says from the backseat, "Mom? The sun comes out during the day."

And later, while we are having lunch and listening to "Christmas TUNES!" he says to me quite gravely: "Mommy? Santa Claus is coming to TOWN." I answered, "Really?" And he says urgently, "I'm SERIOUS!"

PS: Also, he asks every day: "Mommy make Cody espresso?" Sometimes he gets it, too, in a sippy cup. Mother of the Year!

Guess what, Pop-Pop?

I'm ready to golf!

O Tannenbaum

Guess what? On Saturday, we went to Lake Ridge Nursery and walked THROUGH A FOREST and picked a tree and put it on the JEEP and then Daddy picked it up and brought it inside my HOUSE and then got all these LIGHTS and an ANGEL and can you believe THERE IS A TREE in my HOUSE!! I was SO helpful to Daddy. I don't want to brag, because Daddy is really extremely handy, but I'm pretty sure I'm the reason the lights went so well, and took such a good long time.


So after I did the lights, Mommy taught me about ornaments. We have so many! They are so colorful and pretty! I still sometimes have to be reminded about not taking them down but I am doing a pretty good job so far, according to Mommy. The best part is that we have a REAL ANGEL on top of our tree! I say "GOOD MORNING ANGEL!" every day and before I go to sleep, I say, "GOOD NIGHT ANGEL! I LOVE YOU!" She is really pretty. She's my buddy.

Misc. Cuteness

May I Have This Dance, For the Rest of My Life?

One of the most amazing discoveries of Cody's December has been Comcast Channel 433, "Sounds of the Seasons." It's just Christmas music, with various pretty backgrounds -- one of them being a giant, red ball ornament. A couple weeks back, he kept gesturing wildly in front of the TV, saying "PEACH PLEASE DANCE! PEACH PEACH! DANCE TO PEACH!" We had NO idea what this meant, until we realized that he had no word for "ornament" (at least then) and the closest approximation he had was "peach." It kind of does look like a peach, actually. Anyway, he has become obsessed with dancing. Spinning, dipping, tangoing -- the works. He says every morning, "Turn on Christmas tunes please? Dance with CODY!"




So far, Daddy is by far his preferred partner, but every once in awhile he'll settle for me too.


As long as I dip him.

We Need A Little Christmas (Mouse), Right This Very Minute...

...to help us clean up all these crumbs! Cody and I have spent the past few days baking the first round of Christmas cookies. I had thought it would be Tuesday's project, but it turns out when you have a "helper," things take much...longer. Anyway, here are some of the highlights of Cody's culinary contributions. (I didn't manage to capture the ones of him discovering the joys of sugar cookie dough and rolling pins -- too messy, as he had just swiped about half a cup of flour off the counter and onto the floor.)




Mostly I kept busy grabbing things that somehow kept coming within his reach. But at one point, I missed, and was too far across the kitchen to react. Instead, I heard: "Oh, no! Cody dumped it EVERYWHERE!" and the slow, inexorable pouring of an entire container of sprinkles. Fortunately, I had my little elf, who helpfully suggested, "Wake up mini-vacuum?"

And so we did. This was taken about 15 minutes or so into the cleanup effort. I won't even try to describe the sight of my 5 1/2 month pregnant self waddling around the kitchen with the dustbuster, chasing silver nonpareils. I finally just left them there. Cody'll eat them tomorrow, probably.

Anyway: the end result!

The Day Before Pearl Harbor Day

Today is Mommy and Daddy's ANNIVERSARY! Mom said "Happy Anniversary!" to Daddy and then I said, "Happy Anniversary, Dad!" On the first try. Then Mom tried spelling "M-I-N-I-V-A-C" to Daddy and I said, "WAKE MINIVACUUM UP PLEASE?" Mom sighed and said it's not fair. But anyway, that's all beside the point. Today is a special day -- Mommy and Daddy got MARRIED in the BIG CHURCH called St. Matthew's 7 years ago! Way before I got here. Today we went and I remembered it! I remembered my favorite sculpture of...JOHN PAUL! I recognized him right away and shouted, "HI JOHN PAUL!" and I gave him pats.

I remembered Mr. Paul, who plays the organ, and I got to watch him the whole time. And the choir sang, but without Mom. Every time they stopped I would say, "CHOIR SING TO CODY PLEASE!" into the deep silence. And then Mommy would give me a look and I would correct myself and say louder, "CHOIR SING TO JESUS PLEASE!" She still gave me a look. I'm not sure why. I LOVE singing!

Also I got to see my buddy Liz. She and Mommy used to sit next to each other and I recognized her voice from when I was in Mom's tummy.

I love Liz. She is beautiful and she held me and I giggled to her a LOT! And when it was time for peace I went up to the choir and shouted, "PEACE! SHAKE HANDS!" I think they probably felt really peaceful because I was there. Today is a great day!

Snow in Lake Ridge!

Guess what?? Today when I woke up it was raining. AGAIN. I sang "Rain, Rain, Go Away" a LOT of times and Dad said if I could practice my patience maybe the rain would transform into something amazing. And guess what? It did! It started to SNOW! This is my first suburban snowfall. And Mom let me climb up into my window to watch!

Mom says it's not my first snowfall, but I don't really remember my first snowfall. I think it must've happened when I was a baby or something. Anyway, Daddy and I took a snow walk! And made up snow songs! The snow makes me SO happy!!