The unmistakable signs of spring

I went for a run today and saw many piles of old, mushy dogshit in the melting snow. Could spring finally be arriving in Eastern Ontario?

"Mom, I'm hungry!"

That's a phrase I'm hearing in an endless loop these days. Which is surprising, because it's a phrase that until recently was completely absent from Henry's repertoire. But my food-phobic boy has developed an appetite, and i feel like I now spend a good chunk of my day feeding him snacks. The turnaround is striking for a child who survived for years on chocolate milk, air, and the occasional carrot stick. I mean, this is a kid with whom we used to have to cajole, negotiate, bribe and/or force-feed almost every forkful of food that went into his mouth. A kid who got sent to an infant feeding clinic for evaluation at one year of age because he was so reluctant to eat anything at all. A kid whom I felt compelled to breastfeed for two whole years because it was his only reliable source of nutrients. That same kid is now putting back near-grownup-size portions of fish, oatmeal, pasta, meatballs--all kinds of crazy things. Well, to be honest he's still pretty picky about what he'll eat. Vegetables, for example, are pretty much off the menu (He has a remarkable ability to make himself vomit if we push too hard on the veggie front. He did it the other day after we harassed him into a second bite of sweet potato. Count it as a lesson learned). But the quantity is astounding. And he is broadening his palate ever so slightly. I just about fell over backwards last week when he asked if he could have salmon--salmon!--for dinner. You see, salmon is fish, which is Baryonyx food, and if Henry can pretend to be a kind of dinosaur while he's eating, he'll put away extra bites. The more gruesome, the better. A few days ago I got him to try quesadillo by cutting into triangles I told him were t-rex teeth, and I added some veggie content by serving it with a blob of tomato salsa I described as "carcass" that he could dip the teeth into for the full prehistoric predator experience. He went for that. So that's how it goes with a picky eating almost-4-year-old: fresh vegetables = out, decaying animal flesh = in.

Little boys are delightful.

Easter Bunnies

We had a fun Easter weekend, despite the cold. On Friday one neighbor hosted an old-fashioned egg decorating party for the local kids. Henry had so much fun dipping hard-boiled eggs in dye that he actually wanted to eat one when he got home. The fun ended there. He really likes scrambled eggs, but cold, rubbery, overcooked boiled egg wasn't his scene. I don't blame him for spitting out the bite he took. On Sunday we had a visit from the Easter Bunny, then we headed over to a different neighbor's house for an Easter egg hunt (indoors, of course). Good times. The concentration of kids right around Henry's age makes it easy to organize and attend these events. Both were last-minute ideas. And today one of the moms from the block dropped by to ask if Henry would like to go to the park with her and a few other kids. So that's where he is now, while I'm at home with Dexter.

I'll say it again: I hate the climate here, but I really, really love this neighborhood. It's such a great community.

A man and his shovel

Okay, I swear this is the last snow-related post. Tom and our neighbor, Olivier, spent the day removing snow from the alley that borders our house. (Note that Olivier doesn't actually live in the house on the other side of the alley; he was just helping out to be nice. Yes, we have great neighbors, which does a lot to make up for the horrible climate.) Anyway--Two grown men, hours and hours of shoveling, and the alley is about halfway clear. Maybe now our basement won't end up completely inundated with water. It will just be damp.

And I have no idea what we're gonna do about the situation on the side deck. I guess there's more shoveling (or bailing/mopping up the basement, if it thaws before we get to it) in our future:

March Break = House arrest

The view from inside our cell

I've almost made it to the end of March Break (It's important to note that in Ontario they do not call it "Spring Break", because it most definitely is not). I'm not sure which group of sadists decided that closing down the schools and all children's activities for a week would be a good idea (cough*TEACHERS!*cough), but someone out there in bureaucrat land owes me one hell of a coffee break. Actually, it's not the "break" that's been wearing on me so much as the fact that we're practically housebound these days because the storm last Saturday really broke the city's collective back, and getting around town is a major headache. Many, many streets (including ours) still do not have their sidewalks plowed, so trying to push a stroller is an exercise in futility. The massive snowbanks have reduced a lot of roads to one lane, and everything from merging to cornering to parking is tricky and risky. Just to park in our driveway I have to drive past the house and reverse into the neighbor's driveway, as there is no longer room to turn in. And it goes on and on. REally, it's better just to stay in. So we're pretty bored these days.

We did manage a few fun activities to avoid going totally stir-crazy during this tedious week of no school, no swimming, no playgroup. We spent a day at Jensen's. We made a snail poster and cast plaster dinosaurs from a kit. We made of it what we could, but damn could we ever use some spring around here.

Apocalypse (S)now!

Chaos! Anarchy! It's the Snowpocalypse!

Yesterday's blizzard shut the city down. It started Friday night and kept dumping through Saturday. We got of 51 cm (20 inches) of fresh snow in two days. That's on top of the massive blanket of white stuff we already had. This is the second-snowiest winter in Ottawa's history. And a super-snowy winter for Ottawa is serious business, because even average years are really freaking snowy. It's like the hottest summer in Phoenix, or the rainiest year in Vancouver. Extreme stuff. I'm starting to worry about our roof, especially over the unheated side room. But there's nothing we can do about it--the area is inaccessible, and trying to get up there to remove snow would be stupidly dangerous.

Anyway, here's the scene:



(Compare that last picture to these ones from December, when I first started commenting on all the snow we have. They seem like the good old days now.)

A sign of things to come

Here's a little brother/big brother moment for you:

I'm done

Another storm hit today. I took a look out the window this morning and decided I wasn't leaving the house. No workout for me. No school for Henry. I just couldn't bear to spend yet another morning digging the car out from under two feet of snow. As far as I'm concerned, the only way to cope with this endless, merciless winter is to stop going outside altogether.

I mean, look at this shit we're dealing with:

Side yard, yesterday

Deck, today

Our roof is doomed!

On the move (almost)