RECORD SNOW DAY!

As this posts at Noon on February 11, 2010 - the snow has already climbed up to the 3-and-1/2 inch mark of a ruler I placed on our back patio table and continues to fall at a steady clip in fat, wet flakes. Shortly after breakfast, Kole got his first romp in the stuff. First reaction was to kneel down and grab big handfuls and stare at it. Then came high-step walking through it. He adapted very well and had a blast just walking and running through it. Spent a good 15-20 minutes out in it before we noticed his socks getting wet and took him in. Fun times!

UPDATE: For prosperity sake, our fun little snow day turned into the largest snow event in Dallas-Fort Worth recorded history, going back at least to the 1870s when records began being kept. Officially at DFW Airport the one-day snow total was 11.2 inches. That cut-off was obviously Thursday at midnight. The storm continued to drop snow in the wee hours of the night before moving on, and the official 24-hour snowfall of the storm system (from 4am Thursday till 4am Friday) is going down as 12.5 inches. However, here at the Fletcher homestead in Grand Prairie, we took a measly 9 inches. I took a photo this (Friday) morning at 7:30 when the temperature was 35 degrees, so it's possible we had a tad of melt on that - as it actually shows a tad under 9. I'm adding photos of the house - note that they are from Friday morning, Feb. 12.

The Nature of Curiosity

Recently the little man has become increasingly curious. Not just nosey - opening every drawer and cabinet in sight; but actually curious.

If he sees a shoe he'll try to step into it and walk in it. He now feeds himself well with a spoon or fork, but hasn't quite mastered the art of the stab or scoop. Still needs some work there. When we put a coat or jacket on him, he races to grab the two sides of the zipper so he can try to zip it up by himself before one of us takes over.

Just recently, he will occupy himself for a while at his booster chair where he eats. He's most curious with his little buckles that keep him firmly buckled in. Standing beside the chair, he'll try over and over again buckling the two sides together. Once he gets them all properly fastened, he doesn't quite get the fact that the job is done, nor does he know how to undo the buckles, so he throws a little min-tantrum in frustration. We have to go over and unfasten the buckle so he can start over again. Looking forward to seeing him explore and be creative with blocks, drawing and so forth in the coming weeks and months.

Photo: Learning the finer details of how one little clip snaps and buckles neatly into another one.

Something To Say

For some time now Kole has been able to identify things by word. If you say "where's your ball?" he'll go get a ball. Even if you ask for a hug or a kiss he will respond accordingly and affecitonately. But, he's been slow in getting the actual words out himself. As stated in previous posts around here, "Daddy" and "bye" have been the earliest first-words spoken, and been fairly exclusive ... until recently. In the last week we've noticed a couple of familiar words (or close affiliations) to certain objects. Most notable is "shoes" (or as he says with a heavy-tongued lisp: "Soos" almost "thooth"). He does this whenever you we put our shoes on, or when he sees his own shoes - which he instantly wants to put on. He probably spends a good hour or more a day attempting to put his shoes on, and will spend a good half-hour slogging around with a just his toes sticking inside a shoe.
The other word is "ball" ("Bah") which he now most frequently says when he has a balloon in his hands.
I know, I know, I know ... once he starts he'll never shut up again. But, for the time being we're anxious to see some verbal skills as some real cues to proper development and growth.