Hunkering Down

Today was a great day! Blue skies, lots of sunshine, and we got the last of our plumbing issues resolved (hooray!). The kids went to preschool. I baked a cake. I also went to the grocery store with the rest of New England to stock up for the blizzard that is about to nail us!

Like I said, it was a nice day! So it is hard to fathom what will be dumped on us tomorrow. Just look at this map! We're in that dark blue (24"+) section. So weird, considering there is absolutely no snow on the ground right now. Tomorrow, it will look like a different world out there!

Anyway, we have plenty of food, and our gas cans are full. The generator and snow blower are all set to go. Gus' work is closed tomorrow, along with all the local schools. Basically, everyone in the state is on blizzard watch. Now we just wait!

In the meantime... I wanted to share a few pictures from today. While I was busy dealing with various repairmen, the kids were VERY busy drawing many, MANY pictures. I can't even tell you how much paper they went through today. But when I had time to help him out with spelling, Nikos was very interested in labeling all his pictures. My reluctant writer wanted to WRITE! I was so happy! The first pictures he labeled were his Ninja Turtles:

Later in the evening, he ended up making a book! It was a collection of Star Wars-themed pictures, and he wrote a little caption on each page. Things like, "I will defeat you!" or "Darth Maul is a rotten egg!" haha! We stapled them all together, and he insisted that we read his book at bedtime. He was SO proud. And so was I! It just reaffirms what I already knew: he CAN write, when he wants to. I think he struggles a bit with his fine motor skills, partly because he's a lefty, and it's hard work for him. I couldn't believe how much he wrote today!

And, speaking of writing... Our baby girl is finally starting to write her name properly! She's known how for a while, but she has never felt the need to, uh, follow society's rules. She likes to write the letters in different orders, or even flip a letter or two upside-down for kicks. It's completely intentional, and it drives me a little insane. But I looked down at her work earlier, and saw this! She did it all by herself-- I wasn't even in the room. Hallelujah! Progress!! :)