Another Snow Day 2010

Since it snowed 21" on Margo's birthday school was canceled the next day. Marc wasn't planning to go in anyway. I was a little disappointed I couldn't go outside and jump around with Marc and Harper. I took pictures instead and when Harper got too cold she came inside and we made hot chocolate together.

Marc offered some of this cake to me. I asked him later if he really just wanted to shove it in my face but thought better of it since I had had a baby the day before. He claims the thought never crossed his mind.

Meet Margo

We had a baby today. At 6:37am. We named her Margo Clark Wilson. She weighed 8 lbs. 12 oz. at birth. It snowed all day long.

Harper wasn't allowed to visit the hospital because of some H1N1 hullabaloo. So we had to settle for a first meeting at the entrance to the hospital where Marc had the car waiting with two car seats in the back. We listened to The Samples and drove home in the snowstorm with our kids.

Our kids

38 weeks

Some mommy-daughter time before it's mommy-daughters time. All the time. I'm getting nervous.

Valentine's Day

Recently I have been feeling really guilty about how much TV and how many movies I let Harper watch every day. (I always thought she would be at least 5 before she knew that TV and videos existed.) So I decided to get up early one morning and rifle through some files to find an activity we could work on that day. Even a Valentine-making project. I found a good one that would produce a red heart stamped using her very own hands. The perfect way to say happy Valentine's Day to her dad. And the perfect thing to feature in a post about Valentine's Day. It turns out it was a bit too advanced for her 2-year-old hands. I considered the other options and decided the next best thing would be potato stamps in the shape of hearts. But we didn't have any potatoes. We had carrots. Which are harder to carve into heart shapes. But which produced smaller and therefore cuter hearts.

This might as well be a picture (or all pictures of) Halle when she was a little kid.

For Valentine's Day I did not plan to do anything special for anyone. But then there was leftover pancake batter in the refrigerator. And one grapefruit left. And miraculously we had whipping cream. And lately there is always a Costco-sized bag of frozen fruit in the freezer. And suddenly we had a nice heart-shaped breakfast.

Snow Day 2010

The NYC DOE declared Wednesday a snow day. How nice. We all woke up early and if Harper could have had her way we would have gone straight outside to play in the snow. Instead we pulled a cheese stollen out of the freezer and scrambled some eggs before heading out in the blizzard.

The view from our window at approximately 7:30am.

Harper was a little reluctant to eat the snow. I told her it was like water. And I thought it tasted delicious. She thought so too. I did worry a little that she would think all snow is okay to eat. But so far this has not been the case.

H is for Harper

There was a D for Dad. And here Marc is working on M for Mom so I wouldn't feel left out. (M is usually for Mehrsa.)

A is for Addy. Hi to Addy in Guatemala. And get well soon.

Harper shared her hat with this snow person and then it was time to go home for hot chocolate.

Keep Helping Action Basketball

If you follow this blog closely, you have probably also followed the ups and downs of the middle school basketball team I coach. I'd even like to think, dear reader, that if you had to choose one middle school basketball team to support, it would be our team -- Action.

last year's squad

If so, or even if not, I'd love to enlist your help.

We are doing a fundraiser, but no, we're not selling candy for no basketball team, we are collecting used and broken cell phones (and jewelry, MP3 players, digital cameras, digital video recorders, laptops, radar detectors, and empty ink-jet cartridges).


If you give them to us, we can send them in to a company that will reuse/recycle them and give us some of what they make off of them. The team would be much obliged. You can give them to me in person, or if you're one of our west-coast or international fans and you don't mind paying postage, you can send it to us. Here's the school address: CAS, Marc Wilson, 154 W 93rd St., New York, NY 10025.

1 - 2 - 3 - Action! (That's what we say in our little huddle before we go out on the court.)

New York: 11

There is something that makes me get a little tingly inside whenever I see the FDNY drive by. I don't think it's because the truck is full of tough guys with accents.

There is often a truck parked in front of Patsy's.

New York: 10

On our very first day in NYC when we told someone where we lived, we learned we were really close to one of the best pizza places in the city, Patsy's Pizzeria. I was impressed that someone could know where anything was in a city with hundreds of streets just by hearing its street and avenue coordinates. I was also looking forward to trying this famous pizza. We had our chance that same week and we were both mildly disappointed. Five years later and many slices later, I add Patsy's Pizzeria to the list of Things I Will Miss the Most When We Leave NYC.

Rewarded

Harper has been working on using the toilet recently. When she figured out that she would get a piece of candy every time she peed in the toilet, she had to go every 15 minutes. So we put a stop to that. Pooping has not worked out the same way. To encourage her to go on the toilet we had to up the ante considerably with a trip to the store for a very special treat. So far we have made two trips. In a week. Obviously not good for the bowels. And obviously not working.

Enjoying her first very special treat.

Sometimes I shake things up a bit around here.

And make pancakes that look disgusting.

But taste delicious.

Productive

In 2010 I intend to be productive. To the tune of one project per month. So far I am keeping up. And I finished February's project on the 4th day of the month. So far this seems really easy.

Harper models a skirt I made. So it's not close enough to actually see. That's the point.

A very big thank you to Kiasa for the pattern.

This picture is not part of my project. But I liked it too much not to post for posterity. And my humble following.

At a park

Harper convinced me to take her to the park on one of those cold, windy days last week.

We had the place to ourselves.

Self portrait

Sprinkles

We woke up to a little snow last week. Harper was really excited to go outside and help me sprinkle salt on the sidewalk because she heard the word sprinkle. She was still happy to help once she realized we weren't going to be using the colorful candy dots she loves too much. After we finished sprinkling we made a couple of miniature snow people.