Snowmageddon 2010

Honestly, "Snowmageddon" is an understatement. What else could shut down your federal government for almost a week, cause a few traffic deaths, and drive parents all over the region to near insanity because all the schools and daycare centers were closed? Forget about terrorists, we experienced "Snowpocalyse!"

As an "essential" federal employee I got no snow days and had to take the Metro in to work-- the animals need care, right? Luckily, Mattias was able to stay home with the critterbug. Here we are in the lull of the storm, checking out the damage so far.



Then it started to snow pretty heavy, so much so that we couldn't be outside. Mattias tried to entertain us by building a snowman on our patio. The snow was way too powdery so snowman was a fail :(

He was however, able to express his love for us with this interesting form of snow art.


Boredom ensued so we thought Linus would enjoy a time tested kid-pleaser-- the Nintendo! Here they are snowboarding together.

Then it got really boring so I dressed Linus up in this girly apron by bribing him with a Ritz cracker. At this age, bribes are pretty cheap! Can you imagine what he'd do for a Fig Newton? I know for a fact that Mattias would run down the street naked for a Fig Newton.


If he can wear a dress, why not my rainboots?

When all this failed, we started a dance party in the living room. Doesn't he dance like he was born in San Francisco?

The day after the first storm was clear and crisp, so we went in to DC to have lunch with Mel.

Dude, you couldn't pay me any amount of money to dig out this car!


Then the second snowstorm hit just days after the first. We took Linus to the park just across the street.

We made our first family snowman, who was sadly drop-kicked down to the ground and subsequently peed on by hundreds of neighborhood dogs. RIP Mr. Snowman.

Linus' favorite part was watching all the front loaders dig up all the snow and ice on the streets.


Here's a cute video of him walking around in his marshmallow suit:

Needless to say, we were in some serious need for sunshine and warmth. The best we could do was visit the National Botanic Garden-- a glass enclosed tropical haven just steps from the Capitol Building. Lucky for me, they had a showcase on my favorite plants-- orchids!


Here Linus is standing amongst prehistoric plants. He seemed confused by the greenery and warmth, which is understandable since we now seem to live in Antarctica.

By the time we reached the rainforest area, he had defrosted and returned to his usual crazy-monkey-child self.

In a month or so, Spring will come, the birds will return, and we can be outside again. But until then, this will have to do.


I'm taking suggestions for Linus' thought bubble in the above picture, leave them in the comments section below. My best guess is "Ewwww, not in public Mamma."