It snowed yesterday morning. It snowed again this morning. It actually even stuck! I blame Al Gore. Josie loves to watch it fall and enjoyed standing out in it with me. We didn’t get a lot but we had a good dusting. Here is Dodger in our backyard:
And here are some hyacinths coming up in our “Alice” garden. It’s very pretty to see Spring blossoms with snow. The Mad Hatter and Caterpillar don’t seem to mind either.
I blame Al Gore. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have global warming and it wouldn’t be snowing at the end of March. It’s all his fault. Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely LOVE snow and can’t get enough of it. But it’s not normal to have snow here at the end of March. And obviously the planet has gotten too warm or we wouldn’t be so cold…right? I blame Al Gore. We also had numerous bouts of hail today. The weather is so weird that I was half expecting another tornado to rip through here like it did a few months ago. Seriously, I blame Al Gore. 
Dodger sometimes leaves presents in the living room before I get up. So yesterday morning when I got up and walked out there, a strange smell made me look in his usual places. But there were no presents. Still, the living room smelled strange. Kind of like rotten eggs. I couldn’t find the culprit so I got Josie up and we went about our morning.
About an hour later I noticed the smell while I was sitting in the family room. Suddenly my heart jumped. Rotten eggs = gas leak. I jumped up and grabbed Josie. We went and stood out on the back patio while I called Steve to ask his opinion. Dodger was thrilled to be able to run around the yard because I didn’t bother to put him on his dog run. Steve said he didn’t smell anything when he got up but we both know my nose can be more sensitive than his. He called the gas company and they said to open some windows and stay out of the house. They would send someone by within a few hours.
So, Josie and I ran back inside to open windows, get dressed quickly, and grab her breakfast and lunch foods. We headed over to my folks house, with Dodger in tow, to wait for the call from the gas company. They’re timing couldn’t have been better. I got a call just after Josie had breakfast and while I was trying to put her down for a nap. I left her with Grammy and Pappaw (thanks again!) and met the technician at the house.
He came in and said he didn’t smell anything (I’d had windows cracked for a while and had doors open before I left) and his little meter thingy didn’t detect anything in the living room. I was starting to feel silly and like I overreacted. I know though that in this instance it’s better to overreact than underreact. He checked the valves on the gas water heater which is located in the laundry room next to the living room and kitchen. What do you know! There was a small leak in the flex connector at the base of the heater. I wasn’t crazy or overreacting at all! He tightened it up for us and that solved the problem inside.
However, he had discovered a different problem on the outside of the house. Apparently some of the neighborhood dogs who are allowed to roam around without a leash (against the law, by the way) have been urinating on our gas meter which was causing it to corrode. He had to replace the meter while he was here. But, our house is safe again and maybe next time I smell rotten eggs in the house it’ll trigger quicker for me that we may have a gas leak.
Remember, if you have natural gas in your house, rotten eggs may mean a gas leak so get out and call the gas company.
Oh, and one more thing. Cats and dogs that you want to remain as your pets should be kept on leashes and not allowed to roam around neighborhoods alone. Not only are they hazards to people driving (we’ve had a real problem lately with a cat that keeps running into the road and laying down) as well as walking (unleashed dogs can be very dangerous), they also do damage to your neighbors’ property in numerous ways. The least of these ways is in using their yard as their own personal bathroom and damaging things such as gas meters. And don’t blame your neighbors’ if your “pets” end up at the humane society looking for a family who wants to take care of them. I’ll step down off of my soap box now. 
Josie enjoyed this Easter much more than last year. The Easter Bunny hid her Easter basket, as he does every year, and she was actually able to crawl around to find it. She was also quite intrigued by the small chocolate bunny inside, although she only got to taste the box. She has yet to try the real thing. Do you think she’ll share what she finds in the box?
We went to Easter Mass and Josie was quite popular in her bonnet and dress. Don’t worry, we didn’t make her crawl to church. She was very good during the service. There were quite a few crying children around us but she kept smiling and “talking” to us. We are still working on whispering during mass, though.
We spent the afternoon playing 3 card Poker with my mom. We have to practice for Reno after all! We were very successful last time we were there. Josie even managed to take a short nap, which is no small feat since she typically only naps in the car or in her bed. We had dinner with my folks and my brother, Mark, his wife, Teresa, and their boys, Benjamin, Arthur, and Peter. It was a great meal and we had a very fun time sitting and visiting. After dinner, Josie had her egg hunt in the living room, with the boys helping when she didn’t want to leave her first egg to look for the others. She definitely enjoyed the hunt this year more than last year. Of course, I’m not sure she was even awake last year when she “hunted” eggs with my help.
We hope everyone had as wonderful an Easter as we did. We are definitely ready for Spring. Enough of this rain and cold weather. There is a very slim chance we may even see some snow this week. If it’s not going to give me enough snow to play in then I just want to move on to warmer weather so we can start going outside more.
Happy Easter, Easter Bunny! Bawk! Bawk!
It’s what every mother waits for. That moment when your baby finally looks at you and says “mama”. Josie has been saying “da” or “dada” for Steve for at least a month now. When will her “mama” get some love? Soon I hope, but not before Dodger of course. Josie is now identifying Dodger as “dadu”. Maybe she hasn’t figured out that we are two separate people so she has no need to call me. Or maybe she just knows I’m always there. Whatever her reasoning, I’m sure she’ll get to “mama” soon.
We wanted to wish everyone a very Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Not that I’m reminiscing a lot lately but one year ago today we brought Josie home from the hospital. I also had my first beer in a very long time. My mother, the nurse, said they used to hand beer out to the new moms at the hospitals in Wisconsin because it’s good for milk production. That was a good enough rationale for me! I’ll raise a pint to all the new moms tonight!
Happy 1st birthday, Josie!
Well, our Little Bit is now one-year-old. She had a wonderful birthday party on Saturday. Thank you to all of her friends and family that could come. I made the cake and put the skills I learned last year in cake decorating classes to good use. Josie seemed to really enjoy it! Of course, it looked better before she got her little hands into it.
It was especially nice because we had both sets of grandparents here. Steve’s parents, from Webster, NY, were able to fly in late Thursday and spend the last few days with us.
We took Josie in today for her 1 year check-up and the doctor was very pleased with her growth. She is now 28 inches long (20th percentile) and 17 pounds 5 ounces (3-5th percentile). We were ecstatic that she has finally made it back onto the percentile chart. She is still our petite Little Bit, though. She has around 7 words that she consistently uses and can even put 2 words together (“Hi da” is her favorite greeting when daddy comes home). This puts her in the 15-18 month range for communication. This made her SLP mommy VERY happy! I can’t begin to express the joy Steve and I have had this last year watching Josie grow and learn. It’s not always been easy but we wouldn’t change a thing!
Josie is going to have her a birthday party for her 1st birthday this Saturday, March 15th! Steve’s parents are flying in from Rochester, NY for the party and we’re planning on having a nice time with them visiting as well as with the other family that is in the area.
Pictures from the party will be posted after the event. It should be a lot of fun, especially when Josie gets her own cake to play with, er, eat.
Josie has learned her first few words. It started a couple of weeks ago when she began pointing at things and saying, dis, which we interpreted to be this. So we’ve been answering her when she does this, telling her the name of what she’s pointing at. She seems happy with that since after we tell her, “picture” or “door” or “lamp” or “mommy” she points at something else and says dis.
Her next word learned was da, which she uses when pointing or looking at daddy. She moved pretty quickly from saying that to putting a hi in front of it, most likely because that’s how we great her when we come into the room.
We would chalk these sounds up as random baby sounds except for the fact that she uses them in context. When Steve comes home from work or into the room from another part of the house Josie will look at him and say, “Hi da” or sometimes “Da da”. And she’s still pointing at items in the house and saying dis and we’re still telling her what they are.
Helene’s hoping that she’ll pick up ma pretty soon. Maybe by Josie’s birthday. Keep your fingers crossed.