Spring . . . Where is it?

Somewhere I am sure it is spring like. It just doesn't feel like it here in Minnesota. St Paul Public Schools is now on "spring break" for the next week. Looking at the forcast for this week -- you could fool me that it is spring.

But really spring comes in many forms -- bed springs, spring in your step, flowers spring up, spring in your ink pen, spring colors, springs on your car, and so on. But here is what Wikipedia says the definition of spring is:

Meteorologists generally define 4 seasons in many climatic areas, Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn (or Fall). These are demarcated by the values of their average temperatures on a monthly basis, with each season lasting 3 months. The 3 warmest months are by definition Summer, the 3 coldest months are Winter, and the intervening gaps are Spring and Autumn. As such, Spring when defined in this manner and when begining on a monthly basis, rather than a specific date, can vary per region. In the vast majority of northerly hemisphere locations Spring occurs during the months of March, April and May. (Summer is June, July, August; Autumn is September, October, November; Winter is December, January, February.) The vast majority of Southern Hemisphere locations will have opposing seasons. ^[1]

According to the astronomical definition, spring begins on the Vernal Equinox (usually March 20 in the Northern Hemisphere, and September 22 in the Southern Hemisphere), and lasts until the summer solstice (usually June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere and December 21 in the Southern Hemisphere). In 2009, spring fell on March 20 in the Northern Hemisphere. According to this definition, therefore, the day called Midsummer's Day in some traditions is the first day of Summer.

According to the Celtic tradition, which is based solely on daylight and the strength of the noon sun, spring begins in early February (near Imbolc or Candlemas) and continues until early May (Beltane).

Unlike the other three seasons, people in relatively cool climates are likely to use the astronomical definition for the beginning of spring in popular jargon but retain the meteorological definition for the other three seasonal turning points.

The phenological definition of spring relates to indicators, the blossoming of a range of plant species, and the activities of animals, or the special smell of soil that has reached the temperature for micro flora to flourish. The first swallow to arrive for the flowering of lilac may be the indicator of spring. It therefore varies according to the climate and according to the specific weather of a particular year.

Okay, so it's more information than I wanted to know. But spring will come and with it warmer, sunnier weather and the "Hope" of summer.

Simple Fun

Discovery is the name of the game for Oliver. On Monday when he arrived he again noticed Momor's collection of bears on her headboard and wanted to explore. He is fascinated by their many colors, sizes and kinds. Below are few of the pictures I captured while he was checking them out.

Where is this one from Mormor? (Iceland) Can I touch them?

Look Mormor, there are so many to choose from. Not the monkey, that one!



Then it was out to the deck to enjoy the sunshine and wonder, what is Kleo doing down there.
We also heard and saw a cardinal high up in the tree next door.
Can spring be far away?

Oliver amazes me with his many signs and how easy it really is to communicate with him. Here he is signing "bed". You can't see he has placed his blanket and bunny on my lap and is asking to go take a nap. Pretty smart little fellow he is.

After nap it was time to take a spin in our "Bob" to the park. After several times down the slide he stood at the bottom as if to say "what are those guys doing over there?" (There were some other boys playing in the puddle under the swings).

It was a beautiful day to spend out of doors with my grandson.
Thanks Oliver for spending time with Mormor.

Accomplishments

Three weeks ago we found out that one of the missionaries that Michelle goes to Iceland to work with had a baby boy. Michelle and I decided that we would make a quilt for Romana and send it to Iceland. Well, having now completed the quilt and with a little help from Margaret have added a set of booties and some customized onesies to go along with the quilt. What a sense of accomplishment when you see something come together that you envisioned. Having never made a quilt before, it was hard for me to even grasp quite how to do it. But with the prodding of both Michelle and Margaret I plowed ahead and I think it turned out quite nicely. Here is the finished quilt along with pictures of the gifts that will be sent to welcome Magnus and Romana's little boy, Krist'jan.
(P.S. Thanks Michelle & Margaret!!)

Congratulations Magnus & Romana

President's Day with Oliver

Yesterday, being President's Day (and a day off from work) Mormor invited Oliver over for a play date -- or more like a hang out date. Having not seen him for a couple of weeks, it was fun to see how much he had grown. I realized, though, that I need to take a class in baby sign language. I didn't have any interpreters around to help so I had to guess most of what he asked for. I do know "please" (which Oliver knows very well), eat, and more (another he does well). But he kept patting his head by his ear and I didn't have a clue what he wanted. I'll learn though, probably about the time that he learns to actually say the words.

He loves his books and decided to sit on Mormor's lap and read a story to her. His favorite is "Baby's First Alphabet Book". When asked where the bear is he flips the pages until he gets to the "B" page and points to the bear. He does the same when asked where the "dog" is -- he finds the dog and points to it.

He had fun discovering all of the toys that I have placed in baskets for him.


And THEN Mormor got out the "old" little people sets that Marmee and all of her sisters played with as kids (yes, I know that technically they are no longer safe but I sat on the floor with him as he played with them -- except for the picture time). He had a lot of fun and we didn't even get all of them cleaned up for him to play with.

Happy Valentine's Day

We hope all have a very Happy Valentine's Day!

If you are curious, like I was, go to the following link and you can read all about how Valentine's Day came to be and why in February. http://www.history.com/content/valentine/history-of-valentine-s-day. It is quite interesting.

Here's an excerpt: Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages (written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400), and the oldest known Valentine card is on display at the British Museum. The first commercial Valentine's Day greeting cards produced in the U.S. were created in the 1840s by Esther A. Howland. Howland, known as the Mother of the Valentine, made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap"