Working on: Just finished paper for grad class. Due tomorrow. Last one. For a long time.
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It began to precipitate what I call "ice pellets" on Wednesday afternoon. Not hail, not snow, not rain... hard little balls of precipitation. Roman did not like it. He is getting used to the rain though. Well, woke up Thursday morning and it there was SNOW! Covered the grass. Not much of it, but when we went outside Roman immediately wanted to walk through it.

We arrived to the west side of the state to discover they had gotten much more snow than us. In fact, 4-6 inches in the city of our turkey feast; 9 inches in the city of my in-laws. Roman wanted to walk in the deeper snow so badly, we decided we had better buy boots. So off to Payless Shoe Store I went and got his first boots; black, two Velcro strips to fasten them. Then I found snowpants on sale at JC Penney and bought those too.

Roman had a good time in the snow. We took him onto my parents deck in the backyard (snow instead of mud). He liked walking in it. Daddy showed him how to throw snowballs (at Mommy) and he grinned a lot after that. Visiting with my parents was fun, Roman loves my parents. Well, as Doug says, this is the pecking order: Grandpa. Mommy. Grandma. Daddy. The cats may be in between Grandma and Daddy. It's obvious who is Roman's favorite person when we're there. In fact, he cries when my dad leaves the room for any length of time, or if Roman can't follow him.

Roman conquered going down the stairs at my aunt's on Thanksgiving, thanks to watching his cousin Iris. He can now go down them on his bum, facing forward. Before, he'd slide down backward on his tummy but didn't seem to enjoy it. He spent almost all of Thursday and half of Friday going up and down stairs.

He's babbling up a storm now. Words used quite frequently now include bye-bye, apple, up, choo-choo, and his new favorite words, "Bob the Builder" or "Bobby" for short. Sometimes it could be "baby." I think. He still only watches Bob the Builder sporadically, it can't hold his attention; but he sure loves saying "Bob dabudr." That's how it comes out!

Lastly, we began to put up our Christmas tree today. Got it up, lights on, and almost all the gold bead trim. Roman was such a great help (not really). He pulled on the lights, stepped on them, and generally got in trouble for not following directions. He did drape himself in the gold beads, and then plop some onto a branch. So we applauded him for that effort.