Cabin Fever

We've got a bit of cabin fever going on here, so some of my mom friends were emailing ideas back and forth of "what to do with your toddler while trapped in the house" to help break up the monotony ... I was impressed by the creative activities they came up with (actually made me feel a little guilty for not engaging JP in more artsy projects like playdoh, fingerpaints and water colors - I don't think tackle football counts as art).

Well, one suggestion I thought could handle was to trace JP's body on a big sheet of paper and let him color on it. I have a tube of that brown paper you wrap packages in, so we used that. JP was pretty skeptical while I coaxed him to lie down on the crinkly paper to let me trace him, but once he got up and saw what I had done, he was intrigued. (Now, as you can see from the photo, I flunked art class, so bear with me). We colored his t-shirt, hair and gave him some snow boots like JP's. Then, we drew a football on his shirt. I think JP enjoyed rolling around on the paper the most and coloring the least.

In true JP fashion, after about 10 minutes of coloring "paper boy," he was through and moved on to something physical. He grabbed a football and started tossing it to "paper boy," then tackling "paper boy." It was hysterical!

So, although my junior high art teacher may cringe, my son now has an official teammate ;)

(oh yeah, paper boy has no pants...don't judge).

And another huge icicle discovery was made on the side of the house last night. It's about 5'5" tall and weighed over 16 pounds...that's right, Jason had to weigh it!

Holy Snow Storms!

Boston has already seen around 5 feet of snow this winter (here's how the city is counting it, lol: ), and we're expecting more tomorrow. Here are a couple shots from the past week or so:

JP and Daddy walking on top of about 3 feet here:


Shoveling snow is becoming more difficult because there's no place left to throw it!
Where's a Sheltie to potty in this mess?
Backyard:

And with big snows come big icicles:

Signing Machine

Catching Up

Wow...it's been entirely too long since I've updated our blog. I wish I had a good excuse, but I think "lazy" sums it up! Things are going well here. We have about three feet of snow on the ground right now, but it's amazing how clear they keep the roads. I guess the insane taxes we pay DO go to something useful. ;) I feel a little sorry for the school-aged kids here, though, because they rarely get any snow days because of the town's snow removal efficiency!!!

I'm 23 weeks pregnant today with baby Loscalzo #2. It's a boy! We are having a very hard time coming up with/agreeing on a name. We may just settle on Jason Palmer #2. LOL! I've been feeling good, and I'm a lot hungrier than my first pregnancy...that may not be a good thing :o.

JP is doing great. He's 21-months-old now and definitely approaching the terrible 2's. He's quite a dramatic little man, working to perfect the throw-yourself-on-the-floor-screaming-for-no-reason skill. It's hard not to laugh at his antics, although when we do laugh, he normally joins us and forgets about his conniption.

He has been working with Early Intervention for a little over a month now, and he is beginning to talk a little more. He says "mama" and "dada" often and in the correct context, BUT he is a sign language machine! He knows at least 20 signs, and we've been having to research new ones to keep up with him. He wants to know signs for everything, he answers your questions with signs and he signs in sentences, too. It's really amazing. We have some Baby Sign DVDs to watch as soon as Jason hooks up the new DVD player...the old DVD player mysteriously stopped working when JP became mobile????

We spent the holidays in Boston, Wheeling and San Francisco, and despite the stomach flu in WV, the travels were mostly smooth. Here are some pictures to catch up on the past few weeks:

Christmas morning in MA:

Cousins in WV:
Grandma, PapPap, baby Jude & JP:
Touching Sea Creatures with MiMi in San Francisco:

Giving LaLa (Alicia) some Mickey Mouse tattoos:

Driving the bus to the airport:
And back in Boston to this:

Fall Colors

I spent some time working on our landscape a few weeks ago. I enjoyed planting mums and other fall favorites, especially with our beautifully painted house! A long time ago I posted that Jason was going to take on the task of painting the exterior of our house on his own. It's mostly done and I couldn't be happier with the results. The color is a little tough to see in these photos because of the sun, but use your imagination until I can get some better shots :)

BEFORE (pay close attention to the chimney...painted on bottom, brick on top???):
AFTER:

Those tall things that are tied up are Canterbury Bells and while they have beautiful blooms in the spring and summer, they are a huge pain!!!

My dormant clematis :)

Time with Grandparents

Both sets of JP's grandparents have visited us within the last couple months. JP had a lot of fun getting all the extra attention. He even got to meet his great-grandma Marge, great-aunt Betty and great-uncle John for the very first time :) Enjoy some pictures:

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

JP would like to share something with everyone...

Here's a sneak peak...