The Wilsons

Our second snow of the season fell the other night, leaving us with just a dusting (in the spirit of that great 80s song, “making [something] out of nothing at all” - LOL, that is, not much snow here, but the driveway was glazed over with a little ice, so the sled slid along quite easily.  And again, when the kids see snow on the ground, they’re ready for snowsuits and playtime.

Wil was dressed and out the door first.  “Papi, will you come outside?” And with that, I was roped into it.  So out we went while Mami dressed McKinley.

Wil and I grabbed the sled from the garage and the kids “snow” shovels.  They’re really garden plastic shovels, but they’re kid-sized, and Wil’s used it since last winter as his snow shovel while Papi’s out shoveling walkways.

Of course, that was when we owned the house and the 70′ driveway. LOL.  Nice thing about apartment life for the year, I won’t be doing any shoveling - or at least, not much.  Of course, don’t be fooled, I do secretly love shoveling snow.

Thing is, having grown up in Michigan and moved away from snow at 15, I always secretly longed to get back, at least for a little while.  Melodia, being both Puerto Rican and a Tampa girl, won’t agree with me on the snow issue, but the truth is, if I’m in a cold Northern city, hey, baby, I want snow.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

That’s just good music.  And, as I told Melodia back when we were dating, I wanted to raise our kids in snow, at least for a little while.  I had that in Michigan, and in some ways, I think I was better for it.  I remember being a college kid in California, with a good number of born-and-bred Californian kids, many of whom had never lived in snow, some had never seen snow other than at a distance or in pictures.  I thought, “what? Seriously?”

I just don’t want that for my kids.  And having them here, they don’t want that for themselves.  Wil loves snow.  So does McKinley. And I’m sure Izzabelle will love it, too.

McKinley only stayed outside about half an hour, then she was ready to go in for “warmies” and a snack. I couldn’t pry Wil away from the outdoors.  So I used the time to clean up in the garage while Wil upgraded to Papi’s shovel and started pushing snow up and down the apartment parking lot.  Slowly the sun came out and began to compete with him, melting away most of the snow not covered in shade.  Lucky for Wil, the front of the garage faces west and is shadowed in the morning from the eastern sun… so he was quite content to have his snow still staying while the rest was rappidly reduced to the appearance of morning dew.

We eventually made it inside the house. We enjoyed a few pieces of toast, with butter and jam (the kids got to have both! lol).  Then we bundled up again to head over to the airport.  Melodia’s mom, Maria (aka: Lala) flew into town for 5 days today.  The kids are so excited to have her here, and in truth, so are Melodia and I… with 3 kids under 4, Mami and Papi date time is either: a) few and far between or b) costly  or c) all of the above.

The kids enjoyed the rest of the afternoon and evening playing with and around Lala.  As I write, the clock says 1159pm, and I teach tomorrow.  Everyone’s asleep, but here I sit.  It’s just hard to find time to post; and I wanted to get something up.  Since bringing Izzabelle home from the hospital, we’ve moved away from daily posts (Facebook time has also affected this - we spend too much time on it! lol). Now I’m trying to keep to about one post every 5 days.  I don’t feel as if I’ve neglected our site too badly if I keep to that regimen.

Well, that’s it… until next time.

I just couldn’t help but post this photo tonight as well.  Mami and Izzabelle sure look good in it.  Here they are just before they headed out for Mami’s retreat.

Melodia took Izzabelle with her to the retreat this weekend.  Fun time for the two girls.  Before they left, I snapped a quick photo outside.  We’re missing them already.

But, we’re still managing to have fun while eating popcorn and watching Garfield: The Movie.

At least, until McKinley accidentally knocked over Papi’s glass of red KoolAid.

Sigh… of course, she did. Not a glass of water.  Kids - and the adventure continues…

Mami left for a retreat tonight (Fri, 11/14).  It was a warm day today, around 60… warm for November in Buffalo. So I put the kids in their mudboots and we headed out in search of puddles!

The kids love wearing their mudboots and doing some puddle walking.  Of course, they love splashing and stomping, too.  It took about 32.4 seconds for McKinley to splash her pants soaked.  We were loading Mami up when we first went out, and Melodia was a little frustrated with their ability to stomp themselves wet.  But you know, as I thought about it, what’s the big deal?

I remember my parents not wanting us to splash and soak our clothes.  I mean, what’s the big deal? Look if you’re heading to puddles, getting wet comes with the territory.

Now, I should warn, the kids got sick about two nights ago, and last night passed it onto me; so all 3 of us are sick with sniffles and sore throats right now.  But, it was warm, and a little outdoor mudpuddle time is a nice relief.

So in the end, I’m left thinking, you know what kids, go ahead. Stomp away.  Get wet.  It’ll wash. It’ll dry.  It’s not a big deal.  Let’s just have some fun.

After Melodia left, I put Wil and McKinley in the car and drove down the road by the volleyball facility.  It’s on a dead-end road that runs into some wetlands.  I knew there’d be a nice, big puddle down there, and there was.  The kids enjoyed their time there.

In a smaller, isolated puddle, Wil suddenly stopped and pointed, “look, Papi, a worm.”  I swear, if there’s a worm within 30 feet of this kid, he’ll find it!  And he LOVES worms.  He found at least four this summer under the same tree.  Little buggers are one-hour, all-inclusive, Wil-musement parks.

So there in the bottom of the puddle is a drowning worm.  Actually, we must have come along at just the right time.  Wil pulled him out, and he was still alive. So Wil held and held him for the next 10 minutes.   Then I managed to convince him to let the worm return to his worm house.  So Wil set him down in the grass, and i wrangled he and McKinley into the truck to head home, dry off, and warm up. Good fun. But seriously, Wil and worms, hilarious.  Where there’s a Wil, there’s a worm.