More Snow

RyanC's fever only lasted 12 hours so he is back to normal. AidanC is no longer having running nose but he is still fussy with naps/sleep. We have been taking more day-time naps to make-up for baby's interruptions. It is going to be tough when I start working again.

Yesterday the 2nd snow blizzard started within a week of the previous one. This is unusual compared to the past when snow usually melt within a day. When wife heard about the blizzard, she had cheered:

"Yeah! More exercise!"

If she had said that after reading about CherkyB's recent purchas then I would have wondered if she was telling me that someone was nice enough to buy his wife a good exercise machine. However, I am left to think that she was subtly telling me that I need more exercise...

I shoveled the driveway this morning while brother-in-law was still sleeping and wife was just getting up from another long night of baby-harassment. Even though we were supposed to get 6-10 inches of snow, our driveway accumulated ~12 inches of snow due to the wind. Our friendly retired neighbor with snow blower helped to plow our sidewalk and the extended-driveway so we can get to the street if we need to. He must have taken care of 4-5 houses this morning with his snow-blower. It certainly saved another hour of shoveling for me since I only had to shovel our driveway.

We checked the attic and there was no snow accumulated this time - whew! However, it was interesting that snow blocked the satellite signal more quickly than previous snow blizzard. I had to use a broom to clean off the snow. It's a good thing that I placed our satellite next to bathroom window so I don't really have to get outside to do this.

Here is a morning shot of the peach tree in our backyard:

Sick Kids

AidanC has been having running nose in the past few days. RyanC started having ~103F fever this morning. I first noticed that he wasn't well when I waved to him from upstairs and he just stared at me instead of his usual excited-to-see-daddy responses. RyanC's face has been fairly red and warm to the touch. He also has occasional shivers too.

When wife tried to measure his temperature, he became really afraid because he thought he was getting poked by needle. We had to hold the crying kid still while taking his temperature. He has been saying "hurt" a lot but we have yet to figure out where it's hurting... The doctor's office said to give him tylenol, warm bath and some chicken noodle soup. We did all that and he is taking his nap now...

Xmas Pics

RyanC loves to open presents and AidanC loves to watch.












My mom made these cool kimono pajamas (reversible too!) for RyanC and AidanC to keep them warm in the winter. I am not sure how she measured the two boys during her last trip here but these pajamas are a bit too big.

More Pics

I was browsing my favorite forum for lens review and found this amazing picture that someone took: cat & mouse. According to the person that took the picture, this was not staged and the mouse was rescued. link to forum thread here...

RyanC wanted brave the cold to go out and shovel snow with mommy and uncle yesterday. They cleared a path to enable our car(s) to get onto the street. Daddy had been spending most of the time reading a Chinese on-line novel about grave-diggers...

Snow Everywhere!

Yesterday the highly anticipated blizzard started and it delivered ~2 feet of snow. My brother-in-law and I went to the post-office and then did some shopping early in the afternoon. We got home safely in my Accord but the car got stuck at the bottom of our steep driveway that required additional shoveling to get the car into the garage. It's a good thing that we got a better shovel while we were out so we were ready for some shoveling!

RyanC checked out the snow and declared "cold" when asked whether he wanted to go out and play. See how the snow got stuck on the door handle! There was a snow pocket forming against the wall too but it peeled off before I could take a picture of it.


The snow pile was almost at shoulder length when we got done shoveling. We were so tired that we didn't try to take RyanC outside to build snowman or snow-cave.


Later this evening, I walked upstairs and noticed this wet spot in the middle of the stairs. It didn't take me long to realize that we no longer have a dog and RyanC is not yet being holiday-potty-trained... As I looked up, I noticed that our two-story livingroom ceiling was showing signs that reminded me of CherkyB-leakage! I also heard the drip sound right at that moment too! It took me some time to find the ladder to climb up to peek into the attic. It is a good thing that I got these bright luxeon LED flashlights recently (more on these later). However, being the idiot I am, I did not see any wet spot in the roof when I looked in the attic. Wife asked for the flashlight and climbed up the stairs to inspect for herself. She immediately found two piles of snow inside the attic! Here is the bigger pile that is closest to the leak on the ceiling that dripped onto the stairs:



We got the biggest cooking pot we have and went into the attic to remove the snow. Actually brother-in-law beat me to it then so he ended up doing most of the digging while I dispose of the ice+insulation materials. We removed about 15+ buckets of snow... The water is still dripping... We will have to find someone to plug the hole(s) that we have yet to conclusively locate and fix the damages.

Anyways, about these Costo's Hawkeye Luxeon LED lights that I had been considering and finally purchased (through a coworker) lately... It comes in a package with 2 flashlights. Each light has blue & red filters. I put red on one and blue on another and demoed them for RyanC. RyanC was immediately fascinated by these lights. He held the flashlight(s) and pointed them on the floor and ceiling while going "wooooo!!" and "ahhhhh!". These are his favorite toy other than our older digital camera that he has been taking pictures with.

Last Sunday we went to Denver again for groceries and also stopped by the Denver Zoo. It is amazing how fast we can go through the zoo when most of the animals are not showing and when there were no more than 10 groups there.

Here is a lion checking us out as he walked really close to the glass. In the busy season the area around the glass would have been jam packed with people trying to see the lion so it was cool to take this picture. RyanC's reflected image is on the bottom right corner. It's probably difficult to see but he was a little intimidated by the lion.


This Rhino did not like to be confined in this little space. He banged against the door a few times and later pooped.

Still a little sick

Wife is sick, AidanC is sick, and I am a little sick. Wife started this thing soon after my family left after the thanksgiving break... she probably got sick from grocery shipping or something. The good news is that we are all finally getting better. The bad news is that even if I could go to fat camp, I couldn't have gone because I wouldn't want to pass it along the happy campers.

AidanC has a blocked tear duct on his right eye. It supposedly started more than a month ago but I only noticed it two weeks ago -- not sure how I missed it . Being the more paranoid one, I asked wife to arrange for AidanC to go with RyanC to his 2-year checkout. AidanC got some eye-drop med and it may take some time before the swelling goes down. We were told to put warm towel on his eye and AidanC likes it as much as his brother's hugs, which means he responds with screams and disgruntled twists and turns...

RyanC has been doing great despite being surrounded by sick people. He seems to eat well and sleep well lately. Today he sat through most of the movie "Curious George", giggling and laughing at the little trouble-maker monkey. I saw part of the movie and thought RyanC behaves a lot like the monkey. Though the monkey doesn't seem to scream as loudly as RyanC does...

RyanC also peed into the toilet today. We are still in the early stages of our less-than-rigorous potty training attempts. He doesn't really tell us when he has to go. In the rare occasions when we ask him if he has to go peepee and he responds "yes", he would often say "i do it!" as he attempts to take off the diapers. We have to take care of the outer layers since it's winter and we usually leave him in 2-4 layers of clothing. So the little monkey was sitting on top of the toilet seat (special kid-size one that fits over regular one) while daddy sat next to him waiting for him to do his business... All of the sudden RyanC pointed to the door and said "go away!" repeatedly. I don't know who taught him that. I certainly don't recall telling him to go away...

So I went outside of the bathroom and waited for him to finish peeing... I then asked wife to watch him as I went downstairs to fetch some water for the boy's bed-side bottle. RyanC ran out of the bathroom into his room as I got to the bottom of stairs and as wife walked towards him. When I got back upstairs later, I found RyanC standing on top of the little step hovering over the toilet - wife was next to him. Wife informed me that he still had to pee some more and said to me "you need to teach him to pee standing up like men do" and then left the bathroom...

I am not ready to let the boy pee wherever his aim takes it...

Luckily, the little monkey wanted off the steps soon after mommy walked out of the bathroom. We will resume the men's P-training in the future.

RyanC's favorite saying lately: "NO!" and "i do it".