SNOW!!!

Since Eli was born, it has snowed once a year. Today was our lucky day. It has snowed off and on all day long, and been so beautiful to look at through the windows. It's so soothing to be inside a warm house and look outside and all you can see is trees and steadily falling snow. Scott and I are both appreciative that we no longer live in Truckee. While living there, the snow became a burden. But, here in Georgia, getting snow once a year is magical. Today was the best accumulation that Scott and I have seen since we moved here. Here are some pictures of the snow all around our house.




Eli was content to stay inside "warm and cozy" in his pajamas and watch the snow fall.


Here's a picture of our photographer after he'd gone outside to take our snow pictures.


Then, Scott went back outside to build Eli a snowman. He built him in our front yard, right in front of our bedroom window so Eli could watch the progress. First, he made him a fireman snowman, then after checking with Eli, borrowed Eli's Bob the Builder hat. Then, we had Bob the 'Noman.

Painting

After seeing how much fun Eli had with finger paints, I've been looking forward to introducing him to other paints. Finally, Eli got some paint brushes, water color paints and painting paper (thanks Grammie!). The other day he painted with both his water colors and his tempera paints that Scott bought a few years ago. So far, he seems to be interested in the process more than the product. Methodically, he painted with each color in order. He also loved the messy elements of the project and helping me to clean up by washing all the brushes in the sink.

Imagine It

Over the vacation, we stayed close to home. As I talked about in my last post, Scott spent a lot of time outside getting our yard into shape for the impending warm weather. I also have a new obsession -- Blurb.com. I am in the process of getting all the blog so far made into a book. I'm addicted. It has consumed a lot of my time, but it's so fun. It's giving me a reason to look back through all my old posts, fix the grammar (I apologize!), look over all the pictures and put everything in new layouts. In high school, I worked on the yearbook, so the layout aspect of the project has brought back memories and been a blast.

One day, we did venture out of Peachtree City and into the big city -- Atlanta. We played for a few solid hours at Imagine It and then shopped at Trader Joe's. Imagine It never disappoints. Eli played with many of his old favorites like The Moon Sand...



The Conveyor Belt...


and the oversized Legos...



But, this time, Eli's favorite part was the ball machine. He loved putting balls in the intakes, turning the wheels and gears, and steering the big crane and delivering more balls with Daddy.

A Productive February Break

Scott has been off of school this week. It's been wonderful having him home. He's been VERY productive. He has transformed our backyard and nearly doubled Eli's play area. He hacked down bushes, thorny vines, and general overgrowth. The results are dramatic and make playing outside much more inviting to Eli. Thanks Scottie!

Here's Eli helping Daddy load some of the cuttings for the recycling center.



And, a few shots of our new and improved backyard.

Jumping Jelly Beans -- Money Well Spent

We have belonged to Jumping Jelly Beans for almost a month now. It was definitely money well spent. I had no idea how much his confidence in climbing and jumping could improve in a month. It's been really neat to see. Scott and Eli average about five visits per week. Sometimes I come along, and sometimes I'm at yoga when they go. We've started bringing our own slightly deflated beach ball since there's always a rush on the balls and he can grab, throw and catch his own ball the best.

I loved playing with Eli the first two days we joined -- climbing and jumping and sliding right along with Eli. Then Tom pointed out that they had a "no pregnancy" warning on the side of all the inflatables -- bummer. It's still fun to watch Scott and Eli romp around, but I'll be really happy when I'm no longer pregnant and can play again too. The other day Eli and I went to Jumping Bridge Park after Storytime at the library. I was so impressed by how his skills and new-found confidence at the jumping place translated to playing at the park. He climbed up a lot of things that used to be a struggle without any hesitation. And, he went down the slide head first "Superman Style", something he's never tried before. Then, the other night at Jumping Jelly Beans he climbed up everything all by himself and slid down all the slides by himself too. He even slid down the big slide all by himself which is especially impressive since it's HUGE. Here are a few mediocre pictures from his victorious night.

Happy Valentine's Day

Eli made ten Valentine's Cards to send to family here in town, in California, and in Nevada. Fortunately, I came up with the idea and bought the supplies in late January so we had about two weeks to work on them. We needed the two weeks. It turns out gluing hearts and doilies on construction paper, then decorating with markers and glitter glue is a little overwhelming for a two year old. But, they turned out pretty cute, so I'm glad we did it. And, Eli really enjoyed working on them each day, although about five to ten minutes a day was sometimes all he could handle.

28 Weeks

I have been a little lame about posting belly shots, but here's some recent ones. As of yesterday, I'm now 28 weeks! Crazy! I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. Scary... I am excited about her impending arrival, and I do seem to settle into the idea of being a mother of two more and more every day. But, it's still pretty scary. I feel like Eli is so well behaved, well adjusted, and we have such a nice, relaxing little life. And, of course I'm worried about how he will adjust to not being the center of all our universes (is that the correct plural?). But, I know that I never wanted him to be an only child, and I'm sure we will all be okay after an inevitable rough adjustment patch. Let's hope...

I have had a WONDERFUL second trimester. I had relatively few complaints. As long as I kept up with my yoga, chiropractic visits, and monthly massages, I had no back pain, which was my only occasional complaint. I'm now officially into my third trimester, and all of the sudden I was feeling really tired. I got a little worried. I didn't want to feel this wiped out for the three month duration. Luckily (or unluckily), turns out I was fighting a cold. Now Eli, Scott and I all have a little cold. Nothing awful, but of course, it will be nice to feel like myself again. And, hopefully this pregnancy will be like my first one, in that I should feel great until the last few weeks.