Happy Valentine's Day!

I know I am a day late, but Shane wanted to make sure he wished everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! Here are some of his Valentine's pictures! He is so cute! I know I am his mom and might be a bit biased, but look at that face!!!!



Yesterday Shane made his daddy a valentine and a card. He used markers, paint for the first time, and glitter for the first time. We won't be using glitter again any time soon! I am still cleaning it up! Here are his finished pieces of art!


I remember when Dan and I were dating and Valentine's Day was all about fancy dinners and nice jewelry. We have traded that in for now, though I suspect that once Shane is older the romantic part of Valentine's Day will return. For now, we were both happy to stay in and celebrate with our favorite Valentine, Shane! Dan did get me cookies and brownies from my favorite bakery and I got him Fannie May chocolates, and we exchanged awesome cards. Shane even got me and Dan a card! What a thoughtful boy! We got Shane a stuffed monkey and 2 Elmo books. We laid off the candy because he received plenty of that already! His Aunt Jorie sent him some yummy brownies and cookies that he LOVES! Thankfully some have nuts (Shane is not supposed to have nuts until he is 2) so Dan and I can help eat those without feeling guilty! Grandma Carolyn got him a yummy smores chocolate lollipop and Grandma Judy gave him a giant chocolate chip cookie. Shane is on quite the sugar high!
In news relating to his stuffed monkey, we have started to let him sleep with a stuffed animal or two. That is huge for me because I am the safety queen. Shane still has no blanket in his crib because he is not two yet. Heck, he is still rear facing in his car seat because I was told the AMA recommends they stay rear facing until 2. Shane is the ONLY child I know who is still rear facing, but safety first in my book! Anyway, a few nights ago he grabbed his Tigger stuffed animal and climbed into the crib with him. I paused for a moment and decided to let him have Tigger. I check on him after he is asleep and make sure Tigger is not blocking his airways - YES, I know I am nuts! Anyway, he has grabbed for Tigger ever since. Yesterday, I had the door to his crib open and he actually stuffed ALL of his stuffed animals in there. I said no to that. Anyways, he was so in love with his new monkey that we let him have both in his crib last night and this afternoon for his nap. In fact, he brought his monkey and Tigger down for lunch today and they sat on a chair while we ate. Too cute!!!! Here he is cuddling with them before his nap! Oh, by the way, the bump on his head is from him flying head first into our entertainment center doors this weekend! Ouch! He did not even cry, but it left a little bump and mark! My little man is tough as nails!


The monkey fascination cracks me up because as a little girl I was attached to my "Apee" and still have him.
What else has Shane been doing to keep busy in the cold you ask? Well, he loves playing in the snow. I for one am glad to see it melt, but Shane loved it. We took advantage of any 30ish degree days and went out to play! Shane has trouble walking all bundled up and falls a lot! Dan and Shane made some snow angels and we even let him taste some snow, which he loved! No worries, we did not give him any walked in snow - it was fresh, unshoveled snow. He loves ice chips, so I thought he'd love snow! Being out with Shane in the snow reminds me how fun it used to be to play in the snow. The older I get, the less I want to be out in it! It is great to have Shane here to remind me of the simple pleasures in life. Now I need snow pants in my size!










We also have been keeping busy with play dates. Shane and his buddy Alex met at Little Monkey Bizness in Willow Springs last week and Shane had a blast! It was tough to drag him out of there! They have all kinds of play houses, indoor slides, and a giant inflatable for jumping. It was really funny because when we were getting ready to leave I told Shane where we were going and he immediately started saying "E,E,E,E,E,E" & I realized he thought we were going to be seeing real monkeys! Oops! When I got there and climbed into the back seat to get him out of his car seat and into his coat, he started making monkey sounds again. Luckily once he got inside and saw all of the fun things to do, he forgot that there were supposed to be real monkeys there! Shane had so much fun!!! A man in there asked me how old Shane was and told me that he coached youth sports and that Shane was really coordinated for his age! I was so proud! That is a Greenfield trait, not a Shneider one! I am as uncoordinated as they come! Here are some pictures of my little monkey!







Ok, my little monkey is waking up from his nap, so that's all for today!

Shane's first blizzard! 2/1/11-2/2/11

Hopefully everyone is reading this blog from the comfort of their nice warm home! I am happy to report that Shane survived his first blizzard! He actually loved it! I also enjoyed having Dan home for the day and getting some use out of Shane's snow pants! The only ones in our house who may not have loved the snow storm were Dan and Thunder (though I think Dan secretly loves the snow - keep reading to find out why!) Poor Dan left work on Tuesday at 2:45PM and got home about 5:30PM. I know that is long, but at least he was not like those poor people stuck on Lake Shore Drive for 10 hours! (Update: We just found out our nephew Jack was on LSD drive yesterday and did not get home until 5:30 this morning! We love you Jack & are so glad you are safe!) I can't believe that as of 10 minutes ago (3PM on Wednesday), there are still 400 hundred abandoned cars stuck on LSD! YIKES! Shane, Thunder, & I were sure happy to see Dan when he got home! After dinner, Dan got bundled up and did the snow for the first time. Here is a picture he took!

And here is one I took!

Shane, Thunder, & I stayed inside to keep the house warm. Shane loved watching Dan shovel out a path for Thunder.

I don't know about you, but there is nothing I want more in a snow storm than ice cream - NOT! However, that is what Dan wanted when he came inside. Shane has to have what his daddy has so we gave him his first ice cream cone. He has had ice cream before, just never in a cone. He loved eating the ice cream that way, but never ate the cone. I got a spoon and fed him the remaining ice cream that way. Anyway, here are pictures of Shane eating his first ice cream cone.




After Shane went to bed, Dan and I watched the snow swirl around outside and hoped we would keep our power on. We did! Dan went back out to tackle the snow around 9:30 and I bet the pictures would have been crazy, but none were taken. I was asleep! By the morning, our backyard looked like this!


Needless to say, Thunder could not go out until Dan shoveled him a path. That is why poor Thunder is not loving the snow! When he finally got out in the yard he wandered off his path and found himself belly deep in the snow. He looked at me and I was sure I was going to have to go rescue him, but he maneuvered his way out! Phew! No pictures of that, I was too busy watching!
Here is Dan ready to tackle the snow again this morning! He needs some snow pants like Shane - the fleece pj's can't be warm enough!

OK, now here is why I think Dan secretly loves the snow. Shane and I were wondering where he was so we opened the door and found him and a neighbor attempting to use their snow plows to plow the street! The street had snow drifts 3 feet high and they thought they were going to plow it! I told them they were crazy and that it was a fruitless effort, but Dan insisted we needed a path out in case of an emergency. Sure, that would work.. major roads like route 59 were closed, but they were going to plow out our street! It was cute and they worked hard to make a path. Here are the pictures I took from inside the house!



After the work was done, it was time to play! We were so excited to get Shane out in the snow! We wanted to finally get some use out of his snow pants! He hated the idea of putting them on and cried as we got him bundled up! What really bugged him was having to wear his boots. He loves his shoes and kept begging for them & saying, "Sewz, sewz!!!!" Here are the pictures of him ready to go! Please disregard the toys that are EVERYWHERE, but that is how our house looks until Shane goes down for a nap!


Here Shane and I are outside & ready to explore. Our house front door is elevated so we did not have much snow in front of it.


Here we are on the sidewalk!



Shane loved running between the walls of snow!




He did not love being pulled on the sled!

Nor did he like it when we put him in the snow (we put him in a shallow section, but he still hated it!)

He could have stayed outside, running between the snow banks, all day if we let him! Oh, and he also loved eating the snow!

Happy snow day to all! Dan gets another day off tomorrow as CPS has decided to close again! YAY! This is a miracle, I guess it takes 20 plus inches of snow for CPS to close, but we are super excited! They have not closed since 1999 and now we get 2 days in a row!