March, Part 1: 3/1-3/15

Not "having" to take photos every day has been quite liberating.  There are days that I still feel guilty for not doing so, but whatever.  Maybe next year I'll do another project 365.

3/2: It's Morphin' Tiime!

The Small Human's Power Rangers obsession still runs strong after two years.  He has this gigantic bin of the things, with many of the generations of 'em.  I know one of the generations he's playing with is Samurai, but hell if I know what the other one is.  The rest of the Rangers, FYI, are dumped in a huge pile in another section of the living room.

The Small Human still wonders why we make him clean up his toys all by himself.  Maybe one day he'll learn to put shit away before it becomes an unmanageable pile.

3/3: Snowstorm #658. Or something.

At least this one was just a dusting.  But it's March, for Pete's sake!  Go away, snow! You are no longer welcome!

And I know for sure when we have a heat wave of 90+ degrees this summer, I'll be bitching about that, too.

3/4: Swim Class

The Small Human is taking swim lessons again this spring.  His summer camp doesn't give lessons, and I think knowing how to swim is very important.  I'm not sure if he's in the right group of kids, or if he should have been in the group for less experienced swimmers.  Last year, he could jump in the pool and successfully swim to the side.  This year?  Not so much.  I guess he forgot some skills over the past year.  Regardless, he's having fun and loves swimming.

3/7:  Modern antiquity

I found these on the shelf at the local pharmacy.  I didn't know that they still made these things.

3/8:  Big Apple Circus

We visited my brother and SIL on Saturday to see the circus.  Of course, the Small Human starts off by saying he hates the circus and that he didn't want to go.  Never mind that he'd never been to a circus before and has no idea what a circus was.  By the time the show was done, he, of course, declared it "Awesome!".  Watching the tight rope walkers was one of the more incredible parts of the show.  I could post more photos, but I'll leave that to Facebook. Once I get around to it.

3/12:  A warning, and a sign of spring

It was a lovely day.  I got to visit a friend in the morning.  She has a basket of chocolates on her desk, so she put a warning on it for anyone who observes Lent.  I don't. So I had a chocolate.

Despite the myriad of snow storms this winter, we had two days of weather in the 60's before the weather descended into a high of 29 again..  Instead of spending time cleaning the house, I decided a walk in the park was in order.  The day before, I spent an hour on a walk.  Today's stroll was much shorter only 40 minutes long.  But on this walk, I found evidence that spring is on it's way:

The photo is a bit blurry, but those are buds on that tree branch.  I can't wait for them to bloom into beautiful flowers!

3/15: Sunrise, and a Purim Play

Saturday mornings I go to kickboxing.  But before kickboxing, there's Weight Watchers.  (On a side note, having to weigh in with breakfast in my belly is a bummer.) So I get  up at 6 AM to get my day started.  As I went to fetch the morning paper, I saw this.

That night we celebrated Purim:

This year's theme was Billy Joel and Elton John.  At one point, the rabbi's son came out on stage, decked out in a sequined suit a la Elton John and played a few songs on the piano.  That photo is pretty blurry (even blurrier than this one), so I left it out of this blog.  At that point, my son, who had been having a good time, declared it "boring."  Probably because he wasn't able to see "Elton" from where he was.  Later on, we had a ton of hamantaschen.  They had a dance party, too, complete with a DJ.  At that point, Purim became fun for him again. My son boogied down, complete with doing the worm on the floor.  How he learned breakdancing techniques, I'll never know.  He certainly didn't learn it from me or from Hubby.  After a few songs, the Small Human, red faced from the exertion, retreated to a chair.  He insisted he wasn't tired, despite it being past his bedtime.  We headed home anyway, and he slept soundly that night.

Next blog post in two weeks or so.  See you then!

February, part 2: 2/16-2/28

Considering the fewer days in February and the fewer photos I took, this will be one of my shorter blog posts.  You're welcome.

2/17:  Icy Snow

The snow the Small Human is standing on is a good 6 inches thick.  It's covered with a layer of ice.  Once the boy realized that he could walk on it without falling into a crevice of snow, he ran all around the front yard.

2/18:  Chameleon

I thought the art my son did was pretty damn awesome, so I took a picture of it.  He likes making things with a multitude of colors.  Even if it means pictures of nurses that have purple outfits and green faces.

2/19:  Practicing for graduation

The Small Human was getting ready to graduate from Dragon brown (yellow belt with a brown stripe) to an orange belt.  It also meant graduating out of the little kids program and into the regular youth program.  So here he is, with the older kids (OK, not much older), practicing an orange belt form.

2/21: Roller coaster

The Small Human came off the bus today, proudly carrying this piece of art.  It's a roller coaster, with plenty of steps and loops to scare the pants off the most experienced roller coaster rider.  It's proudly hanging on the fridge now, along with the chameleon you saw earlier.

I'm running out of fridge space. And magnets.

2/24: Oh, look! The ground!

Why, hello, earth!  I haven't seen you all winter!  Of course, you were covered in snow again just a few days after this photo was taken, but it was nice to see you for a little while.

  2/27: Sleeping Gray Beast

Doesn't she look comfy on the blanket?

2/28: Color Belt Graduation

My boy is growing up!  He kicked ass at graduation today, and earned his orange belt!  Here the karate master is shaking hands with the Small Human after awarding him his orange belt.  Shortly thereafter, he whispered into his ear that he was in the big kid class now, and that fooling around would no longer be tolerated.  Anyway, I was kvelling.  We went out to Red Robin the next day to celebrate.

 I think the punishment for behavior such as fooling around or talking in class is push ups.  I have a feeling that the Small Human will have very strong arms shortly...  Although, to be honest, he's been pretty good so far.  Hopefully the change of pace will help him sit still and not talk in class.

That's all the photos I took for the past 2 weeks.  I suspect the first half of March will be mostly the same.  Until next time... 

February, part 1: 2/1-2/15

Welcome back to another exciting post!  Well, ok, it's actually kindof boring, but it makes me happy to keep the blog.  So for the 10 of you who read it, thank you!

Anyway, on with the show.

2/1:  Last basketball game

The Small Human absolutely loved the basketball league!  Was he the best player in all the land?  Nope.  Did he have a most excellent time, and improve a lot during the past 8 weeks?  Oh, absolutely!  After the game, the kids had a party, where they all received medals.  The Small Human proudly wore his for the next several days thereafter.

2/3: Making the most out of another snow day

We woke up to this, again:

So we did this:

That would be whole wheat bread, pork roast (I think), and  bean soup.  Take that, winter! And take that, slaving over a hot stove!

2/4:  Beauty

All that snow did a beautiful number on the trees.  I don't normally get religious in here, but seeing the immense beauty of those trees helped reaffirm my belief in God.  Only a master artist such as Him/Her could paint such a stunning picture, in my opinion.

2/5: Ice storm

So we had one day of nice weather, and then it got all nasty again and rained ice.  Yet another snow day for the kids.  The side effect of all that ice is that the trees looked like Lenox crafted them.

2/7: Preparing for Valentine's Day

The Small Human's class had to make mailboxes for Valentine's Day out of tissue boxes.  The Small Human's tissue box looked like a monster to start.  I suggested painting it before we applied all the stickers.  So painting commenced.  Each side of the box got a different color.  We don't do arts and crafts very often, so it was a nice change of pace.

2/8:  The result

This is the result of all that hard work.  Now. my boy abhors pink, so pink heart stickers are kind of a big deal for him.  Fear not.  The back of the box looked like this:

What could possibly say more "Valentine's Day" more than Star Wars stickers?

2/9: Side view

A tissue box plus glitter glue.  I have no other photos for this day, and this one's not very good.  But it's all I have, so here it is.

2/11: Writing letters

The Small Human, hard at work on writing his Valentines.

I know there's been a shit ton of Valentine's stuff in this post, but that's what happened these past 2 weeks.

2/13: Where the snow ends (and begins)

We had yet another snow storm.  This one dumped somewhere between 8-10 inches of snow upon us. On top of what was already there.  So our patio furniture looks like it came from Hoth.  I couldn't tell which was old snow, and which was new.

That night, I made poison soup for dinner.  It's a vegetable beef soup, with ata least 8 different veggies in it, plus short ribs and marrow bones.  The recipe has been handed down from my great grandmother.  Why is it called poison soup?  Because it's the most awful brownish green color, and one of my mom's cousins declared that it looked like poison, so the name stuck.

Initially, the Small Human declared that he would not eat the soup.  I told him he had to try it, at least one spoon full.  Just in case he really did hate it, I made pizza, too.  Well, it turns out that the boy loved the soup and ate an entire bowlful. Plus two slices of pizza, of course.

2/14:  Sledding

V-day was yet another snow day.  So what to do when there's a ton of snow, and a good chance the main roads were clear?  The Small Human and I donned our thermals, snow pants, and boots.  And off to the park we went, sleds in tow!  Getting out of the neighborhood was a bit of a challenge.  We only got stuck once, unlike our poor neighbors that we had to dig out, and then they got stuck again anyway.

So. The park.  Initially, the Small Human was busily throwing tantrums and crying because he kept getting snow on him.  I threatened him with going home if he couldn't get his shit together.  Hubby has a much longer temper than me, and managed to calm the boy down.  One we got the child to wear his hood and his mittens, and once we got him to realize that when he made a path with the sled, it'd probably stay there, he finally began to enjoy himself.  As for me?  I hadn't gone sledding since I was a kid.  I had a blast!  At the bottom of the hill was a nice, big, icy puddle.  When we came close to it, we chose to wipe out rather than sled over its precarious surface.

We were out there for a good hour and a half before the Small Human had enough and wanted to go home.  Weight Watchers took a back seat as we went to McDonald's for lunch.

All in all, a pleasant way to spend a family Valentine's Day.

2/15: Valentine's Day, the grown-up edition

Hubby and I deposited the Small Human with his grandparents, and off we went to Ruth's Chris steakhouse.  Now, I don't know if you've ever been there or not, but it's not an inexpensive place to eat.  Luckily, one of the referral hospitals gave us a $100 gift card to use there.

This photo is completely not flattering for me.  It doesn't help that I'm trying a new hairdo, and failing at it.  Photo credit goes to the waiter who took care of us that night.

Despite my bad hair evening and the unflattering photo, we had a very nice dinner.  It was delightful to have some grown up time, and be able to eat at a restaurant without having to order chicken fingers and french fries, or a cheeseburger.

So there's the first two weeks of February.  Sometime in the beginning of March, I'll post the second half of the month.  Until next time...

January, part 2: 1/17-1/31

Here's round two of January.  More snow! More parties!

1/12: It's fun to play at the Y-M-C-A

The Small Human had a birthday party for one of his classmates at the YMCA.  They had a bounce house, big foam thingies to play on (as you see here), and little scooters to ride along.  Afterward, everybody had pizza and cake.

1/18:  Pump It Up

The next week, the Small Human had another birthday party for another classmate.  This one was for his best friend, so he was thrilled to be invited.  Bounce houses always = awesome in his book.  Cupcakes decorated with Storm Troopers and Darth Vader made the party that much awesomer.

1/19: Engagement Party

My cousin is getting married!  We celebrated their engagement at a Middle Eastern restaurant buffet.  My aunt gave a toast to the happy couple, and mentioned that my dad and grandparents were there in spirit. The food was amazing.  I overate.  Over eating + medication with a side effect of sleepiness = super drowsy afterward.  I was so tired, I embarrassingly almost feel asleep at the table! On the trip home, I took a nap. Luckily, my doc has since decreased me medication, so I'm no longer so sleepy.

1/20: Budding paleontologist

On Martin Luther King Day, the Small Human had the day off from school.  So we went to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia to spend the day.  One of the exhibits is an excavation area.  The kids were given safety glasses and chisels, and were sent on their merry way to uncover bones.  The Small Human loved it.

Later on we visited an animatronic dinosaur exhibit.  There, they had big, moving, growling dinos.  At first, the Small Human thought it was cool, but as we made our way through the exhibit, he got scared that the growling T-rex was going to bite him.  He was so frightened that he wouldn't even go near it, so we had to backtrack through the exhibit to leave.

Later on, we visited the butterfly exhibit.

I took a ton of photos.  The Small Human borrowed my camera and took a bunch too, but he's not so good with the macro lens yet.  The beauty of those insects was astounding.  People would stand there, arms raised, in hopes that the butterflies would land on them.

1/22: Moar Snowz!

Yet another snowstorm.  This one produced a decent amount of the white stuff.  It was COLD outside!  To the point that when I took the boy to the bus stop the next day, we took the car.  And the bus stop is literally a two minute walk from the house.

Anyway, I had a doctor's visit that day, so I dropped the boy off with his grandparents.  They took him sledding for the first time ever.

He had a blast going down the hill.  The Small Human has snow mittens, that are waterproof and therefore don't get wet when you handle the snow.  But he was frustrated with his lack of ability to grab stuff.  So the boy switched to his fleece gloves.  Now, fleece gloves aren't waterproof.  It didn't take long for his hands to become soaking wet.  Once that happened, that was the end of sledding.  I'm not sure who to give the photo credit to.  Someone in the park, obviously.

1/26: Power Ranger couch party

For whatever reason, the Small Human stuffed all his Power Rangers into the couch.  I don't really get it, but he seemed to have had a really good time.

1/27: Karate time

The Small Human is in the Little Dragons program at karate.  He's a Dragon brown belt.  Next stop up is the regular youth program, and an orange belt.  Here one of the instructors is teaching him the form he'll need to know as an orange belt.  Again, not sure who the photo credit goes to.  I found the picture on the instructor's Facebook page.

1/28: Homework time

Here's the boy hard at work .Most of the time I'm in the room with him, helping out and making sure that things get done.  Sometimes, if the door's open, the cats try to make their way into the room.  The Small Human's not a fan of this, so he wrote a note:

It reads," No cats in here."  Now, my cats are pretty smart, but I don't think they're smart enough to read the sign...

1/29:  The sun will come out tomorr-, er, sooner or later

Unlike that accursed groundhog, the Small Human predicts that sunny days are ahead.

1/31: Cupcakes

The Small Human's basketball team had a party the next day.  I volunteered to make cupcakes.  They have these squirt bottles of frosting with different tips. I got to make the cupcakes look all fancy this way.  I felt like I was cheating, but they came out pretty.

So that's January!  In a week, I'll post the first half of February. Probably.

Back in the saddle. More or less. 1/1-1/11: January, part 1

While I gave up taking daily photos, I realized I just couldn't step away from the blog.  So here's the photos I did take, just not every day.  Although for the first few days of January, there were daily photos.  There were celebrations all month!  This post is the first half.


1/1: New Year's brunch/Happy birthday!

We started out New Year's at a friend's house for brunch.  The food was fantastic, as was the company.  One of the party hosts was quite pregnant, as you can see from the photo.  She gave birth a week or two later.

Later that night, we went to MIL's house to celebrate my BIL's birthday:

Now that we are parents, we have all discovered that we are no longer allowed to blow out candles on our own. The next photo is my BIL and all the kids blowing out the candles together.

1/2: Bookends

My cats were being cute.  They like to fight, but then they'll groom each other when they're done beating the crap out of each other.  I'd say all in all, they're buddies.  They should be, being brother and sister and all.

1/3: Footprints in the snow

The first snowstorm of the year.  A cat walked through the snow on our porch.  Over the next week or two, those footprints would freeze as the snow melted and froze over.  I wish I got a photo of that, too, but I didn't.

1/5: Ice storm

The second storm of the year brought us a shit ton of ice.  It rendered the snow crunchy, and the walkway so slick you could barely stand up straight.  The first pic is our Christmas lights covered in ice.  The second is my ice-covered windshield.

1/4:  Methuselah and me

My best friend's cat is a million years old.  Here we are in a Vulcan mind meld.  Photo credit goes to my bestest bud.

1/10:  Happy birthday, Princess!

It was Princess' birthday today!  SIL had a family party for her on her actual birthday, and a kids party the next day.

1/11:  Movie time

All the kids, all lined up, ready  to watch Walking with Dinosaurs.  Photo credit goes to my SIL.

I like this more relaxed photo pace.  Maybe next year I'll do a photo a day project again, but for now, I'm just gonna take it easy. Next post: Round 2 of January.