weird weather and polka dots

As I type, the wind is howling like a soundtrack for a creepy movie.  It is cold outside, probably not as cold as it should be for this time of year, but cold.  It feels all the colder because for the past 2 days the temperatures hovered around 70.... in February.  Yesterday, an old friend and her kids came over and we had a picnic, outside, without jackets.  We then came back and I quickly wiped off the porch table and chairs, threw on a table cloth and we had tea and donuts (sadly, no home baked goodies, new stove arrives Tuesday) on the porch.

 The kids played in the sandbox, the dog ran around the yard, the chickens pecked happily.  It was a beautiful, glorious day.  A day which is a tease, a day which dangles spring in front of you on a cobweb, which almost makes you believe it will stay, although you know it won't, it can't, but...  On such a day your body feels younger, more energetic, alive, like spring itself.  I flung the windows open to air out the house and didn't close them until after sunset, it was that warm.  This morning I awoke to a cold, damp, gray day.  Back to normal.  I might, if only for a moment, been tempted to feel sorry for myself, for losing something so magical, but then I called my friend in Berlin.  She lamented it has been so cold, for days, with minus zero temperatures.  Her houseplants froze and died, IN her house!  She has the heat on, a space heater and the fire place going and still can't get the house warm.  Yeah, on second thought, it's not so cold here.

On another note, on Saturday we will be celebrating a 2nd birthday.  My friend's daughter, Naomi, will be turning two.  I remember so well when she was born.   I got a phone call in the evening from Becky's husband saying that the baby had been born.  What made this so unusual was that the baby wasn't due for a couple more months and we were in the middle of a major snowstorm, and how in the world did they even get to the hospital?  Well, I guess when your wife tells you she has begun labor, prematurely and there is 2 feet of snow outside, you just start shoveling.  I imagined Tim shoveled the majority of the day.  I'm guessing he shoveled his whole street, which is a small street and was not yet plowed.  I'm guessing, he would have shoveled a path path miles long to the hospital if that's what it would have taken.  And so, this little baby, this little 3 pound miracle entered the world, at the hospital, the only place she could have survived.  And survived she did.  She was a feisty little thing from day one, kicking off blankets and trying to nurse.  Now at two, she is more energetic than a cheerleading team, and just about as loud.  She's as smart as a whip, and as small as a peanut.  She's a bit like a tiny monarch with a megaphone and lilac glasses.
Well, anyway, to celebrate this ball of energy's birthday, we decided to make some wrapping paper (ok, partly feeling crafty and partly realizing we have nothing but Christmas paper in the house) with our trusty Ikea never ending roll of paper and some Dots ink stampers.  As it turned out, after digging in the craft basket I found a ribbon covered in dots which matched perfectly. It wasn't quite long enough for a bow so I cut a few pieces of tulle and, voila, instant bow.

When we finished, Austin announced that it "looks very pretty'" and "Naomi will like it a lot."  Well, there you go, he should know, after all he's been 2 for four months now.  I'd say that makes him the expert.