Sneaux Day!!

When we woke up this morning, it was just wet. However, around 7:30, the rain turned into sleet and then into snow! We ran outside in our pajamas to play (bad mommy!). Luckily, school had been cancelled since Thursday night.






After a while, we came back in and Anna got dressed. Then we spent most of the morning outside.



Fritz LOVED the snow! He kept trying to eat it as it fell.






Anna was about 20 months old last year when it snowed, so she didn't remember what it was like. She was incredulous when we told her that she hated it! So, we watched the videos that I took last year and she quickly became obsessed with throwing snowballs.



She had so much fun!




Here's the backyard around 8:30 am. The snow was falling steadily at this point.



We took a little break, dried Anna's coat and mittens in the dryer for a while, then went back out!



Anna and Daddy built a snowman.





Then Daddy tried to hit Anna with some snowballs!



Here she is trying to hide!




Then she decided to throw some snowballs BACK at Daddy.









A view of our street.

Mardi Gras With The Mutts

Last Sunday, we went downtown to see the "Krewe of Mutts". The Pasquiers staked out a spot on the front lawn of the old governor's mansion and we met them right before the start of the parade. Sara and Anna had a great time running around!




They were able to see the parade a bit better from these choice seats.




Mick was excited to see all of the people and their dogs.



Sara was in the front row on the street watching the parade, but Anna got bored after a while and shared Mick's stroller for the rest of the parade.




I'm so happy that the Pasquiers are back in Louisiana! It's really nice to have such good friends close by!

The parade was made up entirely of dogs. They were dressed up and being pulled/pushed in wagons and strollers. Lots of the people who were watching also brought their dogs (so there were more dogs watching than parading). At the end of the parade, I overheard this lady saying, "Well, that was kind of disappointing..." REALLY? Didja think a parade of dogs would be spectacular??

A Winter-y Mix

This post is about the past week, and there are quite a few things that have occurred:

We went in for the more-detailed 21 week ultrasound. The single umbilical artery was re-confirmed, but more importantly, everything looks GOOD! The ultrasound tech really spent a long time pointing out our little dude's anatomy and explaining why what she saw indicated that he is normal- so no visible birth defects! Dr. Dickerson reiterated the tech's report. We breathed a sigh of relief!

He was weighing in at about 1 pound, which is 50th percentile on the growth charts. It is so amazing what you can see on the ultrasound! We saw lots of brain development (both hemispheres, sulci and gyri, corpus callosum), kidneys, stomach, bladder, hands, legs, feet, obvious boy parts, and below is a picture of his face. It's a little freaky, but I think it is so cool!



And here is the 21 week belly shot:


Anna was getting ready for the Saints game and modeling her "Who Dat" wear, created by Shaun. Actually, this was his mask, but Anna absconded it.



Shaun has been singing "Pants On the Ground" to Anna, so here is her version of it:






We decided to paint our (very beige, boring) kitchen over the weekend. We were going for a sunny, happy shade of yellow...

Anna wanted to help, but was just too tired to paint when this picture was taken.



She did, however, help us tape up the kitchen before her nap.




Once she woke up, she was raring to go! Aren't Shaun and I brave?




Anna actually painted for a while, and did a great job covering this corner by the door. A couple of minutes AFTER this pic was taken, she painted the door... So I put her to work making some coffee in her kitchen.



Here are the results. It's a little, um, brighter than we expected. The border is another project down the line...

We are fairly pleased by the results. At least it's not beige anymore.

Cold(s)

During the first few weeks of January, we endured a cold snap that seemed to last forever! We had an entire week of highs in the 30's! This wouldn't be much of a problem further north of here, but our plants and buildings were not made for such low temperatures!

So why do you see such big smiles? Because school was cancelled!! Yay! The Yankees would laugh if they knew under what conditions we had our "snow day", but we appreciated it nonetheless.




So on our day off, Anna and I went to the Pasquier's house to play!



Here's Anna, pretending to be like Kristen and me (the momparazzi).



She's starting to get the hang of taking pictures...



And, of course, she and Sara have to play "dance party":




More "dance party"!




Once the cold snap had passed, Anna had a little "cold" of her own. It quietly escalated into a nasty respiratory virus. In fact, I think Anna was running fever for about two days before it dawned on us to take her temperature- she felt warm (which we attributed to her inability to stay still for more than 20 seconds), but never acted sick. When I finally took her temperature on Sunday afternoon because she was a little whiny, it was 101! I put her to bed for a nap and hoped it might go down on its own...

Unfortunately, Uncle Stephen was already on his way to visit. Anna awoke and I could tell she felt bad. However, as soon as Stephen walked into the door, she had a miraculous recovery! He made her a CD with some fantastic songs, so here are two videos of their "dance party":








Do I get the award, "worst mom of the year" for letting my child go bananas while she had a high fever? I hope not. Anna's fever was finally gone this morning, but I kept her home to recover. We were both going a bit stir crazy, so we took a little walk down to the park.



Here's where Anna grabbed the camera and started taking pictures. She finally understands about getting the subject into the picture, though I can't say that the "two year old" angle is the most flattering- yow.



This is one of my favorites: Anna's point of view. "These my pink neakers, mommy!"