Finally!

I can upload pictures! Here are the two snowbunnies when first the crisp snow fell...



This is Zelda the Fierce, the fearless snow dog. I think she thought she was protecting us from the scary white stuff...


And here she is protecting Ethan from the furry thing attacking his face... better known as a snow jacket....

I promise not to cue the sentimental music or anything. I do want to post two other pictures of the "snowman"... you'll see why that's in quotation marks...



Bless it. It's more of a snow small person. (Is that politically correct? I couldn't remember if it's impolite to use dwarf or midget...)

Oh, and I lied. One more...



This isn't snow related, but it's funny. The cute little round man in the back is my dad.... love his heart. I want you to check out Laney's shoes.

They are my all-time favorite Laney purchase -- even above the palmetto tree and crescent moon smocked dress.... Who doesn't love baby snow boots?!?! She hates them, but I figure she's too young for the experience to scar her for life. No one remembers life at 9 months...

Speaking of shoes, though -- I had a moment today. I am, for those of you who don't know, chronically late. So this morning, as I rushed across the very slick floor at the top of the stairwell in my building, the heel of my brown stiletto boot caught on the floor...

Yes, that's right -- not on something on the floor --but on the floor itself.

Somehow, my heel skidded under me, causing me to pitch forward onto my knees. I slid about three feet on my knees like I was getting ready to break out into a fabulous guitar solo in a 1980s hair band concert, and then -- this is the amazing part -- stepped right up out of the slide and commenced to walking, like I intended for all of this to happen.

Well, I took about two steps until I realized that I had possibly burned every scrap of skin off of my knees, and then I hobbled to the railing.

Now, the embarrassing part of all of this is that one of my students was right behind me. To his credit, he at least asked if I was ok and tried to help me up (until, like the Bionic Woman, I walked right out of my knee slide on my own without missing a beat) before he kind of giggled to himself. He didn't even belly laugh out loud...

I did learn two very important things--
1- I may be getting too feeble to wear stilettos, and
2- It's a good thing I'm late. If I'd been any earlier, there would've been a whole slew of students, and everybody would've seen me bust my A....

Well, crap...

I can't get my pictures to come up. The first one I uploaded showed up, but it was the wrong picture, and now I can't get my pictures to publish. A big boo-hiss for that...

Anyway, much has been going on in the Jennings household. We had the first snow of the winter... well, not just us, but the area. The pix I wanted to post were of our fun-filled romp in the snow with the faithful family pet, Zelda, but that will just have to wait. :(

Laney has also decided to grow up and become an adult overnight. She's always been a little big for her britches (literally as well as figuratively as she's about 1 size ahead of where she's "supposed" to be right now), but since Christmas, she has decided to boycott baby food and many other baby behaviors.

She started crawling 2 months earlier than Ethan, which we attributed to the fact that she's trying to catch Ethan, so she had to have some means of getting around.

Now, let me explain that I'm not saying this in a boastful manner; in fact, I'm trying to figure out how to get her to stop because my life will soon become one massive marathon as I try to corral her and her brother all at once while they go in separate directions.

Since she started crawling, she has subsequently become fascinated with all sorts of things, namely those which she should leave alone, such as cabinet doors and drawers and plugs and whatnot. With Ethan, we never worried about "baby-proofing" (although I'm sure I just gave every other parent and pediatrician a heart attack) because, although curious, he was well-behaved... well, at least in the exploration arena. He didn't get into cabinets and drawers or try to chew on plugs.

Laney, on the other hand, is all about doing what she shouldn't.

Hmm.

The onset of crawling caused her to be moved up in her nursery class because she was, instead of crawling around the other tots, crawling over them.

Yes, that's right. My daughter is the one who beats up other people's kids at daycare.

So they moved her up to the next level where the kids are mobile.

And eating real food -- like table food.

Laney decided that real food was in her best interests, too. Why eat this nasty, unseasoned mush when all of my other peeps are chowing down on nuggets and whatnot?

The problem there is that Laney has no teeth. At the time this all began, she didn't even have signs of teeth. (She has since hatched the very tip-top of one tooth, but it's not doing anything to help her chew.)

The girl does not care. Teeth are a luxury, not a requirement. (My granddad believes this, too...)

The rebellion started with spitting every time baby food was put in front of her.

I don't mean hocking saliva; I mean spraying it with her lips. Loudly. Repeatedly. Embarrassingly.

Even better, she'd take a bite and then spit it all over the feeder. Her teachers started wearing protective coverings to feed her.

When the food was taken away, she'd scream like a banshee until she located someone eating real food, and then the humming/stare down began.

HMM. HMM. HMM. (While staring at you so intently with her big cow eyes that you're afraid to break eye contact for fear she would somehow free herself from her high chair and attack you while your head is turned...)

Over and over and over... until you finally give up, and -- for your sanity's sake -- give her a small piece of something, which she gobbles down like she's never been fed and promptly resumes the humming.

Another issue is that she eats A LOT. Now, I know she probably inherited this from me, but I find it disconcerting that other children her age are content with a small container of baby food and a small bottle while, at most meals, Laney scarfs down more food than her big brother. Even when she was eating baby food, she ate two containers with cereal every night and then drank a 6 oz. bottle that was equal parts cereal and formula.

I am raising a beast.

A few nights ago, she ate an entire container of micro-ravioli.

She's not even 9 months old.

I now understand why people say it's much easier to lose the baby weight with the second child. By the time I feed her (with her food and then part of mine), I'm too tired to eat or my body is so hungry that it's started breaking down muscle tissue for energy. There are no breaks and no opportunities for me to sneak a forkful of food for myself. She watches every morsel of food like a hawk.

Honestly, she is hilarious, but Laney means business when it comes to eating.

Don't interrupt the process, don't try to multi-task while feeding, and for heaven's sake -- DON'T PUT DOWN THE SPOON!