On Wednesday it snowed about an inch or so, and I had to clear it before it got all icy.  I took out the bear to do the work also, for his first official snow time. (We finally found Snow Boots!)  I wrapped him up in his oh so warm snow suit and took him outside. He had a fun time, and really seemed to like shoveling and the snow.   I took a bunch of pictures and then put the camera in the car so it wouldn't get wet.  About 10 people then walked by and said "Oh how cute! You should take some pictures!"  So I took some more, to satisfy our well-meaning but nosy neighbors.  Overall I took nearly 40 pictures.  Although he had a great time,  I had a huge fear that he would drop the snow shovel and rush into the street, where the cars go very fast, and would not be braking for bears, so I was completely hyper-vigilant about it. I did most of the shoveling with him in my arm, or trapped behind the fence watching. Nothing bad happened.  (See, my hyper vigilance is working!) There's 6-8 inches of snow forecast for this weekend, so maybe if we get enough we can go out and build a snowman!  Hmmm,,, maybe I need to go get a carrot and some buttons.... Here's about half of the photos that I took.

You know, for a house blog, we've done a poor job of chronicling our house painting adventure. For the last 4 years we've been working on the inside of the house, and ignoring the outside.  Primarily because, in our neighborhood, it seemed wise to not shine too brightly.  But also, we needed to do our living space first, and then deal with the outside aesthetics second. At some point, we started to get very worried that the integrity of the house might be compromised.  Holes where birds were crawling in, shingles falling off, etc.  So we were resolved to do something.  And S said to me:  "I don't care what it looks like, just get it painted."  If I waited just a little bit longer, I could have maybe gotten a purple and yellow house! At first we thought we were going to have to re-side the whole thing.  But pricing that out, it was clear it was very expensive.  Especially if we wanted to go with cedar shingle siding or hardy board.  And we weren't sure if we wanted to go with vinyl siding, which was still quite expensive.  After getting ready to bite the bullet, I realized that I'd never gotten a quote from a painter.  So I went to the Home Show, got a few numbers, and arranged a free estimate.  This was mid-November. We knew time was running out (you generally can't paint past November) so after the first quote with a clearly very knowledgable painter, which was THOUSANDS of dollars less than any siding quotes we got, we decided to go ahead.  At the very least, it would buy us some time to save up the money. (Although we had a little bit of a problem-- we'd been saving up our home equity to get the painting done, and just as we got ready to pull the trigger, they lowered our line of credit!-- Fortunately, I talked to them, and we worked it out, and all is good in financing world right now.) We went away for Thanksgiving, and while we went away, they painted.  We wanted the fumes to be as far away from our little bundle of Aaron as possible. Coming back from the airport was very exciting-- we barely recognized the house! There's still some stuff that they need to do/redo (and weirdly, some of the trim color looks like they didn't use the same dark blue) but overall we are very pleased with our makeover. Anyway, here's some of the before- and after pictures.  Someday, we'll take the exact same before photos in the after pose.  But for now, here's what's changed.  Pretty big change, yes?

Video I shot today on the changing table of a song I made up on the spot, and AA learned to contribute to it.  Shows off his impeccable rhythm, timing, and an infectious giggle.  Oh yes, and the word "Yes!"

We've picked out AA's Halloween costume for this year, and well, what else could he be but a bear? We originally had a dog costume that S had given to one of AA's cousins, and now no longer fits, but it mysteriously disappeared.  Can't find it anywhere.  Being as it was a dog, we can only hope it has found greener pastures. We went on a shopping spree to make sure that we'd have this costume in time, and found the perfect costume (although S does not like the bowtie particularly.  I'm kind of a big fan of the bowtie- it's not a run of the mill bear- this is a CLASSY bear) The costume also came with a rainbow blanket (is it possible that this is a CareBear (tm) costume?)  At any rate, the blanket has been banished from the costume. S has to cut off the bear's feet (the costume, not the child) so that he can wear his shoes and walk around as a bear. We have to hope that Halloween is not bear season! A full set of these photos is available over on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kafclown/sets/72157622676189934/show/

Just days after the first video of him tentatively walking, he's gotten a LOT better! His mom to encourage him no doubt helps quite a bit. And he's a fast learner!

I'm in Las Vegas for Blog World Expo for the next few days and I was talking to some bloggers last night, describing how we used to be housebloggers, but that now I feel like we're no longer legit in using that term (when we do blog, which is so rare). It's almost never about the house anymore, much more about Aaron and our lives. So someone said, "now you're a homeblogger" which is so true! That's what I'll say from here on out. I definitely don't want to be lumped into the "mommyblogger" category since a) Adam writes 75% of the blog and b) it's about more than our kid (well, at least that's the intent). (I also have an issue with the term "mommyblogger," as do many female bloggers I know, since marketers and PR-types (my colleagues, excluded, of course!) tend to want to categorize all women bloggers as "mommybloggers" even though most of them don't write about being mommies most of the time....but that's another post entirely!) So, inevitably, what am I going to post today? Photos of Aaron from our pumpkin/apple adventure at Outhouse Orchards on Columbus Day. Because I'm missing him and these are the cutest photos ever of my boy who's getting so big! (Thanks, Shelli and Patty for a great day at the pumpkin patch!) Also please note the tiny bit of knitblogging going on here as Aaron shows of his newly-knitted Pumpkin Hat! So see, it's not just about the kid!