today...

is the first day since Sadie was born that I haven't done a single load of laundry.  Not a one.  And it wasn't for lack of having laundry to do.  I think the washing machine just needed a rest; maybe I'm projecting.

stuck inside of nomeville with the tempest blues again...

 Blerg... mother nature puked on us this week with every kind of ugly weather you can imagine.  I guess we kind of deserved that after the whole "oopsies! we just opened a cavernous hole in the ocean floor and spilled millions of barrels of oil into the ocean" incident earlier this year.  I'm sorry mother nature.  Humans are the worst sometimes, but please don't take it out on the Alaskans and the Kiwis.  We love you!  If you must seek revenge, please open a bottomless rift and swallow Gadaffi and his heartless regime.

So here we are in the aftermath of blizzard number... ah, whose counting anymore. After 3 days of 50 mile an hour winds, grounded flights, and freezing rain the snow has worked itself into cement like substance which means my plan of digging a dog-proof mote around the perimeter of the fence so our hounds don't go skipping down Front Street every time we let them outside is officially foiled. And now it is getting cold again. Too cold to dig a mote anyway--tonight it is supposed to get down to -45 with the wind chill.  And look at this:

warm storm.

 We have been having some blizzards this week.  Today's blizzard is brought to you by winds of 50+ miles per hour and an air temperature of 37.  It is gusty, melty, and miserable. 

seven months

a busy collage for a busy baby

Whew! Gotta type this fast, because we're busy today.  And by "we" I mean Sadie.  Sadie is moving out of human grub stage and transforming into a MMU (mobile, mess-making unit). 

This month Sadie grew her two top teeth, which brings us up to 4 teeth total. She is doing really well on solids.  She hardly ever complains about what's for dinner, unless you count smearing your food over the table/chair/self/dogs as complaining.  We don't.

Gone are the days of staying put.  Sadie has learned to crawl.  Not just talking about army crawl, we're talking about "turn your back for a second and Sadie is in the dog bed with Cash chewing on the rawhide crawl."  She is getting quick. Along those same lines she is climbing up EVERYTHING to practice standing.  She even goes for moving targets, like mom and dads legs in the kitchen while we're trying to cook dinner, or Cash.  This month she has also learned to high five, and in the last few days she has started clapping.  So cute.

This kiddo is also babbling up a storm.  She says "mama, baba, mmmmmm, da, and bear" The latter seems to be a catch all for anything furry, which includes her teddy, Cash, Toby, and also the very-bearded Loren. She is extra chatty in the morning when she first wakes up.  This morning I was trying to get her to say "Cash" and when I said it she started looking all around off the bed for him.  It was sweet, and confirms that she is associating words with their corresponding objects, which is pretty cool. It also means that mom and dad are going to have to watch what we say now.  

In spite of the new-found chaos of having a mobile baby, we just couldn't be happier with this little Sadie bug.  She fills our home with so much joy and sweetness.  There is just nothing better than the happy laughter and toothy grins of a seven-month old.

The 365 days of shorts.

   My first year of teaching in Nome, I noticed a strange phenomenon.  Every morning when the bus pulled up to school a large portion of the kids would disembark wearing nothing more than a t-shirt and basketball shorts.  Well, I thought to myself, it is September, and although there was frost on the ground this morning, and the temperature is below freezing, it will warm up to at least the 40's by the end of the school day.  No need for a jacket yet, right?

happy St. Valentines

thirty below

Well, we knew the relatively warm winter weather wouldn't last forever.  On Wednesday, the thermometer began to dip down, down, down. Now it is for-real cold.  Thirty below not counting wind chill.  What have we been up to?  We have been inside staying warm and busy.