Snow Day

The view out Marie's bedroom window

The view inside

Doing nails - everyone's toenails (and toes) got polished today!

Woke up to find that every school in Northern Lower Michigan is closed and the State Police warned everyone to stay home. Even the hospital where Jim works at has called a snowday too; which means if you are nonessential, you do not need to report to work. Course if you stay home you have to take a sick day. He waited until 11 and then ventured out with the Jeep and strict orders to turn around if he thought the roads were bad.

So...we had a nice family morning! Nails were painted, Marie danced naked for a good 15 minutes, stories were read...I say, "Let it snow!"

For Uncle Jeff

Today Marie was the snazziest (and one of the loudest) kids at church. She wore her little mini-dress that Uncle Jeff gaver her for Christmas. Since this is not Southern California, leggings were a must. She loved the flowy sleeves and just thought she was the bomb. She chattered loudly throughout the service, asking repeatedly what the choir was doing and, as we went up to Communion, she wondered aloud, "Where did Momma go?" Half the church turned around as I reminded her that I was still there, just in front of them in line. Then she came home and proceeded to not nap for an hour in her crib. Currently, she is being driven around in a very warm car with soothing music. May be a long afternoon. Anyways, before she got in the car, she sang a little song here for Uncle Jeff. Then she wanted to say "Goodbye" so that is why there are two videos.

Party Girl

Marie attended a birthday party this Saturday at the Great Lakes Children's Museum. It is a small but nice museum with a mix of activities for kids. There is a big water table that caught her fancy, big stuff to climb on and in...don't think she learned much about the Great Lakes watershed but that will come later. She had a b-l-a-s-t though and liked hanging out with a bunch of critters the same age as her. And yes, sadly, that is me on the big climby thing with her. You can see my hand holding her and my eyes in the last photo. I did it 3 times and then decided she would just have to bump her head cause I couldn't squeeze through that tunnel anymore...

Colors?

This little image is on the back of a few books we own. It indicates the reading level the book is intended for, I guess. We always point to the colors and say them, "Red, blue, green, yellow and purple!" Today, Marie decided that she knew her colors and didn't need my recitation. She proudly pointed them out, left to right and said, "Boo, yellow, boo and boo-yellow!"

Snow Days and Exam Week

Lady in Red

In her special Lady Bug Jumper

Chef Marie...her specialty is "boo yello"

What is a normal schedule with kids? There is all the December pre-Xmas stuff, then The Holidays, then, for us, exams and snow days. What's with that? To the family of a teacher, that means very unpredictable weekly schedules. Between exam days, sick days, half days and snow days, we couldn't get our times straight for daycare in time to have Marie there on Monday. So, Grandma Tina came up from Grand Rapids to watch Marie (as Jim had already taken 2 days off the week before when she was ill). Today, Marie and I are home together as I do not have any classes. So we cooked. First, we made "yello." It was actually green Jell-o but if you ask Marie it is "boo yel-lo." Then Marie made a marvelous concoction of sprinkles, flour and water. This paste, along with two mixing bowls, a measuring cup and spoon, kept her very busy for a half-hour. We won't mention what the floor and chair look like right now but it was fun. By the way, sprinkles turn to a gray mush when added to water and flour.

Wanted to share a few pixs of some cute outfits Marie has donned recently too!

Sorry No *New* Picts

Watching the Rose Bowl together...Marie does have her jersey on.

Daddy reading the history of U of M football to Marie.

Marie is sick. Fever-over-100-and-a-croupy-cough sick. My back is tired from holding/carrying her all day. She took a 3 hour nap and coughed herself asleep for the night by 8. We watched Sesame Street videos together, read books in bed together, ate chicken soup together and took a bath together. I didn't get much done, needless to say. Nor did we take any pictures to commemorate this event. Thus, you are stuck with old U of M football pictures from the past season.

I'm a big kid now!

Look how we have grown! Marie loves her pockets; they are fascinating. She also now loves to say, "CHEESE!" These are from Wednesday morning.

More Glimpses of Goofiness at the Table

So l-o-v-i-n-g our yogurt in the fancy glass!

Little Miss Bracelets and her Tiffany Bag.

Eating breakfast with her cousins. When she is mad, she turns them around.

She's a Goof!!!

Yelling, "Momma!" while we eat.

Enjoying our yogurt perhaps a bit too much.

Enjoying the play-offs

Ready for the slopes!

A Complete Goof!

Ahhh....two. Last night we had to pull out the "sleep book" to review how to help Marie go to sleep. I was re-reading the section on 2 year olds and laughed out loud at one statement. Something about their newfound vocabularly consisting of "NO!", "MINE!" and "I DO IT!" That is about half of our conversations right now. The other half is consoling her when she falls on something or "Boppy," Marie's way to say Big Bird. She picks up both of her Big Birds, holds them over her shoulders, finds me and screams, "MY Boppy!" then takes off running around the house. The other most fun thing right now is to take all of her bracelets and put them in a small bag, carry that around for a while. Set it down, take all of them out and put them on. Then, take them off, back in the bag and repeat...

Jim came home tonight to find Marie "cooking." Standing at the counter on a chair, stirring a bowl of flour and water. She kept repeating, "It's good, it's good."

Needless to say, we are laughing a lot right now.