Other Pix from the Week

Snowed In!

We really did have quite the snowy day. Of course the snow started just as we were on our way to preschool - it was a full on blizzard. Traffic lights out, blinding snow blowing everywhere, little sedans slipping and sliding every which way. Thankfully our jeep did fine. The problem was all the other cars that couldn't move anywhere. It took us nearly 40 minutes to get up 1st South from 11th East to 13th East, try to turn south on 13th, then u-turn, go back up 1st South to University Street, south to 4th South and back home on 11th East. It was that bad. We made a good try for preschool, but it was just too nasty. Luckily I called our beloved Miss Patti and she reassured me that they wouldn't be doing anything of vast importance today... as opposed to the unmissable preschool lessons every other day...

Once the snow stopped around noon it was actually a really nice day with some sun shining on the piles of much-needed fresh snow. I thought the day was really going to drag out forever with nowhere to go, but we filled it up with making pizza dough, homemade play dough, and inviting Brandon and his mom over for the afternoon. The kicker was after they left and Troy and CTP spent over two hours in the back yard building a magnificent snow fort. I couldn't believe that C stuck with Troy that long, and vice-versa, frankly. Troy was so cold in his jeans and fleece but C kept wanting turns at digging, which he did very slowly and carefully. They've really had some great father-son time together the past few days.

Q & A

Q: What is worse than having a child with the stomach flu?

A: Having two children with the stomach flu.

Q: What is worse than having two children with the stomach flu?

A: Also suffering from pretty good "morning" sickness.

Q: What is worse than having two children with the stomach flu and suffering from morning sickness?

A: Ending up with the stomach flu yourself.

Not pretty, folks. Not pretty. Just ask Troy. He's the one who had to spend his Sunday mopping us all up, and he's the one who's been sick with a nasty cold for four days. That's all the detail I can give without getting into the severly disgusting...I'll just say this. Shouldn't pregnant moms be off-limits or something? Seriously! Today everyone is pretty much better except me...oh wait, that's just the regular morning sickness.

You know, there was one upside to this day. Well, two. First of all it was a Sunday so Troy was totally available. This was not something I was able to handle on my own. Second, CTP has never been so sweet and tender and polite. He mostly just curled up like a little bug on the couch, watching shows and dozing. He was so sweet with his daddy - specifically requesting Troy's presence next to him because "I need daddy to feel better." He asked for everything he needed in the sweetest little voice with a please and a very deliberate thank you. If only he were like this all the time, minus the barfing, of course. He fell asleep on the floor at 7:45 and that ended our day.

Many Goings On!

So much to tell! First of all, let us joyfully welcome baby L to the Romney clan. Adam has no longer a family of three, but of four. L, a girl, arrived on Friday the 16th at 6:00 p.m. and is beautiful. She actually looks a lot like her big brother S, and he's beautiful too. Adam tells some very funny stories about S on his blog, and the account of L's arrival begins a second Adam-blog. I encourage you to check them out. Adam is turning out to be as funny a writer as his dad and brother. Oh my, that S cracks me up.

Peter's wife, Sheri, is also expecting in October, making the third Romney baby due this year. Holy Fertility, batman. I am hopeful that Sheri and I will have smooth pregnancies and happy births as well. Yay Whitley! L is the only Romney baby born not in the late summer/fall. We have (count 'em) six grand kids all born within three months of each other, three of them within 10 days, and my next one could make the fourth in those 10 days, if we ever figure out when the heck I'm due.

Other happenings? Nothing as exciting as that, I'll tell you. Troy is in San Diego for a few days on business so I'm doing the single parent thing for a few days. Not too bad, but due to the morning sickness we're watching a lot of shows and CTP is having many play-dates elsewhere. Pregnancy is starting to settle in - I'm definitely looking the part, which is nice. I like wearing maternity clothes instead of just the largest articles of clothing I can find. My lump is no longer squashable. Of course, I am wondering if I'm having triplets, due to the two superfluous lumps to be found on my hips, but I think that's probably just the french fries. French fries are what get me through the first three months. I'm trying to just enjoy the journey and feel happy about creating new life along with new hips.

I'll end with my favorite CTP story of the week. We've had a few days of gorgeous weather (despite the snow we got today...) (and I know, we desperately need the moisture, so I'm not complaining). C and his buddy Ryan were playing in the front yard - actually on our neighbor's front yard, where the hill is much steeper and the grass seems to actually grow, unlike our patchy stubble. They were standing at the top of the hill, poising to leap, and shouting, "CHOWMUNGO!" just as they threw themselves down the hill in true super-hero fashion. I can only assume they were meaning "cowabunga," but the emotion was certainly there. Oh, and he would also like us to name the new baby "Ahmuncho." Let's see what spell-check has to say about THAT one.

Good Things

First of all, thank heavens for a little guy named Brandon. We are in such an interesting situation in our neighborhood - we are so close to the university that almost everyone who moves in is just here for school. The houses in the area are either huge (yeah, I don't know what happened at our place.... :) and only affordable by the very wealthy, or they have been divided into apartments. We only know one other family in our ward who actually owns their house. And, as luck would have it, they have a boy just a little younger than CTP. They'll be in the same grade, and they get along beautifully. I actually have many friends in the 'hood with little boys, but they're all at least a year older than C and none of them will be staying for a very long time. I love them all, and hate to think of them going. I'm so grateful there's a chance that Brandon's family will stay. He's another dinosaur man, (you can see them here being t-rexes,) and his mom and I trade play dates at least once a week, sometimes more. Today CTP went over there for like four hours and ...I got a nap!

Also during CTP's absense, RAP and I played outside a little bit. She, like all kids, just loves puttering around outside. She loves running down our driveway, poking the dirt with a stick and just frolicking in general. Her language seems to be developing at last. For months now she'll jabber like a little loon but will only sign actual words. I would say in just the past few weeks she's started trying more words. It's pretty cute. Today she tried "eat," "bath," "toast," "hold you" and best of all, "poopie."

Up Up and Away

Up into the mountains (well, into the foothills anyway) and away to the zoo. What a wonderful morning. Somehow the smog has mostly cleared out of the valley and the high for the next few days is around 50. Isn't it ... a breath of fresh air? Yes, I heard about the weather & immediately left for the zoo. We're at a good zoo stage here - both kids can run around all they want, I don't really need to carry anyone - occasionally RAP, but mostly she walks everywhere. The animals were up and moving, stretching their legs. Our favorite was the gibbon - he was in his outdoor globe of a cage, and swinging around and making quite a racket. The shot of RAP is of her mimicking him. Here is a sample of the gibbon's antics:

We spent two hours wandering around, stomping in snow, enjoying the wildlife and the expensive zoo popcorn. I think Hogle Zoo is doing a great job with the animals. If you haven't been there lately, I recommend the new Asian Highlands exhibit - it houses the large cats and it's really spectacular. If you can catch the tiger taking a swim, you're a lucky soul. We also enjoyed the great apes. CTP took one look at the huge male organutan and said, "Oh Mom, isn't he adorable?" Hmmmm. Not too sure about that, but okay! RAP's comment was, "Pie!" Anyway, hallelujah for good weather. I don't know if you've picked up the subtle nuances from my previous posts, but I'm about sick of winter. Could you tell?

Filling Up Our Days

My question is, How did the pioneers do it? How do people living in northern Alaska do this? We're scrambling here to find enough to fill our days without watching t.v. 100% of the time. I got a little jealous reading the Durham's blog - I am sure it's still quite cold up in Seattle, but I saw lots of blue sky and kids having outside time. How lovely! Truthfully, we did get some light snow that cleared the valley of the smothering smog for at least a few days, but we're still too wet and cold for much outside time.

Thank heavens for Oma. My mom took CTP on an outing for a few hours on Tuesday to the Dinosaur Museum up at the U of U. They came home with quite a project for him - a little prehistoric rhinoceros kit complete with a plastic rhino to paint and also a little block of sand to dig rhino bones out of. This was a project that really did take the whole day - I thought that because it was a kid's toy the sand would chip away pretty easily. Uh, nope. We dug at that thing all day long until I finally ran it under hot water in a sieve to release the little puzzle of bones. A bit tedious on my end, but it was right up CTP's alley.

As for RAP, she has discovered that she adores drawing. I'm really trying to not read anything into this or get hopes up about having an artist - it's just nice that she'll focus on something for a while. She drew the other night for more than an hour. Yes, she gets messy and so does the table, but I love to watch her immerse herself into the experience. I think I need to find a new medium for her - something between markers, which are so messy, and crayons, which frustrate her terribly. She also started saying a new word during this project:"Happy!" Sorry this video is sideways. I am obviously a little slow, and I'm having great difficulty in figuring out how to get it straight. In the meantime, please tilt your head for best viewing. :) )