The Fine Game of Nil

Needless to say, The Boy has had us busy lately, and there’s a stack of pictures to post, but I’m going to jump right in here with Christmas.

The weekend before Christmas we headed down to my Aunt and Uncle’s in New Jersey.  We were going to try to head out on Friday night but Boston got hit with a huge snow storm so we weathered the storm at home in Cambridge. Saturday morning we dug the car out from under a foot of snow and headed down to New Jersey.  Another set of flurries hit and the going was a bit slow through slushy roads and heavy traffic.  But around 1 we finally made it in.

Bill and Linda were thrilled to see Liam and got right to work spoiling The Boy rotten.  They had a playroom setup upstairs for visiting grandkids and Liam was able to run wild in an entire room filled with toys.  After playing with everything once, he settled on the plastic kitchen set and a ride-on BMW car as his favorites for the visit.

This was also Liam’s first real encounter with snow.  His first winter he was only 3-months old, so he didn’t really appreciate the snow.  Most of his winter experience was bundled up in the stroller or car seat.  Liam has always been a bit stubborn that he takes new sensory experiences on his own terms.  The first time we put him barefoot on grass it was The Worst Thing Ever.  It took several times over several days of him wandering off the picnic blanket under his own power before he could accept that grass was not going to kill him.  Emily had bought Liam a new set of high-top snow boots, and the first time we put them on him he wailed like there were hornets in them.  After double and triple-checking that they were the right size, we tried them again the next day and he claimed they were made of barbwire and refused to even look at them.  At Bill and Linda’s we tried them again, and he complained but accepted them.  When we were finally ready to go outside, he fussed a bit as we were putting them on, but was find after that.

Once outside, snow was a strange and interesting experience.  We were fine as long as daddy or mommy was carrying us,

But actually putting us down in the snow was a dire, dire experience.

After a couple of goes however, being set down on the packed snow was fine

…and after watching mommy and daddy have a mini-snowball fight, we were able to accept that this snow stuff might just be worth checking out.

Emily and I brought along his little tow sled and dragged him around in that for awhile, which he was okay with but never seemed thrilled by.

Edited to add: Hitching the sled behind a super-excited German Shepard was considered and dismissed as a poor life decision.

The Boy is also pretty much spoiled from this trip, having gotten a pile of stuffed animals and a tricycle from Bill and Linda, and a book and teddy-bear skin rug from his cousins Lisa, Campbell, Carly and Bridgette.

He can’t yet reach the peddles of the tricycle but he’s been having a great time being pushed around the house.

Sunday, his cousins Catherine and Maureen and cousins Becky, Chris, Quinn and Alexandra came over for a big pre-Christmas dinner.

Tuesday we headed back to Cambridge in preparation for Christmas at our house, which is another post…