I love winter but......

The last few weeks have been unbelievable in terms of their snowiness and coldness. I'd be hard pressed to find three days this January where the temp went about 20 degrees, and most times its been WAY lower than that....like 0 to 10 above or something. And many nights, of course, hovering around -25 or so. I seriously think the cold DOES something to the human psyche. Why, just last night, I had a dream that it was 75 degrees out; it was beautiful. But, dont get me wrong...I love the winter in Maine!!! Wouldnt trade it for anything!

Perhaps due to wishful thinking, or a tendency to live vicariously through people who live in Mexico, Florida, etc, we bought some mangoes for Callum to try. Amanda had never cut up a mango before, so I gladly stepped in to show her the "proper" way to cut up a mango--by Mexican standards anyway. It brought back beautiful memories of my two summers doing missionary work in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, when the rest of my Holy Cross youth group and I stayed at a covenant within the city; each morning, this corpulent little Mexican women named Rosario would make us REAL cheese quesadillas and have fresh mangoes readily available. Maybe I'll write more about Mexico another time..... Callum really really really loved his mangoes. As you can see, he has this little "mesh" teething ring apparatus, where we can put food within the net, and let him "extract" it through his gumming, chewing, and sucking. Its a pretty neat idea actually--very safe and pretty low on the messiness scale. Okay, not really. But look at him sitting in his big-boy high chair. The high chair didnt quite "hang" properly over our dining room chair....but Daddy, using his Papa Goldsmith "just Mickey Mouse it!" skills, was able to safely make it work. Let's just say I'll be needing another canoe strap before hitting the rivers this summer!

HEY, WHERE'S MY DINNER MUMMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Callum absolutely LOVES sitting at the table with the grownups..,..and he looks ridiculously funny doing so! It is almost like he is so "proud" to be able to sit at the table or something. And, actually, just a couple of nights ago, at Governor's Restaurant, he sat in one of those restaurant high chair things for the first time....he's still a little small for it, so we had to "prop" him in there with some blankets, his snow suit, etc. At Governor's he tried mashed potatoes for the first time....AND he got to lick whipped cream off daddy's finger; he very much enjoyed this. His favorite food, as far as vegetables go, still has to be peas.....and he likes just about every fruit he can get his little hands on! And every time he eats (and perhaps its because he is mimicking us) he makes a cute "mmmmmmmm" sound as he gums his food.....