Where did J-Funk go?

I'm not sure, actually, just that for about 5 months I couldn't get myself to blog. I think it had to do with the massive load of work I was buried under since being sick most of the year last year and a death in the family that I'm so broken up over I still can't even talk about. But, I've been getting caught up on work (2 papers submitted this week!) and subsequently catching up at home and I'm hoping now I can get back on track with the blog. So, hopefully I'll see you around more now!

Layla update

Layla is a big 22 months old now, and has changed a TON since I last posted an update. I don't even know where to start.

Mainly what we've noticed, is that she's been sassing at us constantly with ever longer and longer strings of words. Half the time we don't understand her at all and the rest of it is stuff we're pretty sure she picked up from us or from daycare, which she now uses mostly for evil. We started putting her in time-outs, then the other day she put her daddy in a time-out. We tell her to sit on her butt at dinner, and she doesn't, but then tells all the other kids at daycare to sit on their butts. So, at least she's listening. She's also telling us about her day ('play with Emmy!' 'row-row with Mimi!' 'Kiwi CRIED'), her thoughts ('is Kiwi ok?', 'where did the kitty go?'), what she wants to do ('HUGH'S HOUSE!' 'PIZZA!!' 'HIDE!!!'). She's tired of playing with the little toddlers in her classroom at school and is about to move up into the 2-3 yr old room... and I'm not sure I'm ready for that! Mostly, we're all really enjoying hanging out with each other, and finding Layla likes all the same stuff we do, which is making the weekends a lot more fun than they used to be. These days we spend a lot of time connecting with friends for playdates, lounging around the house, and going shopping at the farmer's market or in the neighborhood.

The big Seattle Snowpocalypse

We got buried by snow last week. Buried! We couldn't even get out our door. Actually, it was about 8 inches total, over 3 days. And we had LOTS of warning (schools were cancelled before the storm even started).

But, in Seattle's defense, 8 inches of snow is a lot to take in a city with only 48 snow plows, no sanders, no salters, and LOTS of HUGE hills. Many of them were simply blocked off, by the city, or, mostly, by people in the neighborhoods that didn't want their street-parked cars getting hit. In our neighborhood, some of those streets had a lot of sledding and even some skiing and snowboarding going on.

The Snowpocalypse lasted 3 days. I was sick the day before it started (Tuesday) and Monday was a holiday, so I took the entire week off, mostly. The Studly Hubby and I both had big deadlines the weekend before, so we really really enjoyed it. But actually, the best part was that Layla started sleeping LATE that week, several days she even slept until 8:45 am!!! This was the first time we experienced this (without any interruptions at night) since she was born!! We lived it up by staying up past 10 pm watching movies and eating popcorn. One night we even had some wine. What a party!

So, we really enjoyed our snow holiday week. Layla and I shoveled the walk (we were one of two families on our block that bothered) and we all played in the snow quite a bit, although Layla thought it was a little overwhelming especially at first.


We also cuddled in bed a lot, and stayed warm and cozy under the covers. If you're wondering why I look so sleepy, I think it's because I was still a little sick when this picture was taken.

We also dressed in crazy clothes and jumped all over each other. Mostly, this was at the end of the week when the snow had turned to disgusting slushy rain and we were getting a bit of cabin fever.


Other things we did: Skyped with everyone who was available, cleaned out and organized closets, the bathroom, the basement, and Layla's dresser, baked up some stuff (Layla and Derek really got into cooking together), built forts, put up a tent inside, did some art projects, had some playdates with neighbors that were within walking distance, ventured out to see the Big Sled Hill at Gasworks Park (spectacular!), and listened to a lot of music. Layla only started getting bored on Friday, when the pretty snow had turned to slushy rain and we were running out of stuff to do. Fortunately by Saturday the roads were clear again and we, like everyone else in Seattle, spent the entire weekend out on the town.