Happy Halloween

I'm just not sure we'll ever top this Halloween costume.

Back in early September I was browsing in a children's consignment shop, anxious to outfit my child in snow gear for the winter. I was pawing through a large rack of puffy snow clothes and FFM spied a tiny (and I mean tiny) rack of costumes. He found this one. And latched on to it. FFM does not latch on to stuff. I'm incredibly lucky that we can actually walk in and out of any toy store without temper tantrums. He's very very good about picking up toys, books, etc but understands when it's time to go he's got to leave them at the store.

But this, this was the first and ONLY thing he would NOT release. Boy, says me, I sure hope it's his size and I'm awfully glad it's super cute. I put the top on him, thinking if it fits I can make do even if the pants don't fit, and - Whew! it fits. Then. It. Would. Not. Come. Off. No, not because it was stuck, my toddler decided for the first time ever this was it. NO MOMMY KANGOO STAY ON!!!! There was no removing it. Now, it was nearly 90F outside that day and he's sweating, but this discussion goes on and on and there comes a point (anyone who's been the mother of a two year old knows) where you just say, keep the $*%(@!# (edited for little ears of course) kangaroo on and you're just glad it fits and you're not buying some really ridiculous too big/small thing and you happily go pay for it.

Let me tell you the discussion when we got the carseat and the tail wouldn't fit wasn't so pretty.

So now we're up to Halloween. We did a practice run last week at Lowry Town Center. Grannie Annie came along. We nearly got blown away it was so windy, but it was great fun.

Today FFM got a special Halloween treat from his pal Debi, a new used wagon! Complete with Halloween windmill.

Just to make sure it worked he drove it back and forth to Debi's house a few times.

Then, on to the REAL Trick or Treating! Off through Grannie Annie's neighborhood with our new friend Colin from across the street. He's two, too, and had a great home made Bob the Builder costume.

And because every kid who gets treats should have a trick:

P.S. If you ask FFM what that baby kangaroo is called he'll tell you it's not a baby, it's a joey :)

First Winter Storm Warning

Yes, we've had snow already, but this is a real storm. Schools closed, people stayed home from work, Travis' cousin in North Dakota sent me a message to make sure I had plenty of supplies (and I'm glad she did because I went out and bought flashlights in case the power went out). Travis has been keeping an eye on the Denver news websites and probably has a better idea of what's going on that I do. He specifically requested photos and it wasn't until after dinner tonight that I had a chance to take any.

I can't open the back screen door because there is a drift that's nearly up to the glass of the screen door. That sort of perspective is always hard to show in snow pictures, but you'll just have to trust me. It's about 22" (55cm) from the floor to the bottom of the window which is where the drift is now.
This is from the kitchen window. Last night I attached a ruler to the birdfeeder, that slightly wider black bit at the bottom, and the snow's about 10" (25cm) deep right now. It's in a fairly sheltered spot, no drifting, so it's pretty accurate.

Out the front door. We haven't left the house all day and I didn't see any reason to shovel since it's still snowing. Our neighbor Jim across the street shoveled his driveway, can you tell?

This morning at 8am there were NO tracks at all on our street. By lunchtime there were a couple. By mid-afternoon there were more (I think mail came) AND my other across the street neighbor went somewhere. And must have slid as the tracks come all the way onto the sidewalk in our yard. Look closely and you can see. Check out all the snow on our evergreen bushes, too. I just had them trimmed so they're flat on top, so it's really easy to see exactly how much snow there is.

Ah, but don't worry about us. We turned up the heat a little bit today and are staying nice and cosy.

Just Another October Week

Ah yes, the dysfunctional weather of October in Colorado. Oh, HOW I've missed you (seriously, I have). To be able to go from shorts and flip-flops one day to parkas and snowboots the very next, that has to be truly unique to Colorado.

One day, we had a tea party in the back yard.

And then it snowed. And was grey and sort of yucky. But we got a fair bit of snow, and moisture here in the high desert in never anything to sniff about. I'd guess a couple of inches at least, wet heavy stuff that compacted a lot. Had it been colder the snow would have been fluffier and it would have been at least twice as much accumulation.

Winter clothes are a new experience for FFM. I knit this sweater while we lived in Brisbane (this picture's for Sara H.) and knit it and re-knit it, never getting it quite right. I was going off-pattern to try to make it a little bigger/longer so I'd get the size right for his age and the southern/northern hemisphere seasons and I just never did get it. It ended up being sort of lumpy and big and I just finished it and gave up. Turns out I nailed it for a 2.3 year old who just moved to Colorado! He loves his 'sheep' sweater and I love that it ought to fit him most of this winter. Sara, it's coming your way as soon as it warms up this spring and we don't need it anymore.

And for the grand finale, showing off his full-fledged hiking boots just for Daddy. They are most excellent for puddle and slush stomping.

Just a Little Walk to Get the Mail

Our mailbox is at the end of our cul-de-sac, one house down, and when we turned around today the mountains greeted us in all their fall splendor. What a glorious walk to get the mail.

For our Aussie Friends

This post is dedicated to our Australian friends who always shiver when I talk about snow.

Colorado usually gives you a warning shot each fall. A small winter storm that reminds you that winter really is on it's way, and the nice fall temps of 60F-70F / 15C-21C won't last forever. Our warning shot was this past weekend when a bit of snow blew in and our high temperature for the day was a balmy 25F / -3C.

We're back to sun and warm breezy days again, but that Saturday we ran out to the shops to get winter boots like all the rest of Denver that was unprepared.

Quote of the Day

"See you later Mommy. Be right back. Gonna drive Mommy's car."

Oh Boy

We definitely live a different lifestyle now vs. when we packed these boxes.

Boxes contain:
Beautiful glass things, oh so pretty
Rocks (nice ones, oh so pretty)

Oh yes, things were different then.
For some reason, this sounds like a bad idea now.

Weary

We're back online here in Colorado after abandoning the safe haven of my mom's basement for the wilds of the new house. Monday night was our first night in the new house, I tossed a heap of stuff into the back of my mom's car (a.k.a Granny Annie's Big Big car) and we hoped for the best.

I did get all the toothbrushes and critical items, and it was awful nice to sleep in my very own bed for the first time in over three years. I did not, however, manage to find any of the sheets for it, so I did have to run out and buy a new set of sheets. Somewhere between Dublin, Brisbane, Perth, and the masses of boxes strewn about I know there are sheets, but I still haven't found the ones here in Denver.

This is by far the most challenging unpacking I've ever done. Now, I've packed and unpacked many times in my life, and done it several times since having FFM. We moved three weeks before he was born and we packed and moved ourselves using just our tiny Ford Focus. Move 1 (OK, so he wasn't around but I was so pregnant he might as well have been). Move 2 Dublin-Denver for an extended holiday of nearly three months. Move 3 Denver-Brisbane. Move 4 Brisbane-Perth. Move 5 Perth-Denver. Move 5.1 from Granny Annie's basement where we stayed for just over a month and then into the new house. So I'm used to packing/unpacking with an infant/baby/toddler in tow. We land/depart a place and Travis goes to work leaving the moving stuff to me. No biggie, I actually like the unpacking part. But right now, I'm thwarted. I get about three boxes unpacked a day. I'm exhausted and FFM's patience with "Mommy's got work to do today" is at it's end. He wants to play, and kick the ball, and go swimming again. He's used to having a full time Mom, not this stranger who keeps telling him to go play with the trains some more.

So, we'll get it done, I'm in no hurry. The house is a disaster and will be for a long long time. Today I went through one whole box and threw everything in it away. That's what happens when you pack things thinking you'll only be gone for a few months and you end up unpacking three and a half years later. It was kind of exciting, it went really fast ;)

#8

Eight years ago today, on a sunny fall day in the high Colorado mountains, I married the love of my life. I have enjoyed being married to Maggie every day, and I'd marry her again at the drop of a hat.

Travis

PARK!

Welcome Home! FFM and I for the first time at our front door after closing on our house. We'll have to take another photo after Daddy arrives. It probably sounds like fun, but part of the brain damage of the past few weeks has been attempting to outfit our new home with furnishings. See, we took a family of two living the urban life in a city condo and turned into a family of three moving into a suburban house. Buying a houseful of furniture by yourself with a toddler in tow is not as much fun as it sounds. Anyway, there's one thing that WAS fun to shop for, the backyard playstructure.

It's the only thing to be delivered so far, and that's because we bought a floor model. Furniture? It will come about the time Travis arrives. So if you come to see the house you'll see us dining at the card table and sitting on lawn chairs, and our TV is a relic from about 1985 and is the size of my laptop screen. But I got up bright and early the day after closing to meet these guys at the house. So early, FFM wasn't even up yet.

But I think my favorite part of this whole experience so far is when FFM did wake up, and arrived with Grandma PenPen (Penny, Travis' mom) and stepped out onto the back porch to see this tucked over into the side yard:

He immediately started shouting, 'PARK! PARK! PARK!' and running with great abandon. See, while there's a lot of open space in our new neighborhood it's all green, no playground. So he's dead on, this is his park. Right in his very own backyard! We've all started calling it his park, little guy's made it stick.

No worries, Mom, I know just what to do. I remember test driving this one at the showroom.
Whee!
Hi Mom and PenPen!

A peek in the windows

I've had a lot of requests, and I can't politely ignore them any longer. Plus we had our first visitor at the new house today (Karen H. who already had us programmed into her GPS, now that's organization for you!) so I better get on the stick and post some house photos for those of you who aren't in the neighborhood.

I'd like to preface the photos with this - these were taken the day I first saw the house so it's not our furniture or decor. Right now the house is still empty and we're busy cleaning and scrubbing and getting it in order. Other than beds, a dining table, a tiny TV and one cushy chair it'll be weeks/months before we get our own furnishings in.

While twiddling my thumbs waiting for the 28th (which turned into the 30th) FFM and I have been running all over the state picking out and ordering basically an entire houseful of furniture. We've combed consignment shops, made some deals, and things will trickle in from now until probably Feb 2010 when our shipment arrives from Perth.

It's a 4BR with 3 up and one downstairs and a full basement. The yard is big enough to run and play in but not too big to be a nuisance to take care of. We back to a green space so the feel in the back is nice and open without being something we have to maintain ourselves (yippee!). It seems to be a feature in this neighborhood, a whole lot of the houses back to some sort of open space and I think everyone has a gate into it so the kids and/or dogs can go out and run around.