Ellie, Grace and I attempted more sledding in the yard yesterday. Notice the use of the word attempted. Six inches of fresh, fluffy snow atop an inch of ice atop of more snow, yada, yada, yada...proved a bit of an impediment for the sleds. While Grace and I were up for giving it one more try, Ellie decided to trek to the backyard and play on the slide.
It was so funny to watch Ellie walking on top of the snow. She was moving along at a good clip too. However, I knew from our last foray into the frozen tundra of our front yard that there are hidden chasms so deep that little urchins could disappear, never to found until the spring thaw.
So Grace and I set off on our own trek to the backyard to join Ellie. Grace, like Ellie, had a much easier time walking through the snow than I did. I would step through the new snow, hit the ice beneath - which sometimes could bear my weight although most times not - and then step through the remaining 12-18" of snow beneath that.
I was nearly halfway to Ellie when she began walking toward me and fell in the snow. Since she was down, she decided to show me that she'd lost a boot somewhere along the way by waving her sock clad foot in the air.
Holy shit Batman! Ellie's sock was so dotted with snow that all I imagine was frostbite setting in. Just how long had she been walking in snow with just her sock protecting that little foot?!? How quickly could I get to her? Which route would be faster to get her inside - go back through my leg/footprints around the house to the front door or carry her to the deck and bang on the door for John to let us in? Since the deck was closer, I opted for it.
Now...picture this...me, a 51 year old woman who is 5 ft 0 inches tall hefting Ellie, a practically 4 year old child who weighs in the area of 40 pounds onto my back and beginning to break trail as quickly as possible through the undiscovered territory of our arctic tundra of a yard in snow deep enough that it was over my knees - at least 20".
Ellie was enjoying her piggy back ride and would turn loose every and now then which succeeded in throwing my balance off so that we fell twice - once with her smashed into the snow under me.
Never would I have imagined that walking up the 3 steps to the deck could be so arduous, but they were. Once on the deck, Grace and I banged and banged on the sliding door until John, who was working in his office by the front door door, heard the noise and went to investigate.
Once safely inside, I left Ellie in John's care and went in search of the missing boot. Found it under the top of their picnic table by the play set. When I went back inside, it was to find Ellie already playing and John assuring me that her foot was fine. Good. Mission accomplished. No frostbite at our house.
My little panic attack over, it occurred to me that I hadn't regaled you with any interesting stories of life at our house in a bit. The rest of our week was uneventful in comparison with one other exception.
Ellie and Grace played computer games.
On Monday, we all went to Stepping Stone Children's Museum.
I love this shot of Ellie putting the ball in the air-filled tube. Grace, is just visible to the right of Ellie. She's the little girl in the pink shirt with arms full of more balls.
Yum! Lunch afterwards at a thai restaurant. Due to getting their shirts very wet playing in the water room at the children's museum, Grace is now in the gray shirt, Ellie is in green.
What do you think? Are we looking at a future rock star?
We had a bit of pre-snow adventure fun yesterday with pigtails. Ellie, on left, had 7 pigtails while Grace had 5.
Ellie.
The other highlight of the week was that I got to use my Christmas present from John and the girls on Tueday. Anyone recognize the symbol below?
Yes! It's the symbol Prince used during those years when he was The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. My neighbor Dawn accompanied me to the concert and we had a blast. Prince played a lot of his old hits - 1999, Purple Rain, Kiss, etc. It was fantastic!!!
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