Decorating & Travel Day

[mousme]

pdaughter has been taking a cake decorating class given by Wilton at Michael's Stores (the one in Vaudreuil). It's every Sunday, which means that it's been tricky to schedule babysitting for Bean on the Sundays I'm not home, 50% of the time. Unfortunately the class doesn't appear to be held on weekdays, when Bean is in daycare, because that would make it easier for everyone.

Still, today I am home until the afternoon, so Bean and I will be spending some quality time together over the course of the morning. The last few times we've watched videos on my computer, but I'm hoping that we can find something with less screen time to do. Or at least something that doesn't involve my computer. He has his LeapPad, and if worse comes to worst I'll suggest a movie. We never did finish Sleeping Beauty the other night, so perhaps we shall do that today.

It's too cold today, but yesterday we ended up going outside to play in the snow. First we walked to the end of the street to the baking supply store there to pick up a couple of things for Bean's upcoming birthday (it's in March, no one panic, we're just preparing a few things in advance). Bean was pretty good in the store, though he never stopped dashing from one aisle to the next. Luckily it's a small store, and he only had to be told once not to pull things off the shelves, so it wasn't too hard to keep track of him. Eventually he got bored, so he and I waited outside while pdaughter bought a special candle & some party favours.

He and I chatted about his party, and about the snow, and then he wandered off to a nearby patch of snow to play, and dramatically declared: "Me needing someone to leave me alone!" I am not entirely sure what that was about, but he has been showing a tendency to say similar things when he's frustrated or upset with us. "No! Leave me alone!" It's like having a tiny teenager in the house. I keep expecting him to run to his room, scream that he hates us, and slam his door. (Yes, I am a terrible person for finding that hilarious) In this instance he didn't seem particularly upset, so I'm not sure what was happening. He came along happily enough when it was time to go home.

Afterward, poor pdaughter heroically braved the cold and wet so we could all romp in the snow in the front yard, and Bean had a blast.

Unfortunately, the snow was too light and dry to make snowballs or snowmen, or even to allow us to make "ice" blocks for an igloo, though Bean & pdaughter tried valiantly.




















pdaughter dug out a large hole in the snow to serve as a snow fort, and Bean soon tried to pitch in to lend a hand, which is hilarious since the shovel is bigger than he is. I will confess to not being much help, since I was either laughing too hard or busy taking pictures.






















pdaughter also had the good idea of trying to make a slide in the snow. The snow in our front yard is extremely deep (that's where the snow removal service has been dumping all the snow from our driveway all winter), so it made perfect sense to make use of it. Alas, the winter conditions aren't quite right for a slide. Also, we realised we don't have a sled or one of those plastic discs or mats to slide on. We improvised with a cardboard box, but the cardboard quickly got too wet to be effective.



Nonetheless, everyone had a very good time, not least of whom was the dog, who spent the entire time bouncing around like a mad bouncing thing and burying his face in the snow and rolling around and, um, eating dirt. >_< Yeah, I don't know. He dug through the snow until he reached dirt in one of the flower beds, and spent a fair bit of time licking and gnawing at the frozen ground. Dogs, man.



We came inside for hot chocolate when we realised that Bean's arms had turned red from the cold, as snow had gotten up his sleeves and into his mittens. We settled in with hot chocolate with whipped cream for me and pdaughter and marshmallows for Bean.

Shortly after that it was time for me to head out for my monthly gaming night, which was much fun, as always. It's nice to be able to actually socialise with people. It reminds me that I'm human and that I actually have friends that I enjoy talking to. I did get home crazy late, though, and I'm paying for it today. I'm going to have to make sure that I get to bed by 20:00 at the very latest, or else it's going to be a looooong week at work.

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Me needing someone to leave me alone!

I find myself wanting this on a tshirt.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

It would be a pretty fun slogan!

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

I've taught classes (in painting) at Michael's, and I can tell you it is damn near impossible to fill a weekday class. People just don't sign up. :-(

[mousme.livejournal.com]

That's what we've discovered. Our problem is that I work shifts and pdaughter studies full-time during the week and has sole custody of Bean & the house when I'm not there, which is 50% of the time. So for us a daytime class would be ideal, while the majority of humanity works 9-5 Mon-Fri and can't make those classes. *sigh*

I didn't know you taught painting! That's awesome.

[blackmare.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's hard being out of sync with the world at large.

I've taught drawing and painting for a while. Need to find a venue and start again, since enrollment at both Michael's and the art center where I taught have been too low to make it worth continuing.

[kiwano.livejournal.com]

If that snow shovel's handle is removable (e.g. screwed in), the blade of it looks like an excellent improvised toboggan for bean

[mousme.livejournal.com]

But then we'd have no shovel...

[kiwano.livejournal.com]

Well only while it's being used as a toboggan (then you reassemble it) :P