January Birthdays and such

Long time no post---

So most all pics are from Lisa and Ryan's b'day party at Bucca's at the end of January. We had a great time. And even better, some extended family came (cousin Pete and his daughter Jessica) from California. Uncle Charlie passed a few days prior so they were in town for the funeral and joined us for dinner...

IT was sad to see Uncle Charlie go, but it was expected. He was battling Alzheimer's and just wasn't himself anymore. Uncle Charlie is G'ma Bucky's brother. I will always remember U. Charlie as a very loving man with a great sense of humor. Him and Debi shared a very close relationship--and I know it tore her up to lose him.

Okay--time for my favorite U. Charlie story. I believe it was Easter, and G'ma Bucky was once again talking about how she had lost *50* lbs in the last couple of weeks. U. Charlie turned to her and said "Hey Jenny, I know how you can lose weight fast." And she turned to him and said "Yeah--How do I do that?" And with the straightest face you ever saw he said "You chop off your head!" Ahhhh-- a priceless U. Charlie moment. And the look on G'ma Bucky's face I will never forget. The love between a brother and a sister.

Anyway, we haven't done a whole lot the last month. The weather has been terrible and we often feel penned inside. If it isn't below zero here, it has been snowing--and I mean snowing, 6 inches to a foot at a time. We have already broken Madison's all time snow record and are 10" beyond it--and we have a good month of snow potential days left. Ky hasn't gotten out a whole lot either. The pics above are a rare moment when it was actually warm--and of course snowing.

He loves the snow. He just sits there and eats it. Something his father taught him to do. Sometimes he falls over in the snow and can't get up (too many layers.) This is funny---you will then here a muffled "help pwease!" until you get him up.

We did go sledding once at a church retreat. Ky had a lot of fun for about half of the runs. The other runs he didn't like so much. I think he got annoyed if snow kicked up in his face and I think he wanted to have more time to eat snow.

Rob and I had a nice get away last week at a bed and breakfast. We went to see the Madison Symphony Orchestra and had a nice dinner at a little french restaurant that turned your food into works of art. It was a good get away--but of course got cut short because of an ice storm....The Roads were really badly flooded and even today there are still really bad patches of ice where your car can't grip the road.

Our kitchen is almost done. We just need to pick out back splash and do some touch up painting. It has come a long way. I am starting to move my decorating back up stairs. We still need to finish the office and our bedroom. We will see how far we get before the weather gets nicer. Ohhhh I miss the feeling of dirt in my hands. I miss listening to the snap of my peas as I pick them and the freshness of my sun kissed produce. Can you believe green peppers are 75 cents each right now! Outrageous! I need my garden. And Ky needs to get out of the house and play. I hope to teach him some basic gardening this summer.

Assuming the roads aren't terrible, Ky and I do get out pretty much every day. Between story time at the library, playgroup, open gym, my job at the Y, and walking club we keep pretty busy--but it still makes you stir crazy for the warm weather---or just to take a simple walk outside. BTW--Ky is awesome at story time at the library. He is so little and yet sits so well and listens to the books and gets excited for the songs. And currently at craft time he is the last kid to leave. I have to hide the crayons so we can go. You never saw such an intriguing 20 month old. The Librarian is very impressed with him. He loves the librarian. Last week he gave her a giant hug.

Ky continues to astound me. He is just so smart and understands so well. He is also a parrot. he will now say anything you say--and he will say complicated words like "cantaloupe" or "prophecy." He loves to put on dad's shoes and sling a bag around his neck and go to the door and say "see you tomorrow." He will also say "see you tomorrow" when he goes to bed. If something is unusual he will say "what happened?" For example the top of this sippy cup fell in the actual cup and he came up to me with it and said "what happened?"

Today he said to the librarian "thank you librarian". What an astounding kid! He is obsessed with music. He will point to the radio and ask for "music on." He also asked me one day if Daddy listened to music in his car on the way to work. I think the sentence was something like "daddy listen music in Vroom vroom?" (he prefers to say vroom vroom over car---and well don't we all.) He sings with a few of his singing toys--this cracks me up. We have a toy where Oscar the grouch sings "I love trash" And Ky sings "I uv tash". This morning he was singing the ABC's with me. He doesn't have all the letters down yet, but I would say there are about 10 or so he can get pretty well.

Sign language is coming back. I have been talking to my neighbor and she talked to me about some videos. So I have been renting them from the library. They are 20 minutes or so and they teach about 30 words using pictures and kids. Ky loves the video. He asks for it "video pwease!" I let him watch it once a day--and it has not only got his signing back on track, but his word pronunciation is much better. Ky can currently sign the following words-- fruit, apple, milk, more, please, hungry, eat, hat, aunt, grandma, and dog.

He is currently getting 3 of his "eye" teeth in (2 top and one bottom). That makes 5 teeth to go--1 eye tooth and 4 2-year molars.

Well I think that is all for now. Hopefully the weather gets warm soon. February is always the one of the hard months, though I often think March is worse. Just the word March sounds warm-but often it is just a tease...Ahhh...summer...