Winry's First Steps!!!

What a week!  I think things were kept short last week to help prepare for this week!  Unfortunately, the time saved last week did not actually provide additional time for me to write this post today!  There was a lot going on this past week, even though we spent 2 full days in the house thanks to a bomb cyclone!!  Guess that's a real term for the blizzard we had here mid week, but that was mid week, so who wants to talk about that first?  I guess I did...  Anyway, one day this past week Winry was really sad waiting for food and Monica held her for a little and Brooke offered to help!  So Brooke sat down, Monica set Winry in her lab, and Brooke proceeded to rock her, sing to her, and kiss her on the head!  What an amazing big sister!!

This past week, Monica got a "they grow up so fast" video from google for Winry.  What a cutie!!

Last Sunday after writing the blog we all headed to the park and had a wonderful time.  We captured a lot of good moments, and here's a little summary video of the trip.  While we were there Brooke climbed onto the little rocking animals all by herself for the first time.  And we also played hide and seek going down slides.  We finished off the trip on the swings, which Winry loved!  Great times all around, and I gotta try to type this up quick so we can get over there again!

This past week Winry started walking!  Though as I write this she's currently knee scooting across the floor...  That may still be here favorite form of transit.  She walked a little, but still isn't fully committed to the idea and usually just drops down and crawls when we stand her up.  In fact, the only way she has walked is if it's to her moose pacifiers. (She's walked a few times other than that...)

Brooke has started writing this past week!  She started with her name, but also wanted to learn to write mom, dad, Winry and Jelly.  She drew pictures of all of us and then wrote who they were all to!  What an awesome job!  She also has learned to read a few words, namely those that she learned to write this past week.

On Tuesday we had a picnic dinner in the front yard. This was mostly so we could juxtapose Tuesday night with any time at all on Wednesday.  Tuesday was 64 degrees, Wednesday was bomb cyclone!

Wednesday morning Winry decided she had some important work to do on my computer, and grabbed the mouse and was clicking wildly!  Guess that's what I get for having a light up mouse and a baby.

Anyway, onto that Wednesday weather.  Here it is!

The wind was such that all of our north facing windows had ice frozen all over them.  Work was canceled for a half day as the storm did start in earnest a little later in the day.  I worked from home in the morning because I don't have a window, so I was afraid I'd walk out to, well, exactly what you see in these picture, and not be able to make it home.  So I worked from home until the power started flickering, which was right around noon and thus work closing for the day!  Perfect timing!

The storm ended up taking down one of our neighbors trees, and if you look at the bottom of the picture you'll see the wind was strong enough that you can still see the grass poking through the snow.  It only piled up along the fence, etc.

Meanwhile, inside, Monica and I discussed what we could do if the power went out and our house didn't have heat.  I mentioned using our sleeping bags, which naturally progressed into this...  Nothing like a little indoor camping for 2 days!

With winter taking it's toll, we all had to group together and support one another.  Winry took on the task of helping Monica in the kitchen.  Looks like it went great!

We made it out of the storm pretty uneventfully.  The "craziest" thing that happened was our power flickering a few times, but it never went out for us.  But the craziest part of Thursday was pi day!!  And everyone loved key lime pie for dessert after dinner!

I was thinking this was Winry's first pie, but then I remembered Thanksgiving... so I guess it probably wasn't momentous enough for the video I took...  That said, she sure loved that pie, and Brooke sure sang happy birthday to... pies everywhere.

On Friday I made my return to work.  Brooke came out to help me shovel snow in the morning with the dustpan.

Eventually she upgraded from her little shovel to.... her little broom!  Then she swept that snow away in a flash!

I was meaning to get some new snow boots this year since I didn't have any, and they arrived on Friday.  Brooke just had to try them on as well.  And Monica tried them on to make sure they weren't obviously too small.

So when I got home from work I let Winry try them on so that I could be the last person to wear my new boots.  Good news, they fit me the best!

On Friday night while getting ready for bed, Brooke kept asking her "Alexa" in her kitchen in her room to play music.  It turned out to be a rather great dance party all things considered!

Saturday was a pretty busy day.  We attended the ward primary baptisms in the morning, and then during Winry's nap, I took Brooke to the park by my work.  We were trying to stay out of the house as we had Dennis helping in the basement, and he was cutting vents which is very loud!  The kids super do not like it, so we tried to be away as much as possible.  Brooke and I were at the park for almost two hours!  We tried a bit of everything the park had to offer, which included jumping, digging, spinning and sliding!  Brooke did an awesome job and is definitely getting much more adventurous.  She climbed up a bunch of things on her own, and we even crossed a little stream on some rocks that stick up out of it.

Saturday night we had a dinner group at our house.  It was a lot of fun and we got to know a few families in the ward we've never really met before!

Phew what a week!  Definitely a lot more going on than last week.  Interesting how in the same number of hours you can do completely different amounts of stuff!  I hope everyone had a great week ahead, and make sure you do as much as you can with the time you have!