Snow Keeps Falling From the Sky

We have SNOW!! Yay. It's been YEARS since we've had this much snow. Back in '08 we had that Arctic Blast, as the media referred to it. I think we had more that year, but this year my kids are old enough that they can actually play in it!!! Oh what fun. We had the cousins over, we got the sled out, we played outside for hours, the kids kicked the soccer ball up and down the street in the snow, we walked around the neighborhood playing, came in to warm up, then went back out for more hours of snow play. for 2 whole days, we had a winter wonderland! The snow was too powdery to make snowmen or snow balls, but it was perfect for everything else! Ezra seemed to just want to play solo while he did his snow discovery. Having Kiko and Rafa over 2 nights in a row was wonderful. They had so much fun. 

Towards the end of the second day of snow, Ezra was still going strong, dredging through the snow in the back yard and running all around! He grabbed a garden shovel and a small pot and began using the tools to play in the snow as if it was sand. For at least two hours! Then he wanted to swing!!! In the snow! It was coming down from the sky in bigger flakes, the wind was picking up, the temperature was dropping, yet all Ezra wanted to do was play in the snow. The freezing rain came that evening, which brought our snow play to a screeching halt. I am so thankful that we didn't waste one moment of time available to enjoy the rare opportunity to play in the white powdery snow before it turned to ice.

We made so many cold and snowy memories! 

Winter Music Class

We are taking the next session of music classes through Music Together of Columbia Ridge. Last Fall we really enjoyed the flute collection and are grateful that we were able to return for another session. This winter, we are enjoying songs, chants and the rhythms from their sticks collection. We meet once a week, within walking distance from home and join a group of other kids and adults for an hour of musical fun, which often includes lots of dancing and laughing and playing. Here are Ezra and Esperanza with our teacher Gillian.

Annabelle's Cowl

Back in October, my awesome friend Jonna took me out for an afternoon of fun for my birthday. Part of that fun included a trip to a local yarn store, Twisted. During our browsing, I fell in love with a cowl pattern then a luxurious silk yarn that would work to knit up that cowl. Jonna offered to pay for half the yarn, if I really loved it and would pay the other half. How could I refuse?! It took me several month, but once I set myself a deadline and goal, it is finally complete. I finished it JUST in time for the next and probably last super cold spell of the season. It is SOOOOO soft and amazingly cozy. Oooh, lala! 

Here is the pattern and a picture of the cowl from the web site. Mine is thicker and warmer, but just as lovely!

Esperanza's 5 1/2

I like half birthdays. Always have. I think it's partly because the 'real' birthdays are always so crazy and hectic during the summer time with high expectations by everyone of parties and cakes and presents and activities and dozens of family members and...chaos. A winter half-birthday is just for us. No high expectations, maybe a small celebration, but mostly just a celebration of life, of getting older and remembering the past as well as looking forward to what the future may bring. For me, I get to reflect on time and appreciate all the wonderful things about my kid who is growing up so quickly. 5 1/2 was a milestone for Esperanza is some ways. The whole time she was 'just' 5, up until the very day of 5 1/2, she was quick to correct me if I slipped and told someone she was already 5 1/2 before she really was. NOW, she is officially five and a half! We baked cupcakes to aid in the celebration. Happy half birthday!

She's grown about an inch in the last 6 months

Here area  few things to remember about Esperanza at 5 1/2:

• Her favorite thing to do is play UNO and she's good!
• Purple and pink are her favorite colors
• Lucy, our cat, is her preferred companion at any and all times
• She enjoys going to dance class, playing with friends, dressing up, playing pretend games with her brother, building forts, 
• Her favorite animals are foxes, big wild cats (leopards, cheetahs, panthers, etc) and horses
• She would prefer summer heat over winter cold
• Her favorite foods are pistachios, cucumbers, seaweed, kale, soup, macaroni & cheese and water kefir
• Some of her favorite friends are Kiera, Opal, Izzie & Maddie.
• Her hair is really long and she won't cut it until I cut mine, which isn't happening anytime soon.
• She's lost 1 tooth so far, just over a week ago, with no others loose yet.
• She wears a size 10 shoe and is between a 5 and 6 in clothes.

First Visit From The Tooth Fairy

At our last dental appointment, almost 6 months ago, the dentist confirmed that Esperanza had a loose tooth.  But even before the tooth was really loose, her adult tooth began coming in, right behind the baby tooth. It is a pretty large tooth, but it wasn't pushing the baby tooth out of the way because it was so far back. The baby tooth finally began to wiggle more and more. By Christmas, I wondered if the Tooth Fairy and Santa would visit our house on the same evening. I considered making a tooth fairy pillow, but was able to talk my mom into doing it instead. She sewed up a very soft red velvet pillow with a purple raw silk pocket and finished it off with a shiny gold embelishment. The perfect tooth fairy pillow. Esperanza wiggled and pulled, but her tooth would not budge. Once, she bumped it on something and it bled a little. We thought it would come out. Nope, not that day. Then finally, one day while Esperanza was eating macaroni and cheese, it fell out. I was just as excited as Esperanza. 

She put the tooth in her special tooth fairy pillow that evening and set it on the dresser next to the bed. The following morning, the tooth fairy left her a nice surprise in exchange for her tiny baby tooth! A dollar folded in the shape of a heart and sprinkled with fairy dust!. Oh the joy and wonder of it all. We have a fantastic tooth fairy!

 That gummy smile below belongs to Esperanza! She was between 10 and 11 months old there. Her first tooth can just barely be seen there, breaking through the gums. It is the same first tooth that just fell out. No wait!! Is it? It actually looks like the first tooth she got came in on the left side, but it's the right side tooth that fell out first. Hmm...

And here it is, off to live with the tooth fairy

January Zoo Day

We went to the Portland Zoo on the cheap day this month. $4 to get in on the first Tuesday of the month, plus a few dollars for parking makes the $10+ gas drive not so bad. We hadn't been to the zoo in almost 2 years (with the exception of our visit to the Akron, OH zoo almost a year ago). I have mixed feelings about zoos anyways. They make me kind of sad. The animals are cute and it is somewhat educational to see them and learn about them, but I just don't feel like it makes up for them being caged up. The Lion 'exhibit' has 3 baby girl cubs. Born in captivity of course, right in our own local zoo. They are adorable! But how sad is it to know that they will never even develop natural wild animal instincts to hunt, to kill, to run, to find a mate and become part of a pride, to feel thirst and hunger and fear in their natural environment (unfortunately, they will probably still encounter these feelings, but in a human controlled space), to birth in the wild and protect their own young...etc. Instead, they will probably be sold to another zoo, or worse, a circus. Okay, off my soap box.

Despite my opinionated commentary about how un-natural it is for these animals in the zoo, the kids had a fantastic time! We had spent some time over the past several months learning about various animals so it was nice to see some in person. The animal in particular Esperanza was most excited to see up close were the bats! We studies bats the week before our zoo visit and she has been interested in them ever since. We made it through most of the zoo in record time with no major melt-downs or accidents of any sort. It was uneventful, which is a good thing since it was just me with a 2 and 5 year old.