My Quaker Children Build a Snow Man

Scene: Children are playing outside, rolling large balls of snow. I step out to put a bag of trash in the barrel.

Alexander: Mommy, we need my sword! Can you get it for us?

Me: Which one, the wooden one or the plastic one? (Clearly, I am an enabler.)

A: The wooden one. You know what we're doing?

Me: Building a snow knight?

A: No, we're going to build a snow man, then throw the sword at him and stick him with it. He's like our target!

I don't think they even bothered to make a head. Maybe that's a good thing. Anyway, no sentimental photos of smiling children next to a carrot-nosed Frosty this year. The snow man's body lies hacked to death in our yard. Ah, childhood!

The Final Car Seat (I hope)!

Ethan weighed in at a whooping 19 lbs., 1 oz. at his 4 month check up a couple of weeks ago. The infant car seat we had borrowed from a friend had a weight limit of 20 lbs, so it was time for a new one. Needless to say, I wanted to get one that was BIG, with good safety and a high weight limit. The one we choose is rated for rear facing to 35 lbs and forward facing to 70 lbs. I had 60 lb, 48 inch Alexander sit in it and he fit just fine at the highest head rest level. Cool. (I wish I'd snapped *his* picture in it too!) The company manufactures race car seats, so I feel pretty good about the safety too. It cost an arm and a leg, but who can put a price on this precious face? :o)

My car seat fanatic friends (you know who you are!) will notice that the head rest and shoulder straps are not properly adjusted for Ethan in this picture. He was just trying it out. Rest assured that we adjusted it properly before we installed it. We're off to have the installation inspected later today, just to be sure.