Sledding, Outer Banks Style

Since snow is so rare in this area, we naturally don't have a sled. Heck, we don't even own a snow shovel. So when we finally did get some snow, we did what everyone in the neighborhood was doing and broke out our boogie board to use as a sled. It actually made for a really good sled, albeit with zero ability to make it go straight. But since it has a slick bottom, it would glide on the snow with ease.

Kasia loved pretending that she was Santa Claus and that we were her reindeer. She kept going "Ho, ho, ho! Giddyup Rudolph!"

Let It Snow!

Snow is somewhat of a rarity here in Moyock. Snow is actually a rarity in the entire area. At the mere hint that it might possibly snow, everyone goes in to panic mode. If it's forecasted to snow, schools are closed and everyone stocks up on canned food. A lot of times though the snow never comes. They build up the hype, and then we're all let down.

So it was really a nice surprise that this time when they forecasted it would snow, it actually did. And boy did it snow. We got around five inches of snow, and it was the perfect snow for building snowmen or having snowball fights. When Kasia saw the snow in the morning, she was practically bouncing off the walls. And while this is not the first time she's seen snow, it's the first time she's been excited to go play in it.

We went out and it was still coming down pretty hard. The first thing we had to do was roll a big snowball for our snowman. And reaching deep in to her creative name making region of her brain, Kasia decided to name our snowman Frosty. Brilliant.

We also had to have a snowball fight, because Kasia is obsessed with snowball fights for some reason. She also helped to clear all the snow off the cars. Since we don't get snow very often, we had to make sure that we made the most out of the time that we got. It was a ton of fun.

Kasia's New Bed

Kasia had been sleeping in a toddler bed for the last year, and while she really loved it, she was quickly outgrowing it. She now has a "big girl bed" from Flexa. What's Flexa, you ask? The next time you run in to Kara, ask her. But be prepared, because you may get a twenty minute sales pitch in which she'll talk about the "Nordic pine" and throw out phrases like, "the bed that grows with you."

It really is a great bed, and Kasia really loves it. Or, as she would say, "It's berry, berry cool." She really needs to stop watching TV.

Let's Roll!

We were recently blessed with some really nice weather, and for the first time in a long time, we were able to play outside. Kasia really wanted to go rollerblading and wear the "big kid" rollerblades. So she got her helmet on and strapped on her wheels. She then proceeded to slowly creep around the driveway with care.

It's hard to imagine that now too long ago she was just learning to walk. In fact, it seems like just yesterday I was sitting on the floor with her trying to get her to crawl.

Too Much Television

A sure sign that Kasia is watching too much TV is that she's starting to mimic the language of certain cartoon characters. I've noticed lately that Kasia has completely eliminated the word "very" out of her vocabulary and has replace it with "berry" ala Strawberry Shortcake. So yesterday when we were playing outside, she kept saying "This is berry, berry fun!" I shook my head in shame.

So we're cutting her off from the TV and we're going to all sit around the fireplace and read aloud old Thoreau novels.

And in complete irony, we just signed up to get cable this week and we now have more channels to watch than ever. Strangely though, we now have fewer kids' channels than before because instead of having six PBS stations, we now only have two.

Freezing in D.C.

One of the things we wanted to do while Kara was off from work was to go up to Washington D.C. for a day to walk around the mall and see the memorials. Originally we were planning on going up before Christmas, but there was this crazy blizzard that dumped two feet of snow on the city to ruin our plans. So we went after Christmas, when the snow was gone and the cold was on in full force. It was cold. It was really, really cold.

We did manage to thaw out just enough so that we could see the Lincoln Memorial and the WWII memorial, but that was about it. Kasia had a great time poking at the ice in the Reflecting pool.

As we were walking to the WWII memorial, this squirrel walked up to us and just stopped in front of me and posed for a picture. Or maybe he wanted food. Or maybe he was just saying, "I'M REALLY COLD! HELP ME!" Alas, we had no food, and he just wandered on to the next unsuspecting tourist.

It was a fun day despite the cold, and it helped me to make up my mind that I will never willingly go back to Washington D.C. again if I can help it. The traffic in the city is horrible. It's almost as if someone designed the city just so that there would be a traffic jam on every single street possible. I think that explains why a majority of politicians are idiots. They're all suffering from some advanced form of Road Rage.

A Very, Merry Christmas

Christmas was very special for us this year. Kasia was finally at an age where she understood what was happening and was extremely excited for Santa Claus to come and visit. So it was a little surprising that when Christmas morning came, with presents under the tree, Kasia woke up and immediately wanted to... stay in her room and play before going downstairs.

Eventually though she did want to come downstairs and see what all happened over night. The first thing she was amazed about was that Santa had in fact eaten the cookies and drank the milk. She didn't comment about all the presents at first, but the fact that the cookies were gone really impressed her. By the time she got to the bottom of the stairs (and it took awhile) she finally saw the stocking was full, and the presents from Santa were there.

We spent the next few hours opening presents and playing with our new toys. Santa was very good to everyone this year, and Kasia got so many new toys, that it took us a few more days just to open the boxes so she could play with them. It wasn't until around monday that we finally opened her last toy so that she could play with it. That's the sign of a really good Christmas.

Later in the day, we went over to Kenny and Sandy's house for a really nice Christmas dinner. Kasia wore a cute little red dress and even conceded to wear tights for the entire evening. At first she was flipping out over having to wear them, but then when we showed her that her new doll was wearing tights too, she didn't seem to mind anymore.

So despite the fact that we had a lot of rain instead of snow this Christmas, it was still a very wonderful day.