Mama said there'll be days like this...

Well, today is it! Today is the day when absolutely everything has a hilarious twist in my mind and I am laughing at the strangest smallest things. Today is the day when I open all the blinds to see the snow and the sight of it makes me cold, so then I turn the oven on to 350 and sit in front of it with the door open and the heat rolling out. Today is the day that I see my neighbor girl curled up in a pile of snow that looks as comfortable as a lazy-boy and I actually consider taking her a quilt so she can stay warm and take a nap there. And, for you poor readers that might make it through this post, it is a day of random stories and things you probably won't laugh at unless you are having one of those days too.

Jack is loading the dishwasher while I type this blog. He is a helpful little baby.

Last week he mastered shrieking at the top of his lungs for every reason from anger to joy. He would leave my nerves shot by the end of the day. I was embarrassed to take him grocery shopping, afraid to keep him out past bedtime, frittered to try thinking during the day while my ears were bombasted. I don't really enjoy shattering noises, loud music, sharp sounds, or balloons popping. This shriek had all the characteristics of a balloon being popped in my ear. I considered wearing ear plugs. I tried everything my husband, mom, fellow friends suggested that seemed helpful, nothing impacted it.  I tried mooing, buzzing, and singing with him, he would add them to the shrieks but they just didn't hit the spot enough to replace them. Yesterday however, we reached a new level of understanding. "The Roar" I roared at him while we were playing with a little set of wild animals while he was in the bathtub and it really seemed to resonate with the deepest level of need for expression. He loves it. Now when he needs to say something emphatically it sounds very much like a loud, guttural roar. This is a noise that makes me laugh, and I am not embarrassed to reciprocate in the cereal aisle. I told my friend Anne of this success today, she needed to know because we canceled a coffee date last week while I was in trepidation of him shrieking the entire time, and she laughed and said something like "I don't know if it is normal for kids to raise a kid"...I guess we'll see how he is when he is grown up :)

Jack is taking inventory of the pots and pans while I blog. He is very productive. I should be inspired.

So, this morning we had another "don't put that shirt over my face" experience while I got him dressed. He would prefer only button ups that don't block his sight, or access to his mouth. So, I put it over his head, he frowned profoundly at me. I held out a sleeve and he inserted one arm, still frowning. Then I held out the other sleeve and he didn't move. One short pause and then he took a deep breath and roared. It said it all. I roared back in agreement that the sleeves were the worst part and then he stuck his second arm through. Such happiness to understand each other and keep our hearing.


Jack just caught his dad and conned him into picking him up. Ha. :)

He is pretty good at that actually. They sat and watched the blizzard together Tuesday.

Sometimes I can start a fire by myself, and sometimes I can't. Last night I did. I used a carving that Jon wanted to burn because it was always just getting moved from room to room. It started beautifully. As soon as it was burning I had a sinking feeling that it was one of those "we said we were going to burn that but we probably really meant we were going to keep it on the mantle or hearth with the pile of kindling and firewood for 25 years and never actually have the gumption to sacrifice it" moments. The ironic part is that it was a goat. Later that night Jon commented on what a good fire I had built so quickly, and I mentioned the sacrificial goat helping. The look on his face confirmed it was a "I can't believe you actually did that when we said we were going to burn that we probably really meant we were going to keep it on the mantle or hearth with the pile of kindling and firewood for 25 years and never actually have the gumption to sacrifice it" moment. I felt really bad. I gave him a moment of silence to stare into the ashes. Then we turned off the lights and went to bed quietly.

Proof that I grasped the err of my ways immediately after it was too late - I thought to take a picture.

Jack is now reading yesterday's mail in Jon's office. Hopefully he won't fall into any of the sales traps from credit card companies. He is very young and naive.

Monday night I saw the weather channel predicting 17 inches of snow overnight and knew that school's would be closed the next day, canceling our Good News Club, and that our roads would not get plowed quickly, keeping us inside. So, the only logical thing to do was to invite Kim, Daniel, and Josiah to come over while it was still clear and get snowed in with us. It worked! Monday night we made pizza and watched half of a movie that I don't think we really care if we finish or not, Tuesday we talked, did laundry, played games, made lunch and dinner (and breakfast I guess) and took naps, Wednesday Daniel had to burrow out of the neighborhood to go shovel driveways but Kim stayed and said how nice it was for us to treat her like family and just take her in under our wings. I try. I mean she is my sister afterall. Besides, Josiah likes it here.

Besides, Jack didn't want Aunt Kimmi to leave. He was teaching her lots of new tricks!

ok, she taught him this one.

Jack is now counting snowflakes out the back window. I think I'll count it as math for today. Early Education.

I can feel Little Bit moving almost daily now, as long as I sit still for more than 10 minutes. Moving makes me remember that the baby is half-cooked now and I should probably start thinking of names to consider. So, I curled up by the fire yesterday with three baby name books and started looking. My top pick was J'mohki - It is Nigerian for "Everyone loves this child". It is pronounced Jew-moe-key. It kinda sounds like Java Monkey to me. Jon says it is close enough to Jack he is just going to start calling him J'mohki. Besides, if we just call Jack J'mohki then I won't have to think of a middle name that fits it.

Jack is now alphabetizing the Odyssey albums he found in a low cupboard by the piano. That should cover spelling for the day.

I think I rambled enough for now. Kudos to you if you are still reading!