We painted some paint.

We went to this place called Terrene nearby to get some non-toxic low VOC paint for two reasons. One, nobody likes to breathe poison, and two, we can't open the windows to air the joint out because BRRRR!!! See one.

We started thinking about painting the play room and could only come up with one good influence:



I know it's silly, but it's a PLAY room! So, silly it is. (Silly and awesome.)





Yeah, that works!! And it looks even more fun when applied to a wall in the play room.



Little green would be proud. This is only phase 1 of 2 though; next up will be a giant posterized photo converted to vinyl line art and applied to the green wall. The subject of the photo will be VTEC powered. I know that doesn't mean anything to some of you, so I'll just say more plainly that it'll be the green mini.

And we didn't stop there! We also got some color for the living room. We were looking for something subtle, just to give the room a little depth. Like maybe you wouldn't notice unless you were looking real hard.



I guess we ended up with something different, but I like it. Those flowers are these cool three dimensional things that Kate found on "the internet." They have tacks on their backs and you just jam them right into the wall. Sweet!

Painting is easy, but one thing that I actually am quite proud of is that I freehanded all the edges for both rooms. No more tape! I learned the hard way that taping edges on crater surfaced plaster doesn't really give you the hard edged look we crave.

This is what Cole's hair did when he saw the green wall:



OH, and last but not least, we finally completed the basement metamorphosis from earth spilling wall hole to luxurious laundry nook. Check it:



We are thrilled that no families of hibernating badgers were displaced during the construction.

I think that's all for now. I'm going to go eat some brownies that Kate made, because it's Monday night.

It keeps snowing! Cold, fluffy, pretty, icy, piles!

Hey Cole! Ready to go out in the snow?



... I guess ... so .. ..

*Trudge*



What do you think?



I think it's super rad!! What is this stuff? It seems familiar, but somehow strange. I must remove my mittens to explore it properly.





Verdict: It is weird.

I will help daddy with this thingie.



What gives! The landscape seems to have changed around here. I don't remember this mountain.





But I like what they've done with the place. I'm glad mommy is prepared for any encounters with Wolves or Ogres. RAWR!



How can it be so soft and fluffy, and so pointy at the same time? The world is a crazy place.



-- Cole

So yeah. It's wicked snowy out. But that hasn't stopped us from going out and doing rad stuff! Yesterday we went out to the Charles River Museum of Industry in Waltham.



It was pretty cool! It's a small museum with lots of things that are toddler friendly. Cole could just walk up to most things and climb on them, grab them, or poke them.







Or drip snot on them. Tis the season!



The array of crazy complex old school beautiful machines was staggering.







And the old wonderful signage was spectacular.







They even had a hand made wooden machine. I think this one was built in 1835. Maybe 1935.



Cool.

More snow is due in the next couple days, and we look forward to whatever adventures lie ahead for the rest of the winter. Laters!

Blink!

Recently, I got a flash for my camera. I don't know what the heck I'm doing with it, so occasionally, I experiment. Cole is a willing participant because he likes that the flash beeps when it recycles. Cole likes beeps. Here are some flash photos of Cole being a giant ham.

Wait, we have a blog?

Hello there, blog! Haven't seen you in a while! What's it been, like a month and a half? I don't even know.

We've been busy! Everyone's been sick, and everyone's been well, and Cole has been enjoying school, and I've been working too hard, and now I'm on vacation, and we've been preparing the house for the cold weather, and I've been practicing my run-on sentence construction.

First, we just got insulation blown into our walls. It was pretty cool. This is how they did it:



Like 10 years ago, we went to a zoo in November with some friends, where Cole was more fascinated with pictures of himself than the resident animals, 'natch.



He did enjoy hanging out with his new friend Addison though.





They seemed to enjoy looking for birds in the birdarium the most.





And the birds enjoyed looking back at them, too.



Cole has continued to do a great job of enticing us to go out for walks regardless of the weather. Cold rain? Pshaw! Sliding around on icy marshland in the rain is FUN!



But it's also very serious. Don't forget that.



Cole got ahold of our matter multiplier and managed to duplicate himself 3 times before we could turn it off.



He gets into everything! He's even learning how to get up on the counters.



Might be a problem one of these days.

Cole's daycare has an annual holiday singalong recital performance thing. It is awesome. Here is some video of the event:



There is an extended 10 minute remix, but I am not allowed to show footage of the other kids on public internets. If you want to see the private video you'll have to friend me on YouTube and then I'll have to send you an invite. It's quite complicated. But you get the gist of it; the kids started singing, and Cole was like "no thanks!"

Also, Cole finally got another haircut. He had been blinking a lot so we were wondering if he had an eye problem, but then we realized that it was just his bangs poking him in the eye all the time. SNIP!



We like his hair mussy and long but we also think he looks handsome with his little boy cut.



Especially when he has a constant runny nose. It's a great look for kids in the winter. Speaking of runny noses, last night (Christmas Eve!) we went out for a chilly walk downtown to enjoy the lights in the Public Gardens.



It was gorgeous. And then we saw the lights over on Comm. Ave. Incredible!



We goofed around there for a little while, taking out of focus pictures.





And then headed back to the Gardens to see if the indigenous Tiny Snowmen were out playing. We were in luck! We found one!



So cute!!



WHOA! What did the tiny snowman ever do to you? Jeez. We're going to have to work on how Cole responds to competition in the "cute" department.

Then we headed back to the car, enjoying the lights as we went. Cole really digs the sparklies.











Anyway, we finished the evening with a self portrait. Kate is wicked pretty, and that's a fact.