Graduation in skating school

Mathias' two month intro-duction to skating class finished this weekend. He has made terrific progress since Santa Claus brought him his skates for Christmas. This might be the last ice video for a while.

He's now talking about swimming lessons.

Introduction to physics

After a few days of somewhat mild weather - followed by a return to winter - we have seen a number of icicles form around our house. While out sledding yesterday, Mathias collected a couple of real "trophies" and, of course, wanted to take them inside to show Mamma... To Mathias' chagrin, it turns out indoor air temperatures and ice don't mix very well.

After some pondering we decided to 'set them free' out on the deck.

Going Wild

This afternoon we took in the Minnesota Wild's showdown with the Detroit Redwings in St Paul. Sadly, the good guys came up short. But Mathias and Johan had a terrific time. I'm not sure they have ever sat still for that long. They were thrilled on the very rare occasion when Minnesota scored and the crowd of 18 thousand spectators erupted.

In spite of a Minnesota loss, it was a terrific game with went into overtime and wasn't decided until after a shootout!

The highlight of the game in the eyes of the four-year-old: between periods they re-freshed the eyes with TWO Zambonis!

Having a heat wave

What a difference a weekend with temperatures above freezing makes!

It makes you believe that spring actually is possible even though it seems winter is here to stay permanently. We finished the day by going to the local sledding hill to get wet, bumped, and bruised. I might have to call in sick tomorrow.

Tubes

Johan got tubes put in his ears today. In the process they suctioned out a bunch of thick fluid from behind his ear drum. Yikes! Now his hearing should be much better!

In spite of the surgery being at 1 o clock in the afternoon (which means he pretty much skipped breakfast and the mid-morning snack) he was a trooper and he held up surprisingly well. The nurses said that he woke up from the anesthesia with a smile on his face. 20 minutes later he was catching up on missed meals like nothing had happened.

Not to be outdone in the health department... his brother came down with strep throat this afternoon. Is it weekend yet?

Still February

It seems winter has been dragging on forever this year.

Mathias beats the winter blues by skating, looking forward to a friend's birthday party on Sunday, the up coming spring break trip, and his own birthday party, which is now a mere 5 weeks away. Johan, well he's always happy regardless of the season.