Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Where's your playground?

I haven't been off-roading in quite a while now. This hobby of pushing your vehicle to it's limits begins to burn a hole in your wallet as parts begin to fail after repetitive abuse up in the hills. I still enjoy it though and it's more enjoyable when the whole town becomes your playground. This past weekend we received several inches of snow which is something I always look forward to. It's a great feeling to leave my Jeep on 2WD and fishtail around town as I play with the throttle. I'm not reckless though, I only play on the wide and empty streets. Yet it's nice to know that my jeep will take me wherever I need to be and if I get stuck then I probably shouldn't be there in the first place.

On Saturday morning we got up early to take Ben on his first sledding adventure, however after sinking down on the fluffy snow I decided to just pull Traci and Ben around. Ben seemed rather confused at the meaning of this activity as his nose became more red with every minute. He did great, he even got to taste snow although he didn't enjoy that much. It sure would be nice if we could get a few more weeks of snow because we just started having fun.










Tuesday, February 4, 2014

7 Months Later

Yesterday we awoke to a thin blanket of snow. It was nice to see everything covered with white puffy snow since the past two winters have been relatively dry. Ben woke up early around 5 am, perhaps in the anticipation that we would celebrate his birthday but we explained we were saving our farthings for his one year birthday. To which he responded "Cupcakes?" Amazing, his first words.

Each morning Ben wakes up and is excited to spend time with us, sometimes he goes back to sleep before Traci heads to work, other times we sit by the window and wave goodbye to Traci as she drives away. We spend several hours a week sitting on that chair; me facing the living room and him resting his head on my shoulder watching out the window as the cars and pedestrian pass by. 8am and 3pm are the best times to watch the activity on our street with children walking to and from school. Ben enjoys paying close attention to any activity outside our window, he leans his body forward, holds as still as he can and watches till the person is out of his view. Yesterday we sat by window as Traci headed to work. Once again his head leaning on my shoulder yet as Traci drove down the drive way, he pushed himself up with an effort to get closer to her. His legs kicked and his arms extended towards mom as he knew who was in that car, perhaps he wanted one last hug or kiss before she went off to work. I leaned him towards the window as he began to whimper, his head like a magnet following the car as it drove off. He bumped his head on the cold hard glass yet that was the least of his concerns because most importantly, when will mom be back? Lunch time, Ben. I miss her too.