Let it snow!

I was definitely a skeptic. The weathermen were calling for 9 inches of snow but we hear it all the time around here. They hype up the weather so that you will stay tuned and watch their news and increase their ratings. Daniel worked for the News, we know how it works. Besides, when was the last time we saw snow around here? If my memory serves me correctly it was 5 years ago. Thats long enough to be skeptical about the "snowstorm of 2010" as they are calling it. I guess I was wrong. When I looked out the window on Saturday morning I was shocked to see a blanket of the white stuff. It continued throughout the day on Saturday and in the end, we got 9 inches, I couldnt believe it! For the most part, my little family stayed indoors and kept warm, but there were a few outings. Most of them were for Cooper because this was his first snow and to my surprise he loved it. He hates getting wet in the rain and he is not too big on cold weather especially since his hair is so short and sparse. I never did understand how the Boxer breed could be from the cold climates of Germany considering that for the most part they have no hair on their belly and upper legs. Seems like they would freeze. So I thought he would go outside, do his business and beg to come back in. How wrong I was. He ran around like crazy and dug in the snow.


After a hearty breakfast of pancakes and then suiting up for the cold, we took Maddie out to see her first snow. Here she is with Daniel in her cute giraffe suit standing on the back porch.


Today, the snow let up and the sun came out. Daniel and I decided to go outside and take a few pictures before the snow melted. So we suited up Maddie again and went for a walk around the block. The snow was quite deep in some spots and there was quite a bit of ice. I was very worried about Maddie staying warm the whole time but I had nothing to worry about, she stayed quite warm against Daniels chest, so warm she fell asleep. Well, its late in the evening now and the temps have dropped quite a bit out there tonight. I am hoping that the roads are iced over enough that Daniel will have a good excuse not to go to work and we can have a nice long weekend. I am sure that will be the case, I think it is supposed to be like 17 degrees tomorrow morning. They are already closing all the schools in this area. One thing I love about it snowing in Hampton Roads, the whole city shuts down. No school, no work..yeah!

Tummy Time!

Tummy time, tummy time, tummy time..you can't pick up a baby book or read about infants on the internet without hearing about tummy time and how important it is for the development of our babies. There is so much emphasis on it you would think that the future of humanity depended on it. Like no one will ever walk again if they don't get their allotted 30 minutes a day of tummy time a day when they are infants. Now for some reason I highly doubt that, but as a mother who wants to do all she can to help her daughter grow strong and develop as quickly as her fellow crib dwellers, of course I am going to make sure my girl gets as much tummy time as she can handle. According to all the websites and doctors, since babies have to be put to sleep on their back nowadays to avoid SIDS, they dont properly develop the upper body and neck strength that a baby that sleeps on its stomach normally would. Therefore these babies tend to crawl later thus making them walk later. Not to mention that it also makes babies heads quite flat in the back, Maddie being no exception. So I have been trying to give her as much tummy time as I can. At first we were giving her tummy time while she was laying on our chests and she was doing quite well with that. Then we decided to challenge her a bit and put her on the floor on a blanket. This she absolutely hates! She just lays there with her face straight down in the blanket and lets out this horrible cry which of course is muffled due to the fact that she is flat on her face. Its really sad:( I have tried to adjust her and make her put her head to the side but she always manages to get it straight down into the blanket again. Needless to say, I have suspended floor tummy time for now, hopefully we will be more successful at a later date. Although she doesnt like to be on the floor, she does like to be on her tummy on the boppy, it keeps her nice and elevated. So here are a few pics of her showing off her upper body strengthfor the camera. Before we know it she will be crawling.