These winter photos and video are from a week ago Sunday, before the deep freeze of last week. We finally made it back out today for a bit of snow play. Daniel likes riding in the sled, but he's not so much about the walking in snow. Hard to blame him since he's pretty much as wide as he is tall in all this gear. It can't be easy to move. During the outing pictured here he did in fact face-plant into a snow drift at least once. This was not his favorite, but he was willing to be brushed with my relatively dry glove and keep going. Edward also enjoys the snow flop, but he's coordinated enough to execute it face up (usually) and then follow it up with a snow angel.

Today we spent some time on our screen porch, which had enough snow for filling buckets and dumping them/spreading the snow all over. Daniel preferred this sedentary occupation. Ed took his shovel out to a snow drift and dug around a bit. I eventually retrieved the sled (no easy task as both of our gates are "snowed shut" and the sled was on the front porch) and gave Daniel some rides down our "swail." He was good for a bit, but finally could not be persuaded to stay out any longer. Ed wasn't ready to come in, but a promise of hot chocolate did the trick. He decided he prefers "warm chocolate," though John noted that this would be a much tougher marketing pitch.



Since our August move, a number of friends have asked for house pictures. I never really feel the house itself is picture worthy as most of the time our decor can only be described as "scattered toys." But here is a shot that captures one of my favorite features--the walk-in closet in the master bedroom. I think I have said it before, but it bears repeating, this closet is bigger than my childhood bedroom. Edward and Daniel like to play in it--you can't believe how many different things an empty hanger or a cedar shoetree can be. Also, the whole closet is occasionally a train, frequently Chicago-bound to see Gram and PopPop.

Daniel had his 12-month check-up last Thursday (the day the high was 7 below zero!) and received a glowing report. He's up to 25 1/4 pounds and 30 3/4 inches. His height and weight seem to be evening out a bit at around the 80th percentile. (he's been a bit higher in weight than height in terms of percentiles.) His doctor gave his thighs a good squeeze on exam since we'll all be sad to see them melt away as he continues the marathon that is his daily life. I am not exaggerating when I say that he is never still. And let's note that both the shirt and pants in these two pictures have now been retired to the "outgrown" bin. Those stripes just couldn't stretch any further.

These and the series below show one of my least favorite features of this house: the two steps up from the front hall to the living room. There are another two from the dining room down to the library, but at least there is a pocket door to close those off. Here we have an extra-wide doorway and a door frame that is even with the lower step, which has made it virtually impossible to find a gate to block it off. Instead, we have to run after him every time he beelines for this area because he simply will not stop on his own. He thinks he can walk down like Edward does and will not be deterred until you catch him and flip him over to crawl down on his belly. The low point of the deep freeze week was the afternoon I finally got tired of chasing him and pushed the couch across the room to block the doorway. It kind of freaked Edward out, but it totally worked. Daniel didn't even head in that direction the rest of the afternoon.

Speaking of "like Edward," Daniel also had his first "I want the same thing as my brother" tantrum today at snack time. He was happily eating some wheat crackers before Edward woke up. Ed came down mid-snack and asked for Goldfish crackers. Once he had the bowl in front of him, Daniel started shrieking, pointing, flailing and arching his back, refusing another bite of the crackers he was eating. He was silenced when I placed three Goldfish on his tray. They were in his mouth within seconds.