News and Notes, Spring Hasn't Sprung Edition

Well, I guess it's been a while since we've had a general state of the household update on here.  Not much has changed, I suppose.  The boys still fight, we're still losing our minds trying to manage their moods, and at times Jacob is worse than ever.  I'm still convinced more is going on with him, but we can't quite seem to figure out what it is.  He hates his teacher, which in his mind is the source of most of his issues, but in general he's been shorter tempered and grumpier than usual.  We literally could not get him to school once this week.  He hasn't been sleeping well, and apparently that day it all came to a head.  He wasn't feeling well, he was tired, and no matter what Craig did (I had to leave for an allergy shot), he just couldn't get him out the door.  So I guess he had a mental health day.  And truth be told he was better for the rest of the week.  But it's been hard.  He desperately wants more playtime with Carter, but between Carter's preferences and the fact they fight almost immediately when they do play together, it doesn't go well.  But we do have glimpses, and I guess the last few weeks have had a few.  I think it's honestly the beginning of cabin fever and trying to find any way possible to deal with the snow and keep ourselves occupied until spring!

Shortly after Carter's birthday we got all of his Legos put together, and the pizza truck he got from Uncle John's family sparked the boys to get a street of food together.  Here we have my apartments (complete with a coffee shop), the pizza truck and pizza eaters, Scooby and Shaggy eating burgers, a guy with a baguette, a German dude with a pretzel, a gingerbread man with a fish and some other dude with a crab, and a smoothie cart.  Oh, and a checkpoint, dumpster, street musician, and some sort of armed guard.  Hmmm.

In the midst of the Olympics we got hit with a pretty significant snow storm.  We got a solid foot overnight.  Everyone else was off but I still needed to go into work--albeit late--and once we had shoveled a single path down the driveway, Jacob was hard at work with the chalk creating a curling setup...

He had some Olympic rings, too.  I don't know how much--if any--curling actually happened, but they definitely had fun playing outside.

Two weeks ago I walked into our kitchen and saw a bunch of robins in our tree out front.  I think I counted at least seven or eight.

I guess just prior to that, despite the snow on the ground, it started to feel like spring, and I had seen a bunch of robins in the days prior.  But why they were in the tree together, I have no idea.  I think it did have a few berries, though, so maybe that was one of the few food sources among the snow.  The zoom on my camera did pretty well, didn't it?

The living room has been in a nearly constant state of toy takeover for weeks.  The boys use almost every toy they have - Legos, army guys, Playmobil, Imaginext, Hot Wheels, magnetic tiles, you name it.  It makes for some pretty epic setups, and eventually when the playing has lessened and the mess is too big, we finally hit a clean-up breaking point and it starts all over again.  Last weekend we ended up with this fabulous Mega Bloks Sphinx...

That is Chase from Paw Patrol in the middle.

While the northeast was getting hit by three nor'easters in two weeks, we were getting just enough more snow to make it still feel like the pit of winter around here.  To be fair, most of the snow that falls doesn't last long on streets or the driveway because the sun is warmer and longer lasting these days, but the temps have mostly been hovering around freezing so while there's been plenty of snow melt, it's still pretty snowy out there.  While the daytime temps have been mostly tolerable, it's not nearly the springy weather you hope for this time of year.  February might even have been better!  The boys have done their share of snow play, including these front yard forts...

Last week Craig had a fundraiser going on at work where the Knighthawks players had to make animals at Build-a-Bear to auction off, and he spent a few days at our local Build-a-Bear (other side of town) helping the bears get built.  One day he took Carter to help, and of course they made a detour to the Lego Store...

Carter was lucky enough to build a bear of his own and chose a dark brown bear with a Captain America suit.  When I was tired later that night, he was sweet enough to offer me his bear to snuggle.  What a sweet boy.  So of course I did.

On Friday of that week, all four of us went to Build-a-Bear to finish building the last bears for guys who couldn't make it into town early enough to do it.  We had their preferences and just had to get the stuff.  We jammed up the store pretty good for a while, though luckily at first it wasn't that busy since it was a pretty cruddy night outside.  In the end we walked out of the mall with eight (!) of those house boxes in hand, which looked pretty funny.

The new magnetic tiles have been making some appearances lately, and the boys have even played with them together.

Other than building forts or jails or other things to go along with the stories in their heads, we had a mission...to build the tallest tower we could.  We had a couple unsuccessful attempts where it prematurely collapsed.  But this time we were very careful and got it to stay up long enough for a picture.  It was taller than me by a couple inches!

Pardon the mess and the purposely goofy face...I needed to take the picture before the tower gave out!

Other than Jacob's rough no-school day Tuesday, we had a relatively uneventful week.  Until Friday, at least, when Craig and Jacob left for their long-awaited weekend in Calgary with the Knighthawks.  They aren't coming home with a win, unfortunately, but other than pictures Craig's been sending periodically, I haven't talked to them much.  It looks like they've been having a good time.  Hopefully uneventful travel tomorrow then hopefully I can share soon about their adventure.  I'll admit I'm a little jealous that my kid gets a better trip than I've had in a long time, but I guess it's just more motivation to get a good 15th anniversary trip in the works later this year!  Carter and I have kept ourselves busy this weekend, too, so more on that soon!