Snow Day Blog Day

We have 4 inches according to the news but I'm sure if the weather man had to get in and out of our unplowed "cul-de-sac" he would adjust that number significantly. Maybe the 4 inches applies to some scientific-weatherific formula and it is exactly precise but lets try a different formula:

Our "cul-de-sac" (note the quotations), doesn't have it's own name, it is just part of Florida Ave, so I guess as far as the city is concerned, since Florida Ave has been plowed our little 4 house semi cirlce doesn't need any special attention. So, that four inches that was piled uniformly accross Florida Ave is now piled about ten inches high (on top of our 4 inches) accross the entrance to our "cul-de-sac" -- how is it possible that the road immediately outside my door can be any worse than HWY 93 on a day like this??? Oh it's possible...

So since we're snowed in...I'm catching up on pictures/blogging from the weekend (which included a really fun snow day!).

Super Bowl Sunday - since we don't care about the Packers and definitely not about the Steelers, Sunday was all about the food. As I mentioned I selected a slow cooked ribs recipe from my slow cooker recipe book "Maple Ribs" -- it turned out to be really easy! The hard part was browning the 8 pounds of ribs on all sides before getting them into the cooker - I just didn't have enough hands! But after that It was a matter of mixing maple syrup and spicy brown mustard which looked disgusting but after a couple minutes of measure and stir that was all there was to it. I did experience the joy of slicing an onion into ringlets for the first time - that was intimidating but with luck I didn't even need my back up onion - but it's now Tuesday and my fingertips still smell like onion.

browning

piled up in the cooker

cookin away!

Since that ended up being a lot easier than I anticipated, I had time to make some little weenies (also very easy - boil and smother) and I improvised a queso dip too! Left over velveeta from slow cooker mac n cheese and rotel and sausage - I think I have Chile's recipe.

Weenies!

Queso!

There was so much food that by the end of the 1st quarter of the game I was totally full, totally bored and ready for a nap! Is it just me or did SUper Bowl commercials used to be soooooo funny? Now it's all about who is in it (Beiber and Ozzy, Eminem, Simon etc. etc. etc....) it seems to me that like 10 years ago they were ridiculously hilarious and never had anyone famous in them! Though I will say that last year's Letterman/Oprah/Leno was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

Anyways, while I was inside cooking the boys were outside playing - my frontyard is now a race track!

These busy boys went through about 4 pairs of snow mittens and 3 cups of hot chocolate -- but they had a blast. Aiden was really so sad he had to come inside...until he saw all the goodies on the coffee table and began to munch away.

Today looks like it might be a different story though, the snow is still coming down and by the time Aiden gets up from his nap it's probably going to be so crappy and cold out that he won't be enjoying it much. But that is because he was up all night on and off -- nope these days never do go away all together...

Sleep has been a really tough thing to corner for me with Aiden - it didn't occur to me to ask anyone for help until Aiden was 9 months old, I just figured I was going through the typical stages, needless to say I have had my "what will you do different next time?" answer ready since then! Anyway, he was such a good bedtime sleeping after that until just a couple months ago. We thought he was ready for a big boy bed but turns out he wasn't, it was a nightmare and we had to go back to the crib.

When I talked to the doctor though she reassured me that everyone lives out that nightmare while transitioning to a big kid bed. Turns out, we are ahead of the curve on potty training and what most people don't know is that doing both at once can hinder success for both. Since we went back to the crib, his potty training seems to be back on track. Most people/experts/baby police tell you that if you don't have complete success in one month you need to start over but I don't know how we would even go about that -- tell him the potty is bad? Take it away for a week and reintroduce it?? That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard -- especially because Aiden knows what it is, what its for, and even if he can't say "I need to go now" he has interest in going all the time anyway and when he has an accident he is aware of it...so yeah it's taking more than a month but thank God I don't have to have everything done just the way the books say because he's going to be such an independent little boy. He's going to do things at his pace and his comfort level and the best part is that he will be aware of what he is doing.