We've been out and about.

We had about three weeks where it was too cold to get the mail (our mailbox is literally at our door. You don't even have to step outside. But you have to OPEN the door, so) and now we've had a bit of a thaw. It's been amazing. I like my child so much more as a person when we've been outside for a little bit, even if it's just to go pick up milk. I mean, we're still bundled like

but no one's crying frozen tears because of how badly their hands hurt. Anyway. With our newfound and possibly temporary ability to leave the house, we have been:

Going to the library, where we read books to t-rex.

Or make someone read books to us AND t-rex.

Going to Josie's for a belated birthday brunch.

Eleanor cannot hold her sugar. Her naptime that day involved a lot of high-volume singing, as well as some discovering that she could peek out of her window.

Going to the zoo because it's free in the winter because HAHA it's so cold, like you'd pay.

But all the large predators are out in force, so.

Going to Toddler Gym and having lovely picnics there.

Going to the play place and making friends. (Really, having friends make US because Eleanor can be reallllly socially reticent around kids her own age.)

Building an actual proper snowman because when it's 3 degrees, the snow sticks to itself (but also your mittens. Building a snowman is so much harder than I remember).

When it's 3 degrees, it takes less than 24 hours for your snowman to become an ogre.

Ok but we're not outside all the time (obviously) so we've been inside:

Cleaning stuff.

I need to get a video of Eleanor washing something because she's so officious about it.

Balance-beaming.

Cooking (I got a second peeler so I can just be like, Here spend ten minutes on this parsnip while I do other things, and Eleanor is like, VERY GOOD I WILL PEEL THIS PARSNIP FOR YOU).

I...don't even know.

After a straight week of temperatures around zero, we have some oscillating temps this week (yesterday was -25! Today was -7! Tomorrow will be -27! Thursday should be -1!) which means we get out of the house on alternating days. And if it's warmer than -20 we get out of the house for sure, because you never know when another deep freeze is going to drive us to heavy drinking.