Little locavore

Discussing going to the supermarket with Agatha this morning...

"We should get some gra-lo-la! Yeah, cuz I like gra-lo-la. And miniwheats. Let's get some miniwheats. And, do we have some eggs? We need eggs. Yeah, cuz I like eggs. Do they have those at the grocery store?"

Yes, they do have some eggs there, I replied.

"But... they're not local," she said sadly.

Out the window

Seems like every couple of days, another snowstorm, and they keep getting a little bit bigger... We had about 8" Wednesday night, and a snow day on Thursday. That tiny green speck in the photo above is Henry, building his snow cave with oculus.

I have been asking myself, why am I not blogging as much lately?

* Less time: Agatha's naps are shorter, and Henry is now home five afternoons a week. I enforce "quiet time" for 1.5 hours each afternoon, but that is taken up with other things-- like napping and reading a magazine!

* Less anxiety: the children are generally more fun and less baffling lately, which means I have less to work out by writing about it. This does not mean I am completely serene; they are also louder, more demanding, and busier. See above.

* Less focus: the things I'm really working on with my spare brain cells do not revolve around the kids lately. I'm trying to produce work (essays and talks and conference papers) on my new research topic; I'm trying to cultivate friendships and spend a lot of time arranging dinner parties and other social engagements; and I'm knitting a lot in the evenings-- that and spending time with Michael, also an important initiative. Some of these things are trivial, some not, but there you are: less blog.

Wait! I hear Agatha calling me from her crib: time to get up from nap! More... later?

Wintery

Here's what we've been doing to amuse ourselves in the chill of January...

We started the new year with the ritual destruction of the gingerbread house.

Long, dark evenings call for the invention of new forms of entertainment.

I set up a table in the corner where the Christmas tree was, and we've been sitting there a lot, looking out at the snow and doing our crafts. My kids LOVE to do any kind of project, so I keep trying to think up new ideas.

I decorated a onesie for our New Year's Day baby friend, Dahlia Franklin.

Superman made a couple of fly-bys.

This morning, four inches of new snow... just enough for a two-hour delay at school. Which, for us, means no preschool for Agatha, and just one hour of it for Henry-- enough for me to take trip to the grocery store and the wine shop and then pick him up again. This time I was mentally prepared for the lost morning of work, so I've been enjoying being home with the kids. This morning, Henry got up and was going about his business, searching for lost Bakugan cards, when all of a sudden he noticed the snowfall outside. "Emergency, emergency!" he suddenly shouted. "There's twenty-thousand-one-hundred-forty-eight inches of snow outside! Snow pants! Snow pants!" He choked down his oatmeal and got outside as fast as he could.

Agatha has a cold, so the snow day is good timing for her, too. She just wants to be near me when she's not feeling well, but even when she's healthy she's a love bug. Some of her most frequently uttered phrases: "Hold-a me, Mama. Mama," she'll say, calmly, holding out her arms, "I need you." Or more insistently, "Mama, I need you right-ass minute!"