Snow days, snow days.... As you can see, the boys are really really really enjoying the impressive amount of snow we received in the last storm, Eleanor and I are decidedly less impressed though. The boys are, in fact, so excited about that snow that in the middle of breakfast today Fraser asked "Can I go outside?" and Hammie joined "Yeah! I wanna go outside!" to which I responded. "It is 3 degrees out there!" Blank looks. "That is really really really really cold!" More blank looks. "You may not go outside until it warms up." Fraser: "How warm?" Me: "Warmer." Fraser: "How warm? What number?" Me: "At least 13 degrees." I figured that since he can't read the thermometer yet, and doesn't really have a good sense of the relative time it would take to reach 13 degrees, this was akin to saying "You cannot go outside." Instead, Fraser spent the entire morning checking the thermometer every 15 minutes and asking "Is it 13 degrees yet? Can we go out now?" So, it is now a balmy 16 degrees outside and Fraser and Hammie are both playing the snow. This is after Hammie spent a good hour this morning pretending the dining room chair was a snow blower. I can't believe I am raising such New Englanders.

Fraser and Hammie's desire to do pretty much absolutely everything together is very new. This morning they had a very serious and lengthy discussion over what color socks they would both choose to wear so they could match and they both had to wear their overalls too. Hammie also asked to sit on his potty in the bathroom while Fraser went to the bathroom, which is awesome since it is the first sign of actual interest in using the potty that Hammie has shown AND Fraser was happy to allow Hammie to sit with him in the bathroom instead of screaming 'I want privacy!" and slamming the door. Major progress all around.

Unfortunately, the only down side of Fraser and Hammie wanting to do everything together is that Eleanor now wants to do everything with them too. So after lunch, as I got the boys suited up to go out in the freezing cold, Eleanor ran to the bin of shoes and pulled out her sneakers and brought them to me to put on. I said "No Eleanor, you can't go outside right now." She looked completely confused like "And why the hell not??" so I said "You need to take your nap, you can play with the boys when you wake up!" So for the next 15 minutes, as I finished getting the boys dressed, Eleanor stood in the mudroom sobbing and holding onto her sneakers like she had just been told the boys were getting puppies and going to disney world and she had to spend the day scrubbing toilets. I think it is going to be tough on Eleanor to be the third child.

In other news, Hammie has suddenly started called Fraser "Fraser" now instead of "Doe-dee" or "Zah-zee." This is a good thing, since people outside our family had a hard time understanding who he is talking about when he says "Zah-zee" (and he does like to talk, and talk, and talk, and talk). Still, it makes me a little sad to hear him say Fraser, since he sounds so grown up all of a sudden. Of course he still doesn't really say his "r"s, so it is more Fwasewr than Fraser, so it's not too much of a slap in the face.

Eleanor meanwhile has reached her own impressive "big girl" milestone and can now feed herself fairly successfully with a spoon. Mostly this achievement works when we are eating things like rice and beans, but I decided to let her have a shot at mushroom soup last week. She did really well until Andy and I got involved in a conversation, I stopped watching her and exclaiming over how how fabulous her spoon use was, and the next thing I know Andy looks at Eleanor and says "Um, what is she doing?" I turn to look at Eleanor just in time to see her ladle what I am guessing was about her third spoonful of soup right onto her head. Andy tried to wipe her head off with a washcloth, but as you can see from the photo of her resulting hairdo, she went right into the bath after dinner.

After many hours of internal debate and heart wrenching consideration (and feeling like a horrible mother and failure as a parent), I am still not sure whether to have Fraser do another year of preschool before he goes to kindergarten. A few months ago I was sure he would need an extra year, but I am still worried that he may be bored next year if he doesn't go on to kindergarten. Still, I think academically he would probably fall in the middle of the Kindergarten pack as far as knowing his letters and how to write and all that, but socially I just don't think he is there yet. He doesn't seem to really initiate play with other kids (other than Hammie). I really think he would benefit from another year to mature. But at the same time I am worried that all the other kids will be talking about going to kindergarten, and when he realizes he is not going he will think "What is wrong with me?" This is the ongoing debate I have in my head pretty much every time I am driving somewhere and every night before I go to bed. I am no closer to reaching a decision than I ever was, and I think I may have an ulcer. God help me when it is time for him to apply to colleges.

And finally, the more observant among you may have already noticed from the photos the newest big thing happening for our family, in the form of the very large dog who is in the back of the shot of Fraser and Hammie here, and the photo of Eleanor in snow above. The dog is a great dane named Jackson who is temporarily living with us while his owners decide if they can keep him or not. Currently I think there is probably about a 50/50 chance Jackson will end up being our dog. On one hand it is very hard because, although he is a wonderful dog and great with the kids (though not so much with the cats) he is not Dharma, and it makes sad to see him and miss her all the more. On the other hand, it really is nice to have a dog in the house again, particularly an older dog (he is 8) who likes nothing more than to follow me around the house and have me pet his head. I know people think I'm crazy to add one more living thing that I have to take care of to our house, but having a dog is so soothing and reassuring on so many levels, that our family just doesn't seem whole without one. I know, I definitely am a little crazy, but hey, at least I don't want to have another kid!