Snow days

Here in the winter that never ends, we're trying to maintain a sense of humor. Although yet another snow dump is certainly testing the patience of everyone, I keep a couple of things in mind:

• This isn't anywhere as bad as my freshman year of college in Boston, when I was naïve enough to believe that spring actually existed in New England and then suffered through an April Fool's Day blizzard (followed promptly by an "I must see green immediately" trip back home to North Carolina, of course).
• Even though I literally pay for the privilege of skipping work to stay home snuggled in with H due our nanny contract's coverage of snow days (standard procedure here - in any other year it would be a complete non-issue!), it's still pretty awesome. (Our nanny is fabulous, by the way. Not complaining!)

I find myself cooking a lot when the family is snowed in together. And playing with (store-bought) flowers. Last time, two batches of cookies, a salted caramel pie, and a big pot of chili. This time, a big pot of soup, some fresh, oh-so-spring-green chive oil to garnish anything and everything, decadent baked oatmeal, and a couple of kick-ass dinners. Something about seeing white outside makes me immediately want to fire up the stove.

Mostly, though, I laugh a lot with our little gal, who manages to squeeze more personality into her 14-lb frame than I ever thought possible.

I really didn't know that babies could have this much personality. I think that's been the best part of this whole parenthood thing... this girl makes it so much fun.

We set up a swing in our crazy floor-to-ceiling windows, which is hilarious both from the inside and outside. Cue the "baby in a window" jokes. We already stop pedestrians in their tracks when the pets are sunning themselves in these - by the time we warm up a bit and the weekend rolls around, I expect crowds out on the sidewalk smiling at the roly poly grinning machine doing her thing for all to see.

Life is really good these days. I mean, look at this little creature. Even when she's the Hungry Hippo or having an off day, I swear she's a total delight. I sort of feel like I did when I was pregnant, waiting for the awful shoe people talk about to drop. My "maybe I'll feel like crap during the third trimester" has become "maybe this will become awful when she's teething." Time will tell. (I never did feel awful when pregnant - I know it's weird how much I loved it. Except for the swollen feet at the end!)

We're two nights in with H sleeping in her crib, by the way - woo hoo! Everyone's making progress but you, weather. Everyone but you.