posted by Cinda, with Toby’s help

 

Sometime last week, Toby and I were walking down the sidewalk outside the apartment building.  Two men were removing a manhole cover and inspecting something down in the dark hole.  It was a cold and windy day (though in retrospect, not all that cold compared to this week) so we were both bundled up in our coats, gloves, hats, hoods, and scarves.  I heard Toby ask, “Mommy, what are those men doing?”  I didn’t really know the answer, but just gave a general answer of “oh, they’re fixing something” but the words must have gotten lost somewhere between my scarf and Toby’s hat because Toby looked up in surprise and responded “Did you say they’re chicken hunting?”  I started laughing first, then Toby.  By the time we got to our steps, we couldn’t stop giggling about the idea of those guys “chicken hunting” in a manhole!  I hope we didn’t deeply offend them because there’s a small chance they thought we were laughing at them — they definitely thought we were a little goofy, but it was just one of those moments.  That’s the price we pay for staying warm — garbled communication.  Laughter is good medicine, though, right?

100_4932     I don’t have a picture of Toby in all his winter wear, so here’s a picture of Annika bundled up on her way out the door to school.  She hasn’t put her hood on yet, but on the really cold days, the hood goes over everything else and she wears two pairs of gloves.  You can’t tell in this picture, but the down coat goes over the tops of her snow boots.  It’s at least one or two sizes too big, but she says it’s nice and cozy.  Thanks to Jubilee, Annika has gotten some very useful hand-me-down items!