Brrrrr.

I'm thankful for the sunshine yesterday. It was quite nice feeling the snow get all slushy and knowing that some of it would melt. Don't get me wrong: I love snow. NEW snow. Not old, dirty snow that's overstayed its welcome. I'm glad it's halfway sunny now, but I'm not a big fan of the wind. Granted, I haven't been outside yet, so maybe it feels decent. I don't really know. I think I'm just tired of it looking cold outside. Or like last week, when I saw this....

(in reality, I believe it was in the negatives this day...I'm not sure if our weather station displays negatives or not)

It's just rather discouraging. I guess maybe I'm finally getting the winter blahs. I made it until almost the end of January, at least! I think one reason I don't enjoy this winter as much as last is because I now have Max to take with me whenever I go somewhere. He plus his car seat are over 30 pounds, but it's also annoying to put his coat on and carry him in by himself. Oh, well. Spring really will come soon enough. :) Enough of my griping about the weather. Here are some things that make me smile in spite of the low temperatures:

Greg made Max another 'fort,' this time by putting a blanket over the piano bench. Max had a blast in it and loved playing Peekaboo.

Inside the cozy fort

Escaping out the back!

Recently, we found a deal on Amazon for a box of 204 diapers. Yes, that's right, 204 diapers. Max loves this box, too.

Yesterday, Max and I spent the day at Heather's with Jacob, Grace, Elisabeth, Silas, and Hannah. Max absolutely ate up all the attention he got from his cousins. When I got there, Silas and Hannah were in the front room. Silas proclaimed, "Max can play with Hannah!" I asked, "He can't play with you?" His response was, "Yes....No! With Hannah!" Hopefully Silas wasn't too disappointed, but I think Hannah is the one cousin Max had the least contact with yesterday. :) When they're older I'm sure they'll be friends, but the age gap is a bit too close right now. He did enjoy her toys, though. Later in the afternoon, I was helping Heather with something downstairs, and Grace was watching Max upstairs. She brought him down to show me his 'dress-up' outfit...a knight's tunic. Go figure. The silly boy won't hardly let his mom put on his pjs or his clothes in the morning, but he'll let cousin Grace dress him up! Grace announced that he was her prince. Here's a shot of the impressive figure of royalty:

Chewing on a princely toy, no doubt. :)

Anyway, we had a lot of fun! We'll have to make another date soon. I think it's good for Max to have a chance to play with other kids, since here at home he just roams by himself.

For the last picture, I think my mom has a picture of nearly each of my 6 brothers doing something like this....whether it was the pots and pans, the tupperware drawer, or maybe even the garbage. (I can't remember who's in the picture with the garbage sack...I'll have to ask Mom). So here's Max with the pots and pans cupboard. He's discovered, though, that the wire racks can be kind of scary. Since his mom is not the most organized person, sometimes they jump out of the cupboard at you, and sometimes chubby little fingers get stuck in the squares!