This is what happens when I'm left alone

The boys have made the trek to Arizona, and now to Colorado. From what I hear, the trip is going great and they're having a great time. I'm home alone, for the first time since E was born. The house is very quiet, and last night I slept for a very long time. Today our friends invited me along to the St. Paul Winter Carnival. These are statues carved with chainsaws.

After we were sufficiently frozen (-25 with the windchill today) we drove around a bit and explored St. Paul and Minneapolis. This city is really growing on me. We did some window shopping, and then out to dinner. Lo and behold, across from the restaurant was the very piercing shop that I was referred to by a woman I work with. And so,

The moral of the story is: Leave me alone too long and I'll freeze my ass off and put a hole in my head. It's cute though, don't you think?

Happy 2009!!

Rocket man

E's been doing this thing at naptime where he plays for awhile by himself, then lays down, cries, and goes to sleep. I noticed today that he hadn't cried yet so I went to go check on him. I don't know what he was doing or how he ended up like this, but he sure looks remarkably peaceful for someone with a garbage can on his head.

And a close-up

I left them there because 1) NEVER wake a sleeping two-year-old if you can help it and 2) I thought it was funny. Then C came home and was the voice of reason. I didn't get a shot of the kid with the mesh marks on his face, but it was pretty funny too. Mother of the year...

Merry Christmas!!

Crap. Once a month just isn't going to work for this whole blogging thing. Maybe a New Year's Resolution is in order...

The big news is that Minnesota is cold. Who knew? We had a storm last week that dropped the temperatures to -18. Yep, that's a minus sign right there. There was a little snow, but not much. It was just so cold that it hurt to breathe. I shouldn't complain since up north it got even colder, but damn. We're getting another storm that's bringing a lot more snow. I think we've gotten about six inches today. E loves the snow and we've had a great time playing in it.

E has informed us that there are monsters in his room and so we've spent the last couple of weeks dealing with that. We tell him that they are just pretend, but I don't know that he gets that. We'll hear him yelling "You're not real! Go away!" so at least he's trying. No real progress on the potty training, but we're not pushing it either. Still waiting for the magical potty fairy to help us out.

We're busy getting ready for Christmas. E asked Santa for Christmas lights, which set the bar pretty low. The tree is up and I'm baking cookies like my life depends on it. Hope you all have a great holiday! We miss you!

Really? A whole month?

Crap! I had no idea that it had been so long since I updated. My apologies to both of you who check in to see how we're doing. Life is going well. My internship has taken a sharp turn for the better. I have a real, official supervisor and I'm doing some awesome, super fun work. I'm focused mostly in the mental health unit, which is completely new to me but a big adventure. I've also been taking all 60 of our mental health inmates to the gym everyday, which is a little like taking your life into your own hands while trying to look calm and collected on the outside. I think I breathe an audible sigh of relief every day when the call comes that they can leave. My sole goal is to ensure that no one dies and no one escapes. So far so good.

We switched E to a new school at the beginning of November. We were starting to get a weird vibe from his other school, and the price difference didn't seem quite so big the second time around. Plus they were feeding him Cheese Balls (like generic Cheetos) as a "healthy" snack. The new place is great and more of what we were looking for as far as structure and challenging him to develop. He seems to like it, and they seem to like him. It's not the gushing, over the top love of the last place but I'm okay with that. The first week we saw a complete elimination of the tantrums in the mornings and the crappy attitude in the evenings, so I think that we made the right choice.

Without further ado, pictures. E is growing like a weed and has started pretending, which is really fun. He's more of a little boy everyday. One of his favorite games right now is to run around the house like a crazy man chasing one of us. If we manage to juke away from him he laughs so hard he falls down. He's starting to be interested in hockey and one of my colleagues has offered to teach him to skate this winter. How cute would that be?

The little golfer, ready for trick-or-treating.

At the children's museum. We're big on turtles right now.

Fall colors

The stars aligned and I was able to get some pictures before all of the leaves fell off of the trees. It is so beautiful here right now. These pictures don't do it justice at all.