Friday, December 12, 2008

It's a snow day!

Charlotte and I woke up this morning to half a foot of beautiful, fluffy soft snow; what I call "jingle-bell snow". School is closed, so we've spent the morning lazily watching TV (Sesame St., Clifford, Between the Lions, etc.) and drinking cocoa. It's a good thing we had that day at the MOST yesterday, or we would REALLY be tearing our hair out!

A full day home with Charlotte can feel very long. She is full of energy and bounces from one thing to the next. All I really seem to do on these days is damage control. I get quite a workout. Seems like I should weigh 20# less than I do, but all the cooking and eating probably balances the running around and up and down stairs.

Now that she's napping, I have an opportunity to write, though I should really shovel the steps and sidewalk. Later on I'll bake some bread and maybe try my hand at a pot of posole. I'll have to improvise since I don't have every item in the recipe. But I have the essentials: pork, hominy, onions, garlic. I'll report on the outcome.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

How to wear a kid out while sipping a latte and doing the NYTimes crossword…

This is my first post.

The kids had half a day of school today. Since Charlotte and I are both experiencing an early bout of cabin fever, I suggested to my mother that we all go into Syracuse and visit the Museum of Science and Technology (aka "MOST"). I had never been, nor had Charlotte.

Well, there is this fabulous climbing structure with steps and rope ladders and tube slides, but best of all, hundreds of soft foam balls that you can shoot from air "guns" or just toss down the slides. Charlotte climbed and tossed and slid and ran for three hours until her wobbly little legs just couldn't hold up another minute!

The whole contraption, which is really huge, is all enclosed with netting so kids can't fall over the side or between the steps. I thought it would be nice if the museum would add a some kind of ultimate enclosure so we parents could zip the kids in, then sit with a latte and the NY Times for a few hours. ;-)

Really though, I have never seen this kid sustain such a long burst of energy. She just kept going… and going… and going.