This weekend we put up our Christmas tree with much help from Tyler and Calvin. As we expected, Calvin was mesmerized by the lights and shiny ornaments but was pretty good about leaving them alone...or so we thought. Yesterday I was in the kitchen and both boys were playing quietly in the living room. Suddenly I heard Tyler say, "Calvin, what are you eating?" followed by loud crunching. I had just given him a bowl of crackers so I didn't think anything of it until Tyler yelled out "Mom, Cal's eating the thing from the tree!" Streaking into the living room I see Calvin with a piece of broken ornament in his hand and several shards in his mouth. Freaking out doesn't begin to describe me at that moment. I managed to get most of it out of his mouth but I had no idea if he'd eaten any before being discovered by Tyler. I found the broken ornament on the windowsill and it appeared to be mostly there but I couldn't be sure. Calvin, meanwhile, was pleased as punch and acting totally normal and happy. So, after several phone calls to a triage nurse and an on call doctor I now know that children can safely pass small pieces of glass and that Christmas ornaments get eaten and digested every year. As long as he's not in obvious pain he'll be just fine and I might even get an early shiny Christmas present in his diaper in the next few days. Seriously...
This past Saturday we got over a foot of snow accompanied by winds up to 30 mph. I've lived here almost 8 years and I have never seen this much snow! Jim shoveled every hour and each time had several inches to clear off. We finally got our sidewalks plowed yesterday. The kids weren't able to go out in it due to the -30 degree wind chill so these pics are from today when we had a high of 20 degrees. A heat wave! Needless to say, we are looking forward to heading down south for the holidays this week where the temps are closer to 60 degrees. Notice that when the boys are on top of the "snow mountain" they are up in the tree branches and most of the snow drifts are taller than Calvin!
