Well, we survived the great Blizzard of 2011 and its aftermath of arctic temperatures. Hard to believe we might actually be pushing 40 this weekend. I told the boys this would be our last "super cold" time of this winter, guessing that we've seen the last of these sub-zero weeks until next season. I hope Mother Nature doesn't turn me into a liar.

I am well aware that winter is far from over. We'll surely even have more snow, but let's leave the rest of the arctic blast to the Canadians, eh?

I sometimes feel bad when my blogging doesn't keep up with my Facebook posts, but here's a little something just for you loyal blog readers:



Full disclosure: John was shoveling the driveway while I was trying to clear the three foot drift from the front porch/door. The boys took off across the front yard and soon we heard Daniel calling but couldn't quite make out what he was saying. Amazing how the snow muffles sound! I worried that he was calling "my boot my boot" as in "my boot came off in the snow" but luckily he was just calling "I need a boost!" Rather than immediately boosting him out of his snowy snare, I captured this video so you could share the moment.

This snow also enabled us to employ some of the knowledge we've gained from reading The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne. In one of the stories, our heroes (7- and 8-year-old sister and brother Annie and Jack) travel to the Arctic circle and encounter polar bears. They get caught on some thin ice that begins to crack, but by observing the polar bears they learn that if you lay down on your belly your weight is more evenly distributed and you won't break through. The boys employed this trick to get across the front and back yards when walking was simply impossible as the drifts were up to their waists. (I think our official storm total was only 10-12 inches, but the winds really piled it up in places.)

We all had a snow day on the Wednesday of the storm. John worked hard to clear the driveway even through the snowplow berm and then I took over later to dig out our front sidewalk. Usually we can count on a neighbor or two to help us out with a snowblower, but this storm was too much even for the snowblowers--at least the small ones our neighbors have. Most of them were out with shovels and snowblowers, taking off a layer or two before trying to plow through. Pretty incredible stuff!

We were back in business by Thursday though and even managed a Saturday afternoon sledding excursion with Grandma and Grandpa before the deep freeze set in this week. We don't have photographic evidence, but full props to Grandpa who executed a tremendous dive/evasive maneuver when Edward was headed straight toward him after he took Daniel on a downhill ride. It only took us a few slides though to realize that the adults were inhibiting the sledding. The kids riding solo with their lighter weight were able to go much farther, much to their delight. Of course that meant a lot of trudging up and down for Mom and Dad, but it all burns calories, right?
It was a little bigger hill than we've been to before. Daniel's first reaction: "I put on my scared face because I was scared...but it was FUN!" It was getting dark so the pictures aren't the best. When Edward bundles himself up for outdoor fun you can barely tell it's him with just eyes and nose poking out from his hat/hood so no pics here.

Here's the last time back up the hill to the car. John's so warm from the exertion that he's removed his hat. Daniel's so tired he begged John to pull him up. He still had to "polar bear" part of the way as it was too steep to pull, but we made it and a good time was had by all.


A few more blizzard pictures for posterity:
"Helping" John clear the driveway.
Loading the front porch snow into our yard cart to haul away because there was no more room to throw it to the side of the walk.
Sitting on top of our headless snowman (head had fallen off a few days before the storm.)
A cool "wave" snow drift in the back yard, where drifts were as high as our first floor windows.
Snow exhaustion. (Note: they put their snow gear on over their pajamas and ended up never getting dressed the whole day.)

And finally, I feel I must share a moment of motherly vindication. You may recall my description of the Christmas morning meltdown from Edward ("but I didn't WANT Lego!") I'm happy to report that he is now fully obsessed with his Lego and constantly begs John and me to help him recreate the pictures in the book that came with his set. We were worried that we were doing too much, but he clearly was picking up on how to translate the pictures to reality because he created this set entirely on his own:
The book showed numbers 1, 2 and 3, but he took it all the way to 10 on his own, with only a little guidance from John on how to make the 7 stable enough to stand with the rest. I find this particularly interesting because I think he'd be hard pressed to write these numbers as his dexterity is still pretty limited. He shows little interest in coloring or any sort of writing and has taken pains to limit his requirements in this area by reducing his "signature" to Ed.

My mom objected to my characterization of my older son in the last post. I think I was clear that his behavior was nothing unusual for a kid watching his brother get all the attention, but she claims I overstated the need for physical restraint. I'll just have to say that a mother and a grandmother view/remember the same scene quite differently.

However, this post will focus on the more commonly displayed Edward attitude--exuberance.

We hosted his/our first "kid" birthday party on Jan. 8, and I would say it was a success. For several reasons, I deviated from my instinct that the number of guests should equal the age of the kid and invited his whole class plus a few younger siblings who are Daniel's age. Edward has been invited to SO many parties over the last two years that I really felt we owed a lot of people a return invite. Plus we were not having it at our house, but at our community gym so there was plenty of space for the kids to just run around and be kids. Plus it was only for 90 minutes, 10-11:30 a.m. I figured we could handle it. We did, though I was definitely glad a few of the parents hung out to chat and to help corral the kids as needed.
The gym was full of bikes for the kids to ride around plus two inflatables for jumping and sliding.



We had this part for the first hour and then moved to a separate room for cupcakes and juice/water. I had warned John in advance to be prepared to lead a few games of Simon Says since I was sure the cake would not last the remaining 30 minutes of the party after we left the gym. We were totally unprepared for the cake/drinks to last three minutes. Literally by the time the last kids were getting their cupcakes the first ones were done and ready to move.

We had specified on the invitation that the kids' friendship was the greatest gift and were very happy that people respected this and did not bring gifts. However, that left us with time to fill. John jumped in on Simon Says, but then Edward wanted to be Simon.
Then EVERY kid wanted a turn, but their attention span wore out before we could get to everyone. Then we moved on to the hokey pokey, which was a hit (and I'm told has been reprised on indoor play days when it's too cold to go outside at school) but again, didn't last long enough to get us to that magical 11:30 hour.
It kind of devolved after that and the kids ran around a bit, collected their party bags and left. One kid's dad thought it ended at noon so was late for pick up (luckily he was the one who left his cell phone number when he dropped of his son, so a quick call and he came right over.) While we were waiting, the kids had a second cupcake.
Edward had fun and it really was pretty easy, all things considered. But I'm definitely reconsidering the idea of celebrating with friends on the boys' half birthdays. Something about the June/July time frame just seems to offer so many more possibilities for energetic boys.

Speaking of Edward, he floored me last night with this question just as I was turning out the light for the night: "Mom, why did a very angry man shot Abraham Lincoln?"

WHAT???

He always uses probing questions to extend the bedtime ritual, but usually they're about what we've just read or something we've done that day. This was totally out of left field. I asked him where he'd heard about that and he said, "From a book at school." I told him it was a long, complicated story ("what's complicated?") and that we'd have to talk about it more in the morning and maybe get some more books from the library.

This morning I had him show me the book at school. It was a book about "young Abe" but the last two pages dealt with his presidency, the Civil War and his assassination (all in about 50 words, so, you know, nuance is lost.) In fact, the page that said he was shot was actually a picture of Civil War soldiers pointing cannons at each other, so Ed and his classmates thought Lincoln was shot by a cannon in a Civil War battle.

I braved our blizzard to dash quickly to the library before picking up the kids from school and checked out a few other books on Lincoln, but even though they're the same series/reading level as some of the Titanic books we've been reading for the last month, the concepts are way over his head (pioneer times, government, elections, etc.) We'll see if we can make any sense of it for him.

Speaking of the blizzard, this apparently is supposed to be one for the record books. At last a foot of snow (including thunder snow with lightning, which I just heard/saw) driving winds and the arctic cold. Public schools are closed tomorrow. Not sure yet about our daycare, which tends to follow the university's lead on closing. So far UI classes between 4:30 p.m. today and 10 a.m. tomorrow are canceled. Staff are supposed to report for work, but I can easily take vacation time if daycare is closed. We're grateful to be far enough north to avoid the inch of ice that is the southern edge of this storm (down toward St. Louis.) I'm not sure about a snow day with no power/heat! Thank goodness for a warm house (even with our drafty windows and front door!)

Just getting in under the wire here--pictures from Daniel's birthday while it's still his "birthday month."

Daniel's birthday (Monday, 1/10) was the first day of my week-long final MBA class. I was a little worried he'd get short shrift, but I got home in plenty of time that day to order the pizza he'd requested for his birthday meal. Once again, following Dad's lead (recall our Christmas meal was pizza, for the same reason.)

The night before his birthday, Daniel was lucky enough to celebrate with all four of his grandparents. My parents were in town for their babysitting gig (they watched the boys the first two days of my class week) so they and John's parents joined us for some presents, pasta and pie. Daniel decided more than a month ago that he wanted cherry pie for his birthday dessert.
We're really not sure where he came up with the idea, but he never wavered. I suggested other options, but he stuck to his guns, and I think he was pleased with the outcome. Even if he didn't like the pie, he was thrilled to run into one of his favorite firefighters at the pie store. (Firefighter Mark, who also drives a cement truck on his off days, and who we met last summer when he was pouring a driveway next door.) We've also seen him on our visits to the fire station, and he happened to be one of the crew assigned to the truck that visited the daycare this fall. So, yeah, he recognized us as soon as he saw us. He was leaving as we were coming in and was patient enough to stop for a chat with his adoring fans. The boys were a bit curious about why he didn't have his fire truck with him, but we tried to explain the concept of "days off."
The day before that (Saturday), we had Edward's first friend birthday party, to which we invited several of his friends' younger siblings who are in Daniel's class at school. So I guess I shouldn't have worried about short changing him since he basically got a three-day extravaganza for his birthday.

In fact, it's possible that the only person who wasn't pleased with Daniel's birthday celebration was Edward.
Even with the very helpful arrival of his birthday present in the same shipment from Arizona as Daniel's, meaning he had something of his own to unwrap, Edward really could not deal with the focus being on his brother. I believe this meltdown was because it was not enough to play with his new "lights and sirens" fire truck and insisted that Daniel should hand over his new ambulance as well.
You'll also note here that I am physically restraining Edward to allow Daniel the honor of opening his own presents. None of this is a surprise of course. It's hard to let your brother be the center of attention. I remember talking about this in advance of last year's birthday, but probably need to make that an annual conversation to achieve better mental preparedness on his part.

This afternoon Daniel came out of the bathroom, frustrated, with his pants and underpants twisted from his attempts to dress after peeing. He walked in to the room where I was folding laundry pulling on his pants and grunting from the exertion. Finally in frustration he yelled out, "No, thank you, Bob!" His underpants were Bob the Builder.

Also yesterday he wanted me to rub his back while he fell asleep at nap time. I promised I would come back to do it after I read Edward a book and settled him for his nap. It only took about 10 minutes but by the time I came back in he was flat on his back, eyes struggling to stay open. When I reached under the cover to rub his belly, his shirt was already raised up to his armpits. He'd belly-rubbed himself into a catatonic state.

The picture above is from a few weeks ago when he insisted on getting out his new stamps from Aunt Nora first thing in the morning. He'd wanted to do them at bedtime, and when his repeated requests fell on deaf ears we finally agreed he could do them in the morning. I should not have been surprised that he remembered.

Did you hear that scream on Friday afternoon? That was me finishing my last MBA class.

WOO HOO!!!!

It's been five and a half years and there definitely were times I questioned why I was torturing myself, but it feels like a great accomplishment. Just please don't ask, "So what are you going to do with it?" I don't know. I don't have any immediate plans to change jobs, as there are few, if any, that would offer me the flexibility I have now. I started the program to fill time and space at a time when I needed distraction. I continued it because I figured even though it would be a slow slog, I didn't want to ever find myself shut out of an opportunity for lack of a master's degree. The right opportunity will present itself, and that's enough for now.

This last class was just one week, but 8 a.m.-5 p.m. (ish) each day. My parents came out to hang with the boys on Monday and Tuesday, John's parents picked them up from school and kept them for the afternoon on Wednesday and Thursday, and John took Friday afternoon off to be with them. A fitting end, as this group has been supporting me all the way through this program.

John and the boys were prepared for my arrival home. John had taken them to pick out some festive balloons (pink and purple were required colors, and they wanted one that said "Mom"--not necessarily an easy purchase in January, but John called around and found one.) John strung up a banner in the kitchen and baked a celebratory oatmeal pie.

So I know I'm way behind on the blog right now, but let's just let this one stand alone. I'll have time in the days ahead to catch up on the rest.

Wow, more than a week later, we're still not up to speed on the birthday/Christmas extravaganza. I'll try to get all caught up since I'm headed to class next week and won't have time to come up for air.
After much deliberation and soul-searching, Edward finally settled on chocolate cake for his birthday. With Lightning and Mater. Yes, around and around we went with varieties of cake and pies, until we ended up in exactly the same place as last year. Oh well, at least I already knew how to do it. Apparently though, I don't know how to read the expiration date on a cake mix because the first cake of the day did not grow to more than about half an inch thick. I briefly considered just frosting it and moving on, but couldn't bring myself to do it. The only other cake mix in the house was white cake, so to the cookbooks I went to find a recipe for which I had all the ingredients. A quick reminder of how to make a substitute for buttermilk (regular milk with a Tbsp of lemon juice), and we were back in business. (The non-rising cake went into the freezer for use on a less festive, but still dessert-worthy occasion.) John's best comment of the day after learning of my cake plans: "You can DO that????" As in, make a cake without a mix. Yes, this is the level of our culinary expectations.

The next crisis came when I discovered that the number 5 candle had somehow broken in half inside the package. ARRGH! I was about to head out to Walgreens, which remained open 24 hours through the holiday, when John hit upon the idea of using the wax from a regular birthday candle to melt the two pieces together. It worked! At least long enough to light and blow out, which was all that was required.

Edward's other birthday meal request was for pizza--like father, like son. (It's on Daniel's self-selected menu as well.) I offered home made but he said, "No I want the pizza guy to bring it." Well, Edward, sorry. No delivery on Christmas. So instead, we went to a local family-owned pizza place that preps and freezes pizzas to bake at home. Worked pretty well, though it did result in the third smoke detector blaring of the day. (Recall the overflowing monkey bread from earlier in the day. Hard as we tried, we couldn't get all that sugar off the bottom of the oven. Really smokes up when the oven is at 450 for pizza!)

But aside from my kitchen foibles, I think it was an all around good birthday. Here is Edward in the Christmas gift knight costume opening knight Legos from his Wisconsin cousins.
And here he is with the castle gift from Grandma and Grandpa (with 130 PIECES!)
We did manage to get it put together, but it took all four adults!
This should be good for hours of indoor winter fun until it's warm enough to hit the sidewalks with this gift from Mom and Dad:
He's tooled around inside a bit but you can't get up much momentum from one side of the living room to the other.

The day after Christmas we took advantage of the Christmas Eve snowfall and went sledding at our local elementary school.
The boys had a blast, and John and I took a few turns down the hill as well. We steered clear of the "jump" some intrepid sledders before us had fashioned, but the kids thought it was fabulous. In the video below you'll hear Edward's "Oh, man!" when he misses it, and Daniel's giggles as it causes his sled to flip time and again.




John thinks this action shot is worthy of Sports Illustrated.
Next up, New Year's weekend in Evanston. More stories for another day.

Merry Christmas to all! We have many reasons to celebrate this time of year and boys eager to drink it all in.
I had some "help" in the kitchen before the big day, decorating cookies to take to neighbors and friends. This was a fun afternoon, but I'm sure I still have sprinkles on my kitchen floor, even after mopping! They seemed determined to pile as much on each cookie as they could possible shake from the shakers. I thought they'd never dry...but eventually they did. And they tasted great!

On Christmas Eve, John's mom cooked us an amazing feast. But before we could dig into the food, we dove in to some presents.
The boys were very patient, waiting for all the gifts to be stacked up for each person and then waiting and watching each other open packages. These costumes were the hit of the evening.

It snowed all day on Christmas Eve, piling up about six or seven inches here in Iowa City. During dinner, the boys had to take an intermission to run to Grandma's piano room window to watch the snowplows clearing the street and driveways. After that, they proceeded to eat about six desserts each, but what the heck...Christmas only comes once a year!

We had to hurry home to bed so Santa wouldn't miss us. This was our first year expecting Santa overnight, as in the past he's come while we were at 8 a.m. Mass on Christmas morning. Due to a schedule change, we couldn't go to Mass until 10 a.m., so presents came first. (Note: I'd much prefer to attend Christmas Eve Mass, but since I can barely get the boys through a regular one-hour service, there's just no way we'd make it through the extra pageantry plus the need to arrive at least 45 minutes early to get a seat!) The boys didn't get up until about 6:45, which we considered an acceptable time. You can see that Daniel was still a little bleary eyed.
They tore into the packages and were thrilled...
...until they weren't. The picture below is just before Edward wailed, "But I didn't WANT Lego!"

He was eagerly anticipating the semi trucks that carry the Cars vehicles (Lightning McQueen, et. al.) I had been coaching both boys to ask for Lego because they love building with it at school and at the Children's Museum, but didn't have any of the "big kid" kind at home, due to the tiny pieces. Daniel fell right in line and was thrilled with his Lego box. Edward, however, did not appreciate Santa's attempt at manipulation, giving one semi each to the boys so that they'd have to play together. Tears ensued--both Edward's and mine, my heart broken to see him disappointed on Christmas morning.Thankfully it didn't last long, and in a beautiful Christmas moment, it was actually Daniel who saved the day. He came across the room to the chair where I was holding a sobbing Edward and held out his red Mac truck saying, "Here Edward, you can play with it." What a great kid! Shortly after, they were both playing happily, and Edward had to admit that the new Lego allowed for the construction of much better garages and ramps for the cars.

In the meantime, I attempted to make a pan of monkey bread for a breakfast treat, but ended up setting off the smoke detector when the sugar boiled over and burned on the bottom of the oven. To stop the smoke I took it out five minutes early, so of course it wasn't cooked all the way through. We attempted to eat the outer edges, but it just wasn't working, so we waited for the oven to cool a bit, used the grill spatula to scrape as much as we could from the bottom, and tried again. We got it cooked through, but not without more smoke. And I still had a birthday cake and pizza dinner (birthday boy request) to cook later in the day!

We're expecting another significant snowstorm just in time for Christmas so I guess I'd better hurry up and post the pictures from our first storm last week.
Other parts of the state had snow earlier, but this was our first real shovel event. It was much anticipated by the under-5 set in this house. So much so that Edward got up half an hour early so he could go out and help John clear the walks and driveway. He has a new shovel that he's been dying to try out (Edward, not John.) I must record this now so I can show Edward in about 10 years when we're forcing him out the door with threats of withholding the car keys (*shudder*)

When we got home from work/school, two of our (retired) neighbors were out chatting over their shovels. The boys had on boots but no snowpants and could not contain their excitement. They dived right in, running through the yards with glee. Oh well, I guess it's not such a big deal to take off the wet pants with the boots at the door and change for naps. After naps it was back outside where we stayed for more than an hour. First shoveling and then playing on the sled. I briefly contemplated a trip to a sledding hill, but it was already getting dark and they were fully content dashing through our yard and pulling/being pulled along the sidewalk.


We celebrated Christmas with John's extended family on Sunday--a much more successful trip to Chariton than our last adventure. This time we had a large room for our gathering and our boys were thrilled to play with their cousins from Omaha. Edward was even a good sport about losing his throne as Banana Slap champion. He always beats John and me, but his seven-year-old cousin proved to have even quicker reflexes and definitely was making a run for it until it was time for lunch.
We didn't leave until almost three in the afternoon, which is normally when they wake up from naps, so I think exhausted is not too strong a word. They slept almost the whole way home and were docile enough for the last half hour of the trip while awake, content to listen to the books on CD we checked out from the library the day before.

When we got home, it was time to trim the tree.
We'd managed to buy one Saturday morning, despite two out of the three places we tried being completely sold out. And it's not even a Charlie Brown tree. It may be the best we've ever had. I guess it's not a bad thing to walk onto a tree lot and only have to decide among about a dozen options. We definitely have some heavily laden branches down low, but I decided not to rearrange after the boys were done. This tree is true to who we are this year. This picture is also true to who we are this year. A little wacky, occasionally infuriating, possibly looking for trouble.
Finally, a health note: I've recovered from my double root canal, which now awaits a permanent crown sometime after the first of the year (in hopes that my new insurance will cover it.) I went back this morning for the endodontist to remove the temporary packing and place the permanent one. She told me today that pain studies have shown that root canal treatment on an infected tooth is the second most painful experience one can have. The first is getting shot in the knee with a bullet. What?! So yeah, I guess I really was justified in my weekend-long stupor and desperation for additional drugs.

A friend of mine started a project last winter when she realized she had gone a whole month without taking any photos of her third child. Nothing like mom guilt to get you going. So she decided to challenge herself to take at least one picture every day for a year and post them on Facebook and her blog. It's been fun to watch the progression and to see what memorable (or mundane) moment from each day is captured.

I may have to take up this challenge myself as I have found fewer and fewer pictures on my camera and have let many of those "fun in the moment" moments slip away. This blog starts to get unwieldy when I think I have to catch up on weeks of updates all at once. Something to ponder in the new year. It would help if I had a better camera, but since I just gave all our money to a local endodontist, that's not in the cards.

I had a toothache last week that I tried to ignore and/or treat with ibuprofen. After five years without it, we decided to carry dental insurance again starting Jan. 1. We never have dental issues and for two cleanings a year it was actually cheaper to pay out of pocket than to pay the monthly premiums. Well, I believe I just caught us up on five years worth of monthly premiums with what turned out to be a root canal gone bad (and needing replacement); so bad it infected and killed the tooth next to it, which also then required a root canal.

The pain was so bad that even though the endodontist office said they didn't have an appointment until Monday, I just took myself there on Friday intending to beg for mercy, whatever was necessary to be seen and get started on ending the pain. Apparently I looked just pathetic enough to be fit in around their scheduled patients. I was so desperate, I actually stopped at an ATM on the way to the office so I'd have cash to offer any other patient in the waiting room who would be willing to trade for my Monday appointment. That turned out to be unnecessary, but I really think I would have done it. There is nothing quite like tooth pain.

The best I felt all week was when I left that office still numb on Novocaine. I couldn't start the real pain meds right away because I needed to pick up the boys from school and then get them back there at 4 p.m. for Edward's much-anticipated performance as a hummingfish in his class presentation of "The Lorax."
It was pretty much everything you'd expect from a preschool performance, and mercifully short. The kids had fun and we had a great laugh at the end when Edward stole the show with a very dramatic bow. In the picture he has his hand to his chest and is about to do a full body bend forward to receive his applause. Classic!

Earlier in the afternoon, we'd also celebrated the season with a great University of Iowa tradition: Holiday Tubas.
On the last Friday of the winter semester, all the tuba/euphonium faculty and students and any community members who happen to play gather on the steps of the Old Capitol in the center of campus and play a holiday concert. (If you click on the link above you can hear part of last year's concert.) This year we were lucky enough to have a near-40-degree day, so it was quite pleasant and festive. There are years when the concert has sort of a tag-team approach as players rotate in and out of the building to warm up their instruments and unfreeze their valves. Not this year. The boys were interested, but also able to run around a bit without causing too much disturbance. They also were thrilled to receive a candy cane at the end and even more ecstatic when I said they could eat it right then rather than waiting until a regular dessert time. Oh, life's simple pleasures.
Since we were on campus, of course there were many sights to see. Chief among them, Cambus after Cambus rolling down the street. The timing was such that it would have been tricky to get them home and settled for naps and then awake again in time to go back to school, so in a RARE departure from routine, we decided to skip naps and ride the Cambus. You would have thought I said we were going to Disneyworld. Again, simple pleasures.
This is the bus driving away after our ride.

Having children who appreciate the simple things can occasionally backfire though. When I last posted we were in the throes of a parents vs. kids battle over behavior and listening. We were quite surprised at how little they seemed to care about their missing toys. The first two days we rewarded good listening and then re-removed the toys for bad behavior in equal measure. Slowly they started gaining back more than they were losing and it seems in the last few days that we've really turned a corner. Of course we've been praising the good behavior until we're practically tripping on ourselves. Daniel had a bit of a relapse today, refusing to listen to us when we suggested it was time to go to the bathroom, resulting in three accidents. It's frustrating, but interesting to see how he uses this mechanism for control. But this weekend has been a bit topsy-turvy with me still being in near constant pain from my teeth.

I actually had to have the doctor paged Saturday and Sunday to discuss alternatives to the drugs she prescribed. Yesterday she told me I could take the vicodin/ibuprofen combo as often as every 2 hours until the amoxicilin for the infection reached a therapeutic level (expected today) which should have caused the pain to subside. This was a relief because waiting for the 4 and 6 hour mark on these two was agonizing. I was a bit nervous about pumping such high levels of drugs through my system, but it truly was necessary. Taking it that much more often meant that I'd run out by this morning so I had to call again to have her phone in a new prescription. She seemed surprised that the pain was still so strong and decided to also prescribe a steroid to help with the inflammation.

John ventured out into our arctic wonderland (today's high was about 7) to pick these up. The pharmacist warned that the steroid combined with ibuprofen is tough on the stomach. But I'd already taken the ibuprofen and needed to start the steroid ASAP to get the full day's dose in by bedtime. Ugh. Let's just say it was not a pleasant morning.

This is what passed for my attempt to entertain the boys while John was at Walgreens:
We were discussing snowmen, despite the fact that our predicted blizzard had not materialized overnight. Edward asked if we had a corncob pipe and seemed flummoxed when I told him we did not. We're very literal these days, and the Frosty the Snowman book we've been reading of course mentions this accessory. I told him that all Frostys are different, depending on who makes them. "Some snowmen wear black top hats and others might wear a red or blue hat," I continued. Then I remembered this hat stashed in our winter box and pulled it out to great effect. When I walked into the room wearing it, they could not stop laughing. Then they wanted to try it on themselves and it did not lose any of its humor value. This was heart-warming for me, as one of my fondest memories of my Grandma Ganey is her laughing so hard and so long that she nearly fell off the couch when these hats were Christmas presents for my cousins and me and we all put them on immediately upon opening them at our family gathering. I wish I still had that picture!

As I mentioned, we were expecting a whopper snowstorm overnight and thought since we'd be housebound today we should probably have an outing after naps yesterday. We headed over to the mall to visit Santa and have dinner. I've been eager to get the Santa visit done so that Edward's wish list would stabilize. He's been changing his mind so often that I've had visions of a Christmas Eve shopping trip.

Our dinner destination, a buffet restaurant called Pizza Ranch, provoked a great reaction from Daniel: "Pizza Ranch?! I LOVE pizza! AND I love ranch! Will they have carrots and celery to dip?" They do, and he did. A successful outing.
Our other Saturday project was decorating Will's memory tree. We were a little late in getting the ornaments this year, but now they're up and ready to share with any holiday visitors.