Frosty the...Victim of Hemorrhagic Fever?

It snowed a couple of inches yesterday.  Enough that I had to go out and buy a shovel, rock salt, and other supplies that a family that has never been in charge of their own snow removal does not own.

Andrew was a surprisingly helpful shoveler.  Even better, the never-used boots and snow pants from last year fit.  Finally, my knack for buying the wrong-sized clothes pays off.
 

After the shoveling chore was dispensed with, Andrew and I built our first snowman together.  I was in charge of the base, Andrew did the head. We topped it off with a baby carrot nose and two grape Skittles for eyes.

Today Frosty seems to be listing to one side and the Skittles have dissolved into a red smear.  Our snowman looks like he has taken ill with Ebola.

Next snowstorm: sledding.  We're ready for winter.

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas -- hope everyone had a nice holiday.  We had a relaxing Christmas day at home that began with Andrew shouting to us from his crib, "I'm ready to go downstairs and open my presents!"  He descended the stairs very slowly and timidly, taking everything in and then asked quietly, "Where's Santa?"  While perhaps momentarily disappointed that Santa hadn't spent the night on our couch just waiting for him, Andrew quickly cheered up and eagerly opened his presents.

Sporting his new frog slippers:

Mastering his new racetrack:

 Going through his stocking:

The video below shows a bit of Andrew's running commentary as he delved into his stocking.  It was a lot of fun to spend Christmas with an almost-3-year-old.

Longwood Visit

In mid December we paid our annual visit to the holiday display at Longwood Gardens.  Here is Andrew with the garden railway.

Lately whenever we visit some place where we are using a map, Andrew insists on taking charge of it.  

Holiday Festivities

We spent an afternoon recently at our favorite local orchard (yes. again.) where we visited Santa, did some Christmas crafts, went on a hayride, cut down our own Christmas tree, and toasted marshmallows.  It really is a fun orchard!

One of the crafts was this bird feeder pinecone below. It's been hanging on our front porch for a week without any takers.

Andrew was considerably more excited to visit with Santa this year, compared to last year. He asked Santa for a truck and as Greg led him away from the sleigh he looked around in confusion and asked, "where's my truck?"

Below: Drinking this winter's new favorite treat -- hot cocoa with marshmallows.

Our tree decorator:

Andrew's tree trimming style can best be described as "concentrated."

Hanging the stockings by the chimney with care.  A REAL chimney this year. No more fireplace DVD for us.

The legitimate fireplace came just in time, as this year Andrew can better grasp the Santa myth.  He has been expressing concern about the whole fireplace/chimney situation though, asking Greg this weekend, "Can you please don't burn Santa."

Voting Day

I explained to Andrew that he would accompany me when I voted tomorrow and tried to lay out what voting was all about.  I am sure he took it all in.  I then solicited his opinion:

Carrie: "We get to choose between Obama and Romney - who do you pick?"
Andrew: "Robin" (the name of the child whose birthday party we attended yesterday.)
Carrie: "No, not Robin.  It's Romney or Obama."
Andrew: "O-bono."

Maybe he's on the right track.  I'd probably vote for Bono too.

Trick or Treating

Trick or treating was a considerably more ambitious undertaking this year compared to last Halloween.  Andrew got right down to business knocking on doors, saying "trick or treat," occasionally barking like a dog, and eagerly diving into the bowls of candy proffered.  Extracting him from the candy bowl and prompting a gracious "thank you" was our challenge.  He took in quite a haul of candy.

Here is the little doggie out in the neighborhood.  It was daddy who posed him next to a hydrant:

Arriving back at home to find our supply of candy barely touched.  Despite the armies of children we saw out on the street, we only had a handful of trick or treaters.  Even more candy for us.  Terrific. 

 

 
Reviewing the contents of his pumpkin bucket.

More Halloween Doings

Quick, before Frankenstorm knocks out our power (and possibly rains out Halloween), I will post some pictures of sunnier times this weekend.

We picked out pumpkins at our favorite orchard.  Andrew insisted that he and daddy select big pumpkins because "we are big."  In the end, he went with the one in my lap since he could lift it. 

The orchard also has a petting zoo, featuring these freaky orange-eyed emus that Andrew wasn't too crazy about.

Back at home, Andrew was somewhat interested in carving a jack-o'-lantern, but refused to touch the inside of the pumpkin because he "didn't want to get his hands gooey."  Not sure where these fastidious standards are the other 364 days of the year...

Boo at the Zoo

Yesterday I took Andrew to a Halloween event at the zoo, where kids wore their costumes and could trick or treat and do crafts at stations throughout the zoo.  There were jack 'o laterns in the animals' cages, some of which fared better than others (the jaguar's seemed like it had been batted around a few times).

Here is Andrew the doggie (yes, we finally settled on a costume), riding a flamingo on the zoo's merry-go-round:

And here he is with a gorilla, wearing the pumpkin button he made.  For the record, the animals rated a distant second to the candy tables in terms of Andrew's interest. 

Liberty State Park

We spent Saturday just outside NYC visiting Andrew's Uncle Ricky and Aunt Kate.  The weather was perfect and city views were amazing.  Andrew was delighted to see his aunt and uncle and had a grand time picking up microscopic pebbles along the river walkway and visiting an "old fashioned train" on the park property.  Lately Andrew points out a lot of things he deems "old fashioned," sometimes accurately, sometimes not.  Ricky and Kate's iMac was proclaimed old fashioned, but apparently that was just because they were wisely hiding the keyboard from him.

 

Gluing

After Andrew took such an interest in decorating his "princess pumpkin" a few weeks back, I stocked up on similar art supplies. As a result, we have been churning out masterpieces like the ones below at a rate of 1-2 per day.  Googly eyes and puffballs are heavily favored.

Halloween prep

We visited one of those Halloween superstores and purchased this UPS man costume in an attempt to get Andrew to start finalizing some of his Halloween costume ambitions.  Over the past several weeks he has expressed interest in being Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, a fireman, Humpty Dumpty, a construction worker, a princess, a dog (because he wants to be able to lick his ice cream bowl clean and I told him only dogs lick their bowls), and an M&M.  Yesterday I was informed that the UPS costume can go back to the store.

Maybe some early trick or treating with his grandparents will inspire him to settle on a choice.  Clearly he is enthusiastic about his upcoming Halloween bounty. 

Future Firefighter

Last week a fireman visited Andrew's school and let the kids take turns with the hose.

Parade

Andrew attended his first parade this weekend.  It was unsurprisingly a hit, given that many of his favorite things were featured: fire trucks, old fashioned cars, musical instruments, M&Ms (many parade participants threw candy to the crowds), and Minnie Mouse.

Below Andrew timidly greets this feathered and spangled fireman/musician.

There were a lot of local politicians shaking hands.  Most gave out candy, but one gave Andrew a flag.  We also have some giveaway bottled water in our refrigerator featuring the face of a policitican we won't vote for...but I am not one to throw away a handy bottle of water.

I thought these antique bikes were just plain cool:

And here is the highlight, a hug from Minnie:

Fall Fair

This weekend we went to a fair at a nearby historic house museum.  Andrew took his first pony ride on Peanut Butter,

practiced his archery

(just kidding), and decorated a pumpkin.  This latter activity occupied his attention for an impressive 20+ minutes.

His favorite decoration was by far the feathers, which he attached to most surfaces of the pumpkin with liberal doses of glitter glue.

Here is the end result:

Andrew proudly explained that his pumpkin was dressed up as a princess.  Every time he walks by it in our house he exclaims, "What a beautiful pumpkin!"  It has been an ample source of amusement to Greg and me over the past several days.

Vacation Part 2 - Chicago!

I've been dying to visit Chicago for years, so an EP board review course for Greg was just the excuse.  We arrived early and had a glorious fall day to tour the city together via boat and on foot.

Our boat tour guide pointed out Ferris Bueller's dad's office building.  I was pretty excited.

Andrew in midair, bounding up and down the bridge to the Art Institute:

Our favorite site was undoubtedly the bean sculpture in Millenium Park.  We have 74 pictures that are variations on the ones below.  Andrew really got a kick out of it, but truthfully Greg and I were equally enthralled.

Partway through our tour we bought Andrew a little firetruck at a souvenir stand.  The fire engine is now well-acquainted with all of Chicago's top tourist destinations.

 

 While making our way to Buckingham Fountain below, we crossed the street in
front of an actual Chicago firetruck and all the firefighters honked and waved at Andrew.

While Greg was in class Friday-Sunday, Andrew and I visited the Children's Museum at Navy Pier as well as the aquarium and river front with my cousin and his two children.  Andrew tore through the aquarium exclaiming, "I found another fish!"  The three of them were absolutely giddy during a "4D" Planet Earth movie, featuring rumbling seats, wind, and even a little mist.  The kids couldn't believe that an elephant had the gall to spray them.  I am just glad we weren't thrown out of the film because Andrew wouldn't stop wondering aloud, "What's going to happen?!"