And the Winter Has Begun

We had our true New England winter experience recently. It all started with the coming of a, in the words of the weather forecasters, "historic snow storm". I will be honest, I never believe the forecasts. I have had way too many experiences to know that they are only right about 5% of the time, which to me is not big enough percentage to bet my money on any predictions. I even have the chatty Dollar Store cashier to back me up on this one. I must first say that the previous hike up of a storm was before Hurricane Sandy and all we got was a little wind. So according to the chatty cashier this happens all the time, she would know because apparently she lived all her life in Maine. So as I was checking out at her line a day or so before Nemo (that's what the storm was named) hit, she assured me that only rarely do the storms really hit as hard as they predict. I eagerly agreed because that has been my experience as well. Little did I know that Nemo fell into the 5% accurate prediction zone. It was the storm to set a new record of over 30 inches of snow in one storm in Portland. It really was a horrible storm with 6 states declaring a state of emergency, flights were cancelled, schools had snow days, and our balcony on the third floor had over 5 feet of snow on it from the wind gusts. But with every snow storm comes a great work out. Cameron was the one to take advantage of it this last time. I am a big fan of shoveling, but we only have one little shovel that fits in our trunk and so it becomes a one-man job.

The pile of snow was almost as high as I am. It kept getting taller as the storm continued.

At the end of it all, we had so much fun seeing a tremendous amount of snow. It made us very grateful for a warm apartment, food, electricity, and warm clothes.And I must also say just how impressed I am with the Mainers for cleaning the roads very fast. The day after the storm we were out and about driving and going places.
After the storm, the weather has been getting into the 40s which feels warm here. Kelt and I have been taking advantage of it by going on walks. I have been using the Ergo Baby carrier a lot lately because it is a lot more convenient to walk with it than with the stroller on the thin snow plowed sidewalks. They are only as wide as the plow, which is not wide enough for the stroller. My love for the carrier has increased with these cold days. Having Kelton so close to me makes us both warmer and I can talk to him a lot easier. 

I love it when Kelton wears clothes that I have knitted him. This green jacket looks so adorable on him and makes me think back to before he was born and how anxious I was to meet him.

Here is Munchkin and me right before one of our walks.

Kelton has grown a lot in the past month. Probably the most amount of development in the shortest time period that he has even accomplished. He crawls, more like an "army crawl", but crawling nonetheless. He can sit up all his own. As a matter of fact, earlier this week I observed Kelt trying to sit up all day long and when Cameron came home from school I told him to watch Kelton closely in case he sits up. And what do you know, but that that same evening he sat up all on his own. I just love it when our Buddy demonstrates new skills when Cameron and I are both home. He has a funny way of doing it, too. He starts at being on his belly then he pushes himself backwards and gets on his hands and knees. He then proceeds with walking his hands backwards which often times results in him crawling backwards (with his belly off the ground) until his hands reach his knees. From here it's like watching a new kitten walk for the first time. He is sure, but has to catch himself. He knows exactly what he is doing, but when he finally sits up there is a spark of nuisance in his laughter. Oh that laughter of his! It is the most delicious noise in the whole universe. I have recently noticed that Kelton doesn't "gargle" his sounds anymore, but now has a very sharp and high pitched sound repertoire. Though his new voice development and by far the funniest is grunting. He started doing it when he wants his bottle or a certain toy that I have taken away because it has a potential of harming him, i.e. pieces of his board books that he so very much loves to chew on. He has gotten very strong, strong enough to rip pages off of his board books and then chew on them of course.