Well, even a "huge" storm can't keep us in. June had her one year checkup this morning, so we had no choice but to venture out in the frozen tundra. Instead of risking the icy roads, we decided to walk to the doctor's office, which is only about a half mile away.
Like we said, it's a wet heavy snow that stuck to all the trees. It really is quite pretty. Plus, it's about 35 degrees, so it's not too cold to be out. And the sun is out, so it feels like Wisconsin, instead of gray and dark like North Carolina has been for the past week.
We had a good time walking, although there are no bobcats here that come by early to plow the sidewalks, so we had to forge our own path. The tricky part was that the round doesn't freeze down here and it's been raining for 5 days. So every time you stepped off the sidewalk, you sunk about 6 inches into the red mud.
The most exciting part of the walk was watching the idiots drive down our street. Our street is especially "treacherous" because it's hilly, curvy and shady, making for some pretty icy conditions, even in our inflated Northern opinions. And walking home, we discovered there are two types of Southerners. First, there are the kind who lose their minds and stay at home. We like these people. Second are the morons who see the ice as a sort of challenge to prove their manhood and show Dale Earnhardt who really is the best driver. These were the people driving on our street this morning. No kidding, we saw 4 accidents on our way home. We think somewhere someone must have told these people the best way to drive on ice is just to get over it as fast as you can. Henry was pretty excited to see all these cars spinning out and knocking down fences and street signs. Mama was sure we were going to be the unintended victims of these crazy drivers and hurried everyone home as fast as she could.
About 100 yards from home, Henry lost his sense of adventure and spent the rest of the trip whining that the road was too icy and that his underpants were falling down. (On a good note, Henry successfully completed his second trip out of the house with no accidents! We're now on day 3 with no accidents. Too bad the size 2 underpants he inherited are way too big and sag constantly. And if you thought his 24 month pants were too baggy with a diaper, try not to look at Henry from behind now. He makes plumbers look modest.)
June's appointment went great. She seems to have recovered from her stint as a normal sized baby and is back to being a shrimp. She weighed in at 19 pounds 10 ounces (25th percentile), up only 1 pound and 5 ounces since her last check up 10 weeks ago. And she's 28.5 inches tall (25th percentile), 1 inch taller than last time. We thought she'd grown more. But the doctor said that it's normal for kids to grown slower once they get moving around 9 months.
When we got home, Henry demanded to get his wet pants off and to watch the Grinch in honor of the snow. In her estacy over the snow, mama drank two glasses of Cheerwine and made herself sick. So she was more than happy to let Henry watch some videos on the computer while we moaned on the floor. As you can see, Henry really likes the Grinch. If only his pants would stay up.
Many thanks to the numerous people who called this morning to check up on us. Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jenni win the funny message category for the multiple messages hoping that we hadn't started burning our furniture for heat, or resorted to eating the last of the Christmas candy to stay alive (don't worry, it's still in the tupperware in the cupboard). And luckily, no one had to send out the St. Bernard with the barrel of whiskey to save us.
