Baby It's Cold Outside.....

As I sit here on the couch sipping my hot chocolate and typing, the weather man on TV is stating that ANOTHER wind chill advisory is in effect. It is suppose to get to -30 to -40 with the wind chill factored in! Now that is COLD! Now I know why I just can't get warm! Not even lukewarm. We had over 80 hours of the temperature not getting above the zero mark! And now that it is above zero, that is if you count 2 degrees much above zero, with the wind chill it once again knocks us down below zero! I love how the weather people are so positive and excited that it is going to be in the teens in the 7 day forecast! WOW - it may be 10 degrees tomorrow! It is a heat wave here in Minnesota!

Okay, enough complaining. Yes, it is cold, but you just don't go outside unless you have to. Yesterday Evan and I went to Edinborough Park which is an indoor park and so much fun. We have been there a few times and every time I forget my camera so here is a picture from their website. Edinborough Park is a kid's heaven. There is a huge gym with balls, basketball hoops, sit-on-scooters, and a moonwalk, an indoor playground with swings, and a huge play structure which is shown in the picture. The play structure is even fun for me! I love climbing up in it with Evan. There are all sorts of slides, tunnels, ropes, balls, etc. It is HUGE- 44 feet tall! So these are the things people have to create so all the Minnesotans don't go stir-crazy with all this cold weather.

Otherwise not much going on here. Evan has a cold and is constantly asked me to "nose white" aka "wipe my nose". I've decided that Evan's brain doesn't take a break. He is always pointing out what color things are or what letters he sees. Evan loves to be in the car and when we come to a light he yells out "Green light, GO!" or "Red light, Stop!". It really is too funny! Plus it is nice to have a backseat driver making sure I am paying attention. It amazes me how much he really knows and picks up on. The other day Evan started singing the ABC song starting with the letter G and only missed 2 letters by the time he got to Z. I have sung that song, but had no idea that he was listening, let alone knew it! Even as he is going to bed his mind is racing and he starts saying what color his blanket is or starts talking about Percy or James - which leads me to another subject....

Thomas the Tank Engine. Is there a Thomas the Tank Engine Anonymous? Evan is a Thomas addict. He LOVES trains! Evan will play with his train set for a good 30 minutes all by himself, which I feel is pretty impressive for his toddler short attention span. He has a "Thomas Yearbook" which is pretty much a glorified way to say the Thomas catalog. Evan will pour over it for 10-15 minutes at a time. Telling me all the trains names and little stories about them that he has seen in movies. I guess I am glad he has something that really interests him and keeps him entertained so I can make a phone call or do the dishes. This picture is from mid-December of Evan eating his hot dog out of his train Emily. No, I didn't put his hot dog in the train. I put it on a plate and he transferred it. I guess he felt that Emily needed to pull her share of the weight.

Oh wait, one more thing. How could I forget? Evan has retired "ba" aka his pacifier. One week ago today Evan was getting ready for his nap and he handed me his pacifier saying it had a hair on it. He does this often, his cute curly hairs get stuck on his pacifier and it drives him crazy. So I pulled off the hair and handed it back to him. Evan stuck the pacifier in his mouth and he pulled it right out saying "yucky, ba yucky". So I decided to take this to my advantage and asked Evan if we should throw it away. He never really gave me a yes or no, he just kept saying "ba yucky" so I took it as a yes and told Evan I was going to throw it away because it is yucky. Needless to say, it has been rough when it comes to nap time or nighttime. Evan has actually only asked for ba 4 times in the last week since it has been "thrown away". I am a wimp and couldn't really throw it away. I just put it out of Evan's sight so I could grab it if I got at my whit's end. I think he doesn't ask for it because he feels as if he gave his permission for me to throw it away and knows it is gone. It is taking him a lot longer to fall asleep without it - over an hour at times. He doesn't cry but wants Rob or I to lay with him or rolls around in bed a lot before he falls asleep. Or he gets out of bed and comes to visit us downstairs. It doesn't help that he has been sick these past few days. Evan use to love his nap because this is when he got to visit his friend "ba". He would lay down, suck on ba and be asleep within 3 minutes. Evan hasn't been so keen on naps since ba hit the road. He eventually takes a nap but much later than I want him to. So when it comes to nighttime, Evan isn't tired at his usual 8pm bedtime. Oh well, I think we have gotten through the worst of it and we will just hang in there and get Evan adjusted to sleeping without his dear friend ba.

Well speaking of sleep, I best be off to bed. Have a good weekend!