What Happened to Those Five Weeks?

Wow, it's been forever since I've posted! Since December 17th! OK, let's get caught up.

New York December 2009

The highlight of December was a visit from my sister Tricia and her husband Frank. The girls were very excited to see their aunt and uncle and were counting down the days until they arrived.

Tricia and Frank had never been to New York, so we planned in advance to drive there during their visit and spend three days. We ended up delaying our trip by a day due to a big snowstorm, but 24 hours later the roads were clear so off we went. Ruby (our van) did just fine.

Tricia and Frank had their own hotel arrangements and we each went our own way so they could explore without having to deal with kid logistics. We stayed at our gracious friends Brady and Julie's apartment. It was fun to see New York both decorated for the holidays and also with a bunch of fresh snow. We went to a couple of museums, had dinner with our friends Bill and Sara, visited Grand Central Station and a few other sights and had a good time just traipsing around the city in winter.

Christmas 2009

On Christmas Eve we drove back to Boston. Christmas morning the girls ripped into their gifts and Carol made her traditional cinnamon rolls. Carol and I did pretty well this year at keeping the girls' gifts pretty modest. Well, except for the new Wii that is.

We knew that a video game would trump all other presents, so we let the girls play with everything else all morning and then in early afternoon we hastily organized a treasure hunt that ended at the Wii. The girls were thrilled. They've really been enjoying it and I think we're doing an alright job of limiting the amount. Sometimes Carol and I play after the girls are asleep.

Holidays 2009

Tricia and Frank were still here for three days after Christmas so we did a little sightseeing. We took them to Salem and its Peabody Essex Museum, and also to Rockport which is a scenic seaside town. In summer it's mobbed, but we had the place to ourselves. We bought some fudge and taffy to support the winter economy.

After our visitors departed I still had a week off. One of the days we drove down to Newport, Rhode Island to visit the famous mansions there. Only three of them are open in the dead of winter, but they are the three best ones: The Elms, Marble House and The Breakers. They are spectacular. The amount of money that went into building (and maintaining) them is astounding, especially considering they were just these families' summer homes.

The Beach in January

We've had about 50% more snow than normal so far this winter. I think we've had about 6 or 7 snowfalls of 4" or more. We've also had slighly below-normal temperatures. Last Saturday we had a day of sunshine and 45 degrees. It felt like Spring! So we headed to Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester. Audrey hates bulky clothing so she was in heaven running around without a jacket on. Both girls had fun poking around in the sand and the shallow water and the snow. There was a weird zone at the high tide mark where about 6" of snow was covered with sand. It looked like normal firm sand, but when we stepped on it we sank in with a crunch. A very strange sensation.

Well there you go. We're caught up. I have a bunch of raw video from New York and Christmas that I need to edit. I'll post that when I can.

Oh, some very exciting news for me. Audrey has been learning a lot of phonetics in Kindergarten and doing very well at it. We bought her some Bob books which are for beginning readers. The last two nights Audrey has read two of our bedtime stories! Watching my kids learn to read is one of the things I'm most excited about as a parent. I'm thrilled.

Winter is Here

Ah, vacation. I'm in my third day off of a three week vacation and boy is it sweet. My favorite part is I get to take both girls to and from school every day.

Winter is officially here now. We had our first real snow on December 5th, about 4 inches or so. It lasted several days, including plenty of good sledding in the neighbors' yard. This week is is cold. Last night it got down to about 12 degrees and it is only 16 degrees right now at 9:30 AM. It was a brisk walk to school this morning. Audrey and I didn't see anyone else walking; I guess all the other parents wimped out and drove (it's two blocks away).

Winter is Here

We are getting the most out of the Museum of Science membership we bought last month. We have been several times and we still haven't seen the whole thing. I took both girls last Sunday and we spent six hours there. It was nice to give Carol a good long break. What did she do to relax? Bake holiday cookies!

Photo Experiments

Finally, here are a few experiments with iPhone photo manipulation applications. One lets you remove all of the color in a photo and then paint back the color in just the areas you want. The other applies distortions to the photo. I like what it does to Charlotte's already big brown eyes.

Conversations with a Four-year-old (ongoing)

Charlotte: Mommy, can you make me into a mommy?

Mom: What do you need to be a mommy?

Charlotte: Toilet paper.

Sledding Fun

In early December we had our first real snow of the winter. Our next door neighbors have a great slope in their back yard for sledding. This video was shot and edited by neighbor Scott.

Tivo Kids

A conversation over breakfast this morning:

Charlotte: I had a really bad dream last night. I had 100 bad dreams and only one good one.

Audrey: Did you fast forward through the bad ones?