Chismville

Here is a small sampling of some of the amusing things I’ve heard recently:

Joel: What color are your stripes, Mommy?

Me: White and red.

Joel: White and red? Wow! I love white and red! They my favowites!

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to Kirstie:

Joel: Do you want to hold my precious Aria?

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Chalice always says, “Are you cold, Mommy?” when I change her diaper with cold hands. She never complains that my hands are cold for her.

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Joel is an optimist. I tell him he can’t do something and he invariably asks, “Can I do it Later?” “Later” is his magic word. I told him not to play with the fireplace tools. He said, “Can I use them later?” I told him when he’s older, I’d let him use the fireplace tools. A few days later he announced, “Mommy, I’m older now. Can I use these?”

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Our kids love to help us. Whenever David’s working on a challenging project, Joel will place his little hand on David’s shoulder and say kindly, “I’m helping you, Daddy.”

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If I stub my toe or burn myself (which happens often, I guess I’m a clutz) Chalice says with great sympathy, “I so sowwy, it’s okay!” She usually says it two or three times.

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My dad took Joel by his house when most of my siblings were gone. Joel asked, “Where are all your friends?”

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A couple days ago we had some new friends over. We were making preliminary introductions and Joel stood in the doorway hugging Chalice and said, “This is my cute Chalice.”

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Joel loves looking at pictures of people on facebook or various blogs. We clicked on a picture of Emily Howard and me and Joel said, “Look at Aunt Emily’s beautiful eyes!” “Oh Mommy has beautiful eyes too!” The picture had horrible red-eye. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

The Chism Family has now officially seen a number of snow days but nothing like the one we had today! The most snow we’ve gotten all season long was probably not much more than 2-3 inches. This morning, I woke up to 18 degree weather and very bright landscaping. There was about 2-3 inches at around 6:30 and by 8:00 about 6 inches. So I was snowed in from work till about 11:30. Our neighbor was kind enough to snow plow our 1/2 mile driveway.

As I was leaving for a few appointments, I got to see a black cat attack a rabbit in our front yard. It was quite cool. There was so much snow, both animals had a hard time, but eventually, the cat one the battle and slow dragged off its lunch. It was actually quite funny watching the attack and the cat pounce through the snow with the rabbit in its jaws. A little adventure for a city boy!

When I left for work, the rest of my family was joined by most of the Howard clan: Heidi, Emily, Kirstie, Seth, Joe and Katrina for a little bit of sledding, snowballs, popcorn and hot cocoa. They had a blast! As we wrap up our final weeks if not days of this cold winter, we’ve posted a few of our snow day photos.

Some folks said I would not like the winters out here or be dying for San Diego. This is of course, my first winter. Maybe I’ll get sick of it in a few years. All in all, the winter in Maryland was not that bad. I enjoyed most of the days. The things I did not like were staying in side most of the time and work being extremely slow. However, I think I will appreciate spring 10x more than I ever have before!