Much Better, Thank You...

The last few days have been a big improvement for all of us... it's been sunny more often than not, Aiden is (momentarily) healthy, Andy and I are slowly recovering from our colds. We even got a report from daycare that Aiden was being a "big helper," putting away toys and putting little scraps of paper in the trash bin! From bully to teacher's pet in one week! And he learned to say the word "please" this week too... so no more excuses for the ol' "point and whine!"

Lately Aiden is obsessed with throwing snowballs. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to make them yet. He's sort of like a lobster with rubber bands on his claws in his winter mittens.

He is also obsessed with his new gumboots- we bought him rubber boots in anticipation of mud/sugaring season, which is fast approaching. Ever since he saw these wonderous boots with their elephants and alligators and lions on them, he wants to wear them around the house constantly. Clop, clop, clop, clop.

We also broke down and bought a new digital SLR camera this week, which officially is for both of our birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and christmases until retirement. It was expensive but already seems well worth it! I swear I don't know who will still be bothering with film in the next 5 years. It's so nice to have all the control over your photos that you get with an SLR, and get to instantly see if you adjusted to the right settings. If not, re-shoot!

A Rough Week

Poor Aiden has been having a rough week. For some reason (teething? cold? nightmares? spite?) he has not been sleeping well at all, and Andy and I are back on the "every two hour" schedule of newborn parents. Then yesterday he got sent home from daycare with a case of pink eye. When i showed up at daycare to get him, I couldn't see anything wrong with either of his eyes, but once you've been banished for the day, that's it. You're gone. Even though we don't think he actually has pink eye, we had to get the torturous, four-times-a-day-eye-drop prescription or else daycare won't let him come back. Poor little boompa! And we've been getting reports that he's being a "bully" at daycare, and that he actually bit one of the other kids "causing a fair red mark" (quoting from the 'incident report'). Since he was on the receiving end of a daycare bully bite about six months ago, I guess what goes around comes around. But anyway, its been a rough week for the little guy.

It doesn't help that it has either been snowing, sleeting, freezing rain, or FRIGID here lately. There are few things more endless and grey than a Vermont winter! We do our best to get outside but Aiden often thinks his parents are nuts for not staying inside in the warm playroom with a fire in the woodstove.

We've been renting a "chariot" to pull Aiden around at the local XC ski place- we can't tell if he likes it or not but he doesn't complain and he does shout "WHOOOOAAAAA!" every time we ski fast down a hill.

Yesterday we caved and took him to one of the very few (two) places you can take a toddler to run around inside in winter up here. The MALL. Yuck. We realized that the mall is definitely a hang out for parents with toddlers because the place was literally swarming with strollers and kids who learned to walk within the past year. Actually, I did have to find something to wear to an upcoming wedding so it wasn't all about Aiden's sanity. He definitely enjoyed the "merry go round" and sprinting up and down the aisles.

TODDLERS ARE INSANE!!!!!

Natural Rodent Control

We have a new feathered mousetrap in our backyard! Last week Andy took out the trash in the evening after it was dark and noticed one of our bird feeders was swinging back and forth violently, as if something big had just jumped off of it. Thinking it was some raccoon coming out for a mid-hibernation snack, we didn't give it much of a second thought.
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Then yesterday I got home from work about 5:15 and as I pulled up the driveway there was a big Barred Owl sitting on the feeder. He didn't move as I parked about 10 feet from him, so i sat in the car and watched him for 20 minutes. Twice he heard a little "rat-bastard" (as Andy would say) under the snow and pounced to the ground. Both times he was unsuccessful but he flew back up and kept listening. When Andy pulled in at 5:30 with Aiden in the back seat, the owl still kept sitting there like it was no big deal that two cars full of staring people were right in front of him. Finally we had to get out of the cars and he flew off, but not too far because an hour later he was back at his perch. We figure he must be having some success hunting for rodents attracted to fallen feeder seed, or he wouldn't keep coming back.

I think we'll name him Mauser II.
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This isn't our owl, just a copyright-free Barred Owl photo. It looks just like him though!

Yay GIANTS!

Ok, so Andy was pretty excited (and mildly shocked) at the Giants winning the superbowl last weekend. Mini-Manning, as we like to call him, was also excited, though he had no clue on earth why. We taught him to stretch up his arms when we shouted "touchdown!" and he did the rest on instinct, running around like a standard crazy baby.

The whole thing was pretty funny for me, since I have never been able to get into football anyway... no matter how hard I concentrate I can't piece out or recognize particular plays; it always just looks like a bunch of people running straight into each other like a bighorn sheep rut. I do remember at the start of the season Andy's comment was "wow, the Giants are going to suck this year," and after the first few games he and his brother were discussing who the Giants should select as their first-round draft pick, since obviously they would have the worst record in the league. So, like i said, the whole season has been amusing to watch from my perspective. Though I imagine last Sunday was not so amusing for all our friends who happen to be Pats fans. Oh well, there's always next year!

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We had planned to smoke some ribs in our new electric smoker since Andy's Dad was coming up last weekend. When he had to postpone his trip, we decided to make them anyway to eat during the big game. They turned out pretty good, we loved the cola sauce mop but I think we could have smoked them a few more hours so they would be falling off the bone.