Station #1

I took Rowan to visit Fire Station #1, which is the oldest and busiest station in Fayetteville, last week. He was so excited about getting to drive the truck and see the firefighters. He even grabbed his little fire truck, from the movie Cars, and took it with us. I mean he was pumped, right up until we walked into the station and they closed the garage door. He immediately made me pick him up, "Mama, scared."

I'm glad we went because what if we really had an emergency and this firefighter, dressed from head to toe in his gear, shows up at his window to help him and he runs from him? He listened to every word they said and we practiced a "fire drill" with a smoke alarm. I'm counting this trip as insurance, that in case of an emergency he has at least seen a firefighter in full gear before. He's that kind of kid, super cautious the first time and adventurous the next.

One of the firefighters finally convinced Rowan to give him five and then asked him if he would like to drive the truck. Rowan told him, "No, too big." I had our camera and was ready to get some really cute pictures, FAIL. I did manage to get him to stand with the other kids and take a few pictures at the end.










We are awaiting the next snow storm as I type this. It was 67 on Saturday and now we are not getting above freezing until next week and our lows at night keep getting lower every time I check. Negative 2 on Wednesday morning, let's just say Spring has not sprung. I predict six more weeks of winter. We'll see what Punxsutawney Phil says in a few days.

Snowman

After the powdery, dry snow had a chance to melt for a few days, it was snowman time. Esten and Rowan, ok Esten, rolled this guy up.



And the old man, Ian, put up with the cold to be outside with them. The snowy, white background really brings out the white in his face.



Rowan really didn't care too much for the snow until he realized he could eat it. Five day old snow is still "lishous."



He seems to be saying, "Mom, it's just snow."



I'm hoping that our snow days are over for the year. It has been much colder here than we anticipated. Yesterday, it was 42 degrees, so we went to the park. It felt like Spring to the Arkansans, but to this Texan, it was the dead of winter out there.

Name That Tune

Rowan's First Big Snow

Happy 2011

2010 found us in six different homes, two countries and living out of our suitcases for 5 months of the year. I wouldn't change one second of our experience but I'm ready for a less mobile 2011. As I was telling my father-in-law this at Christmas and telling him how I was looking forward to an uneventful year, he calmly said, "You're having a baby this year." Oh yeah, that's what I've been meaning to write about! Rowan is going to be a big brother to baby girl Mason in May. We have been telling him that I have a baby in my tummy and he now points to his and says, "Baby in there." I guess he understands,if not he will soon enough.

Rowan has turned into a little person these days and will talk your face off; most of which you might understand. He still has some words that he pronounces wrong every time and I love them. My favorite is wok-wee. Broccoli, of course. Water has gone from agua, to ah-wok and is now wok-er. Will he ever get it right again?

By little person, I mean he has an opinion about everything, including his clothes. He made me take him out in public like this.


The shirt was too small and who taught him to tuck his pants in the boots? He is entertaining! I took him to try out a gymnastics class and I watched through a one-way window. 50% of the time he was jumping on the trampoline in the back of the gym, alone. But it was his first experience with another adult giving him instruction and for the first 15 minutes or so he was digging it. I'm still debating whether to sign him up for the class. Here is a video of the very beginning of the class. Excuse the chatting women but I like that you can hear Rowan let out the occasional scream so I didn't want to dub over the voices.

It snowed a few inches here this week and I took him outside to explore the snow. He touched it and told me it was "colt" and then when I finally convinced him to walk in it, he told me it was "crunchy." I think I got an "awesome" out of him too. After that he wanted to come back inside, which is where we've been this entire week. It's been so cold, 5 in the morning when we wake up and warming up to 30 by the afternoon. I checked the weather in NYC and it's warmer there this week than it is here.





Along with my stable 2011, I'm hoping that I'll be able to share more with you all here.