“Amazing” doesn’t begin to describe my weekend. Just wait til you see the pictures and videos (which could be a couple days since Mommy is exhausted from all the fun)! Here’s a preview: snow, sledding, snowman building, more sledding, more snow, air hockey, foosball, more sledding, snow eating, laughing, reaching the “summit”, more sledding, more snow eating, three stories, using our chains, tubing, crashing, more tubing, more crashing, snowball fights. What could be better than a 2-day slumber party with great friends? A 2-day slumber party in that involves all of the above…and more! (And, yes, Connor had as much fun as I did.)

I have a lot of really wonderful friends, but Connor’s trying to steal one from me and it’s really getting on my nerves. Whenever Mommy and Connor come to pick me up from school, Connor sees Amy and Paige (Drew’s mommy and sister) in the parking lot and starts shouting, “Drew! Drew!” The other day we were getting in the car on our way home and he did it again. I yelled, “No! Drew’s my friend! Not yours!” Connor just started screaming in his usual fashion, but he was mad. Then yesterday Mommy played her favorite game. “I…love…” and Connor yelled, “Drew!” Oh the nerve of that kid.

Everyone’s favorite question these days is, “Is Connor walking yet?”. The answer is no way. Not gonna do it. Well, I’ll take a couple steps here or there, but nothing substantial. It’s so much nicer to hold hands than go it alone. Daddy keeps saying I’ll be driving before I’m walking. And he may just be right for once.

I’m an elephant, lion, tiger, monkey, birdie, doggy, kitty cat and fishy, to be exact. I’ve been growling my way around the house all weekend. But don’t worry, I’m not too fierce. I’ve got a huge smile on my face most of the time. I’m also on the move most of the time too, so this is the best Mommy could get.

Lately I’m extremely fascinated by numbers and letters. My favorite evening activity is looking at Safeway ads and reading the numbers. It’s taught me that two numbers together actually mean something and now I can count up to 30 and identify numbers up to 99 (though my record is far from perfect). I’m also beginning to understand dollars and cents. I get a kick out of reading license plates and am very proud of myself when I get all the numbers and letters right. My latest thing is putting a bunch of random letters together and pretending I’m spelling. “Mom, can I have my p-p-n-p?” or “Daddy, did you bring my l-q-e-l-g?” Mommy is using this as a “teaching opportunity” and trying to get me to sound things out, but really I just like spelling—and saying, for that matter—made up words.

It’s been really wet around here, so I’ve had to get creative with my play. Though Mommy would love to take credit for being so much fun, all of these ideas were mine. Painting with my cars, going through two cans of shaving cream during a mid-day swim (don’t worry, it’s a toy razor), and painting my nails (which I’ve exclaimed I’m never going to take off…and haven’t yet)! It’s fine with me if it keeps raining—do you think I’d get away with this stuff if it weren’t??

Our neighbor, Greg, is a really good artist and decided to make us his first portrait. He liked a picture Mommy took and it inspired this amazing drawing he gave us. We love it!

On New Year’s Eve my cousins were in town and came over for a bit—yep, back to back visits! Of course, we had soooo much fun. Mommy just downloaded the pics from that camera and came across this cute one of all of us, minus Connor.

Even though I don’t walk on my own yet, I do a lot of walking holding on to hands, furniture, etc. And my new thing is walking a few steps forward and then going back. It’s best if it can be up & down. Up the curb going forward, down the curb going backward. Up the garage steps forward, down the steps backward. Up the slide steps, down the slide steps. Strange. But true.

Mommy’s home sick with me today and since I’m feeling a bit guilty about it, I’ve figured out how to help. I get a kleenex or wipe, blow my nose on it, then use it to wipe up the floor, table, or whatever else might need “cleaning”. For some reason she doesn’t seem quite as grateful as I think she should.