20 Below and Nowhere to Go.

I've been in Minnesota awhile now. Long enough to have developed a taste for all things wild rice, long enough to have witnessed an impromptu pond hockey game, and long enough to have learned that celebrating a winter birthday is barely worth the effort. Especially a February birthday, such as mine, when 35 consecutive weeks of below zero wind chill has inevitably broken the spirit of even the most resolute Minnesotans, a spirit that can now be seen waving a tattered white flag of surrender at every snow plow that passes through the neighborhood.

Perhaps worse than a February birthday, though, is the agony of yet. another. winter. day. spent in the house, turning myself, Mama, and an occasional pug inside out in an effort to entertain a very bored and increasingly hostile toddler. Admittedly, I'm a little weird about the amount of television Lili is allowed to watch, even though there are some days I'm sure we would both prefer an hour of Pocoyo to staring at each other for one more second. Who am I kidding. If Pocoyo could wipe poopy bottoms, give baths, and put babies down for the night, Lili would have kicked me to the curb months ago. One recent weekend day, in an act of final desperation, I decided to whip out the watercolors. I'd been saving a painting trial run until Lili was a little older (or perhaps for a designated grandma day), but it was either that or give Lili the key to the china cabinet. Turns out watercolors make for a fun, messy, and picture ready winter day. Even Hektor got in on the fun.

 

  

  

  

 

  

 

Next weekend...pastels.