Moments

I am very lucky.  Part of how I know this is that I've had a lot of "best year of my life" years.  I feel a little bit like Nicholas, who declares things the "best ever" quite freely.  But I am struck quite often by the fact that as crazy as life is right now, this is a year/phase that I am going to look back at in old age as one of those best ever ones.

This is the realization behind the sudden increase in the number of videos I'm taking.  When Nicholas was a baby and toddler I naively thought I'd remember it all.  I mean, how could I forget the sound of his voice saying those early words?!  And yet I now know how fuzzy that has all gotten.  And I just don't want to forget them at this moment.  And since goodness knows I am not good at posting anymore, I won't have a written record.

So what is it that I'm trying to capture?  What is it about this phase?  It is each of them individually but even more it is the two of them together.  They are at a sweet spot in their sibling relationship, where Elizabeth is old enough that they can interact and yet Nicholas isn't so old as to not want her following him around.

Elizabeth wants to do everything Nicholas does.  Today he got a temporary tattoo and so she wanted one.  So I drew on her arm with marker.  And she is 1 so she considered the green circle I drew on her arm completely equal to his minion tattoo and spent half the day blowing on her arm because she had seen Nicholas blow on his tattoo when we first put it on.  And the grin on her face when she did it!  She was like her big brother!  She calls him "Ni-Ni" pretty reliably right now, which is basically the equivalent to Mama or Dada when you think about it, repeating the first sound of the name twice.  ("Lizzie" by the way is something like Di-dee.)

And when Nicholas decides to click into big brother role he is truly amazing.  There are times when I catch him reading to her or playing with her or helping her put her shoes on that my heart almost bursts.  I love that they love each other so much and I also love that he has such a good and caring heart.

Not that it is always perfect.  Nicholas sometimes just wants to do his own thing and doesn't want to play with her, which is completely fine except for when we're outside in the snow because it makes my life much easier if he'll go down in the sled with her.  And occasionally he is too rough with her, although that really isn't often and he is very rarely actually mean.  Most of the times he hurts or upsets her are actually because he forgets he isn't an adult and tries to carry her somewhere (today resulting in having his arm wrapped around her neck) or tries to stop her from doing something she isn't supposed to.

From 2015 March

From 2015 March

From 2015 February

Big Girl

Elizabeth looks like such a big girl these days!

From 2015 March

From 2015 March

From 2015 March

Pictures

I included a few pictures in the last post but there are some more that just didn't fit with the words that I thought you'd enjoy.

This is the ridiculous amount of snow in front of our house:

From 2015 February

And that was taken a week ago, so before the last 16 or so inches fell. 

To give you a point of comparison for what our front yard is supposed to look like, here is a picture from our first snowfall:

From 2014 November

Notice the bushes that hve disappeared completely.

Some other perspectives of how much snow we have.

Nicholas standing on top of snow piles:

From 2015 February

From 2015 February

And the kids' swingset:

From 2015 February

But there were a couple good days of sledding.  Elizabeth even started saying "Go Go!" to go again:

From 2015 February

And Nicholas did an amazing job as the big brother (after the first couple times down when he was so intent on holding her tightly that he didn't use an arm to brace or steer and so they both tipped out headfirst into the snow)

From 2015 February

From 2015 February

And there have been fun moments inside as well:

From 2015 February

From 2015 February

From 2015 February

We are so very fortunate and I know that.  I am jsut hoping that it holds out and the house can make it through this snow and the melting without damage.

Jumping the Shark

This winter has jumped the shark.  It has just gotten so incredibly unbelievably ridiculous, beyond anything I ever imagined.  And the thing is that even when the snow finally stops falling (if that ever happens, which is starting to seem unlikely), we won't be done with it because there will then be months of problems caused by melting snow.  I've lost track of the actual number of storms and inches but the pattern has been one storm each week of 12-30 inches and another day of somewhere between a coating and 3 inches.  Every. Single. Week.  So far, however, we have been incredibly fortunate.  We know so many people who have water literally running in their house from ice dams.  We have ice dams but so far no leaking (and I am knocking on wood as I type that).  My bigger concern right now is the accumulation of snow on the roof and what happens when it rains and the snow absorbs the water (and weight).  Needless to say, this weather is not helping my anxiety.

You would think all the snow days would have given me lots of free time to blog but between the kids being home (and therefore pushing work to evening hours) and all the hours we spend dealing with snow, there just hasn't been time.  I envisioned clearing the driveway but I didn't envision pulling snow off the roof with a roof rake  or having to go into the yard and pull down the snowbanks along the edges of the driveway in order to make the mounds short enough that the snowblower could blow over them.  And all of this takes more time than you'd expect because to move anywhere requires wading through snow up to my waist in what used to be our yard. I had devised an ingenious plan to use a piece of plywood as a platform to allow me to stand on top of the snow, which did work well and made me taller, but carrying plywood through 3 feet of snow and positioning it was strenuous!

From 2015 February

One thing we have done a lot of with all the snow days is working with Nicholas on various lessons.  It is amazing how much they can learn in a few days.  I think a year of homeschooling and he'd be in 5th grade.  I would have completely lost my mind, but that is a different story.  He learned basic fractions and how to add with carrying, learned to tell time on the 5s, learned the letters of the keys on the piano and how to find the right notes as long as the letters were written inside of the music, memorized about a million facts about animals (thank you Wild Kratts), and worked on measurements.

We also have had a bunch of dance parties, made paper airplanes, watched more tv than I should admit, talked on Skype, and have driven each other crazy.  But I am so so glad for the basement and the little bit of a change of scenery it offers.  We can go outside some but some days it has been too cold and Elizabeth can't do long spells anyway since she can't walk out there (the snow is literally taller than she is!).

Lizzie mimics her brother more and more with each passing day.  They really started interacting more around Christmas and all these snow days has just intensified it. 

From 2015 February

She just wants to do anything he is doing.  

From 2015 February

(There is a video in the album of her trying to fly a paper airplane because brother was.)  Yesterday Nicholas had a friend from school over and Lizzie followed along beside them.  She can't say it yet but her actions were saying, "Me too!  I want to play too!"

Snow!

This makes quite the contrast from the previous post.  Elizabeth has gone from short sleeves on the beach to being bundled up like the little brother in A Christmas Story.

From 2015 January

We got 6 or 7 inches on Saturday and then another 20-24 today.

The only good thing to come from Clair's move to Florida is the snowblower because I doubt we would have bought one if they hadn't been getting rid of theirs and that saved us (okay, mostly Joe) literally hours and a lot of physical strain today.  He had to fight some this morning because we already had 17 inches when we got up and so the snow was literally higher than the snowblower (but not the spout, thankfully!).

From 2015 January

But we weren't going to go out at 3 am to do a first pass.  He did go out first thing this morning, though, even though it was still snowing pretty hard and I'm glad he did because I don't know if it would have been possible to use the snowblower once it got much higher.  He then did another round this afternoon, which was much easier because even though it snowed all day, it was relatively light most of the time.  There is still some cleanup work to do in the morning (including the wall at the end of the driveway--ick!) but in terms of square footage cleared we are in good shape.

We spent most of the day playing inside (and eating--it feels like we've hardly finished a meal before it is snack time and then almost before we've cleaned up they are hungry again!  I didn't expect that for another 10 years!)  We also tricked Nicholas into doing schoolwork for most of Elizabeth's naptime (as soon as I reminded him that it was a school day and started calling things by their school subject names he was on board) so we could get some work done.

Then we finally went outside to play for a bit in the afternoon.  Elizabeth and I were probably only out for 15 minutes because her face and the space that wasn't staying covered between her gloves and her sleeves were getting bright red (it was less than 20 degrees out and still snowing lightly), but everyone had a blast.  Joe worked to create a little sledding track (which was hard given how soft the snow was) for the kids to go down.  We weren't able to have the kids share the sled today because their combined weight was making them sink, but Nicholas then went over the track dozens of times after Elizabeth and I went in, so hopefully by tomorrow it will be firm enough that they can share the sled and Nicholas can help keep Elizabeth from falling (see the video in the January album).

I wasn't sure what Elizabeth would think this time around.  She was not keen on the snow at Thanksgiving, but she is much more capable now.  I doubt Nicholas would have enjoyed sledding at her age, especially after the first time falling.  I think last winter is the first time we even tried with him.  But Elizabeth is our adventurous one.  She was a little skeptical at first, but quickly warmed up to it and kept asking to go again, even after we thought she must be freezing.

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

And Nicholas impressed me so much.  He has turned into such a big kid.  On Sunday he went out and created his own sledding track (with instructions from Joe but doing the work on his own.  I was out with a friend and Joe was inside with Lizzie) and did a great job (Joe took a video for me, which is in the album).  And today after Elizabeth and I went in and Joe went back out front to do the second round on the driveway he stayed out there working on the track for a long time. 

From 2015 January

He got very frustrated at points, but got it back together and worked on a strategy and eventually got it to work the way he wanted.  I love that he is willing to play by himself like that and am so grateful that we can keep an eye on him from the warmth of the house. 

From 2015 January

I do leave a window or door open a few inches when he is in the backyard so I can hear him so a little cold air gets in, but way better than being outside.  And so Elizabeth and I watched him through the storm door while Elizabeth tried to convince me to put her gear back on so she could go join him.

I am sure this snow is going to cause us all sorts of headaches in the weeks to come, but for today at least it has been okay.

From 2015 January

Florida

Elizabeth and I spent 4 days in Florida and it was amazing!  The best part was getting to spend good quality time with friends.  And the younger child of each of the friends we went to visit is within a few months of Elizabeth in age, which was lots of fun (and made the logistics easier).  Also, sun.

Before we could get to the sun, however, we had to get out of snowy New England.  Luckily the snow slowed down enough for us to get to the airport, but we then had a flight delay.  But there were snowplows to watch, so it wasn't a complete loss.

From 2015 January

  And Elizabeth got to spend 45 minutes running around the airport, burning off energy and entertaining all of the other travellers.

We spent the weekend with one of my college friends and her family and did all sorts of fun animal-related activities.  On Saturday we went to a manatee viewing center, a spot near an electric plant where the manatees apparently come because the water is so warm.  It was cool to see them in the wild (or sort-of wild), but there wasn't actually much to see, especially for the kids.  For the most part all you could see were a bunch of lumps in the water (their backs).  You could sometime see their noses come up, but the view was much better at the zoo the next day.

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

On Sunday we went to the zoo, which is of course one of Elizabeth's favorite places.  That girl and animals! 

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

And the girls had a lot of fun together.  And I think Vita and I had even more fun watching them together.

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

Then Sunday evening we moved over to see Clair and the family and I was shocked that Lizzie seemed to remember them.  To me it seems like only weeks since they moved but it has been about 1/3 of her life since Elizabeth saw them.  But she went right to Clair and jumped into playing with the kids with no hesitation.

It got even warmer in those last two days so we spent a lot of time outside.  Clair's kids had school/daycare during the day so we spent the mornings taking Lizzie outside to explore (and taking lots of pictures of it), the afternoons working, the early evenings letting the kids play together, and then girl time after the kids went to bed.

Elizabeth's reaction to the beach typifies how different she is from Nicholas.  It took Nicholas 3 or 4 years to get to the point of being excited about going in the water instead of scared of the waves.  Elizabeth was very unsure of the sand at first

From 2015 January

but was very excited by the water and fearless.  Only a couple months ago she was hardly walking and now she is literally running into the waves and I had to chase her down the beach.  This girl is pure spunk.

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

Also, the birds:

From 2015 January

Clair took those awesome beach pictures.

From 2015 January

She also took some other good ones while we were there.

From 2015 January

Elizabeth looks so different here. Her hair looks redder with the good camera and the humidity made it much curlier than it is in MA.

So many good memories with friends!

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

From 2015 January

Typing

Nicholas completed Mickey's Typing Adventure and broke the spell to free Mickey!  He is up to 7 wpm with 97% accuracy.  Go Nicholas!

From 2015 January