February

February. In Vermont. Picture it in your mind.....there's snow on the ground, the skies are generally overcast, a chilling wind scours the landscape, and it is COLD! Cold to the point of it being painful - exposed digits are in danger of frostbite - so cold, in fact that motion stops on the atomic level. What does Northern Baby do in this kind of weather? Well, for starters, he crawls around and laughs at Northern Dad's discomfort. Dad hates the cold - when February comes around, he's had just about enough of single digit temperatures. Northern Momma does crazy stuff like jumping into Lake Champlain (Google "Burlington Penguin Plunge"), but Northern Baby and Dad look for indoor activities.

A quick trip to the U-mall finds a fun activity....piloting a tugboat! NB hopped right into the captain's chair and set off on his ocean adventure (right after Dad put the quarters in the right slot - gotta pay for the fuel to troll the seas!). Fortunately, the seas were flat and calm - they sorta reminded NB of the cold, hard floors of a shopping mall - and the initial part of the cruise was a cake walk. Suddenly, a disconcerting feeling crept over our intrepid captain: the rudder was locked hard to port - the ship would only go to the left! Multiple attempts at course correction ensued as NB cranked the wheel to starboard to no avail. Our faithful tug was refusing to change direction. (NB: What is this?-NASCAR?!)

A few rounds of the North Atlantic had our intrepid adventurer restless and looking for a career change...Mommy, I want to be a railroad engineer!

Another indoor activity was the State Indoor Track Meet. Here we see NB mistaking the instruction "lace up your spikes" to mean "eat your shoe".

It's all good, though: we can keep the babes distracted from that gaffe by flashing our NB blues!

Sometimes, if it's above twenty degrees, Northern Mom drags the clan out to walk in the shadow of Mt. Mansfield. Sure is pretty, isn't it?

Daaaaaad! Mommy's making me wear all this stuff! Tell her that if I have to be dressed like Nanook of the North, I want my own dog sled and team!

After trudging through the snow, the clan stops by the local coffee shop for some warming treats.

This is the puppy-dog look that you'll receive from NB if you decline to share your carrot cake!

If we stay in, we can play 'Racecar'. It's so much fun to speed around the living room in our Formula One car! (Sponsored by Pampers, of course.)

We can even take our friends for a spin!

So who knew...Santa rides a chopper! (Not at Northern Baby's house - at Grandma's house. Northern Daddy is looking for the sport bike version for his house!)

Can you believe he took my toys?! I wuz just minding my own biz, passing time at Grandpa's, and this little punk pulled a crawl-by and snagged my toys.

Our very first Northern Baby-New House Christmas tree. Cut right out of the front yard of N.B.'s grandma's house! (I'm not kidding. My father-in-law cranked up the chainsaw the morning after Thanksgiving and served us up with a super-duper tree!) (Okay, it's not as pretty as a tree that has been groomed to be a Christmas tree, but it has that family connection that makes it special!)

Hmmm....pics of the kid?

Okay, so someone in the DEEP South mentioned that a blog that chronicles the raising of a Northern Baby should maybe have a few pictures of said baby. (Hey, Aunt Diane: LOOK!)















Santa's new helper. He looks so happy, right? I'll be sure to post a few pics on Christmas morning when he gets coal in his stocking! He deserves it for yelling at me all the way home today as I was trying to keep from sliding off the road in the snow and ice!










A photo from this summer, when Levi and I were discussing whether or not to head up to the country store for a few more pints of Ben and Jerry's. (We had just decided that it was a grand idea, and then Mommy nixed our plans.)

The "suggestion" to post pics of Northern Baby has been noted, and there will be more photos in the future.

To round out today's entry, I submit a list of clues to help you determine if you are indeed raising a Northern Baby. This is by no means a complete list, and will refer mostly to cold/snow clues, as it is (bad word) COLD here in moose land. (The high temperature today was 16 degrees.)

1. A happy, fun-filled gathering to watch Santa arrive (by tractor!) and light the town Christmas tree is cut extremely short by the desire to keep from freezing one's (umm...let's say 'happy place') to a block of ice. ( You can justify bolting for the car by telling Mommy that little Northern Baby probably shouldn't be standing out in the blowing snow with a negative wind chill rating!)
2. The thermometer has a "-" in front of the number displayed.
3. If salt spread on the road will not melt the ice, that's a small clue that it's cold.
4. If your little one thinks it's normal for his view out the car window to suddenly spin 360 degrees at random points on the ride to daycare.....
5. If the inside doorknob in your mudroom is covered in frost, you might be in the north! I'll bet that there are relatives of Northern Baby that rarely see frost, much less on the inside of windows. Heck, another clue would be that you have a mudroom-or a door yard.....
6. If the weather forecaster calls for temps to reach 42 degrees, and you think "hey it's going to be WARM"!
7. ..........................................................I can't continue without getting deeper into despair and resorting to using foul language...and that just isn't the example that we want N.B. to see, so I'll sign off for now and go hang out in the basement with the oil burner.