Nor'easter my Keister

There is a term out here for a Northeastern storm called a Nor'easter. It is funny because people talk about it as if doom is about to strike. I'll admit it has been a lot of snow adding up (the most in I think 15 years or something here), but each individual snowstorm hasn't seemed that crazy. Everything shuts down...schools close hours before the first snowflake falls, etc. It is funny because it is a little like Portland, but at least Portland has the excuse that it really doesn't have the structure to deal with snow on roads. Connecticut does. Plows are out all night and roads are awesome in the morning. I'm grateful they keep us safe, but Adelaine hasn't been to school in a week and Lukas has had like 3 days in the last 2 weeks. I heard that it would be a dark, dreary winter for me here, but the snow has been beautiful, managable and it has been sunny a lot (not like Colorado, but rarely dreary). So glad (I even have the sweetest red cardinals and chickadees that visit our birdfeeder outside our kitchen window everyday all day).

In other news, we've been so grateful for a couple of friends we've made here and I've attache some photos of fun at the museum. Adelaine is playing with Ben and Jack - Lukas' too best buds (and Adelaine's hopes for marriage). I love these super neat kids and their families.

Pest Control

When we first moved in, we saw evidence of 1 or more mice in our house (it is freakishly old house and there are loads of ways they could get in). We put the very inhumane traps to work and caught ourselves some mice and haven't seen much else. However, the other day, Lukas noticed Molly (the dog, not a friend) sniffing around the kitchen and I told him she might smell a mouse. He said "You know Mom..." (which means he is about to say something sarcastic)..."if you give a mouse a cookie.....then..."
At least he remembers some books we read him - I think I'll start reading more about little boys who are too big for their britches!

A couple weeks ago, Lukas didn't help our pest control as he wanted to make a "bug trap" (but apparently trap to him means "nice cozy place to eat, live and stay"). He took a big box - made all the appropriate parts to a aquarium from cutting out a hole to cover with saran wrap so they have sunlight, made them a gymansium to play on and separate dining and sleeping halls. All was good until I went to leave that day and I found that trap right in front of the back door with a long plastic tube placed in it. THe other side of the tube was through the bottom of the door and outside so that the bugs could smoothly transition from outside to their new inside home. How sweet. Where is the Raid spray?

Tricksy Little Hobbit

Attached are photos of a great Christmas break with fun of new friends in Connecticut, family in Colorado (both mine and Adam's) and my sweet roommates in Colorado. We were only briefly in Colorado just after Christmas, so I didn't get so see lots of friends and focused on family, but it was good.

Adam has been reading the Hobbit every night to the kids and they love it - I find them having pillow fights or acting out some part of the book constantly and disgustingly saying "Precious" a lot.

Adelaine has recently added a new level to her wit, which both delights and scares me. It began when she would fart and we would say, "Adelaine, did you fart?". She would shyly say, "I don't think so" so sweet that you really thought to yourself, "Wow, maybe she didn't fart or maybe she doesn't know if she did.". Well, yesterday I realized that this "I don't think so" phrase is just a clever cover up for things that she neither wants to lie about nor admit to. Yesterday she was driving Lukas crazy by making up complete gibberish about how horses live in snowflakes. She was totally straightfaced and went on and on very convincingly. Lukas KNOWS horses don't live in snowflakes, but when someone goes on THAT long THAT seriously about how horses can live in snowflakes, you have to wonder (I suppose). So, he started saying that Adelaine was lying. She calmly and shyly said, "I don't think so." Lukas insisted that she was lying. SHe calmly laughed and said, "I didn't hear myself lie. I don't remember lying." (again...I'm fearing my future when she comes home past curfew neither admitting nor denying where she has been "I don't remember drinking alcohol"...etc etc) Lukas continued to get angry calling her a liar. She kept calmly looking at him and saying "Lukas, you are so funny. You are such a jokester."

How can he respond to that? You are angry with someone and they keep the act going to the point where they are acting like you are even in on the act. I both wanted to give her a high five for getting even with Lukas for all the ways he gets to her while also wanting to dump cold water over her. I suspect the rest of my life will be a mixture of these 2 feelings toward these 2 kids.