Bring on the snow, bring on the fun.

Despite the somewhat stark, very snowy reality that this winter may simply be one blizzard after the next, we are forced (by our resident almost-three year old) to see the bright side of even the worst winter weather. It's hard to be too grumpy about the nearly endless shoveling when you have an assistant so willing to help that he jumps for joy at the mere thought of getting a shovel into his hot mitten-clad hand.

Take a look at these pictures documenting the thrills of toddler snow shoveling, but keep in mind that this was before part 2 of the most recent storm which brought an additional 10 inches of snow on top of what can be seen here. Yikes.

After the essential areas were adequately shoveled our attention turned to more ol' fashioned snow fun. Since our small yard is entirely slope-free we have to get a little creative when it comes to playing in the snow.

This time around we shoveled a big pile up on the deck to make a snow fort (which eventually morphed into more of a snow tunnel.) And also packed some snow off the side of the deck to make a snow slide. I took some video, because that's what we do around here:

I realized after the fact that it would have been cooler to combine the slide and the tunnel to create an amazing winter version of the Crocodile Mile. Well, there is always next time, and if we've learned anything so far this winter, it's that there will definitely be a next time.

White Winter Morning

Another week, another snowstorm here in southeastern Pennsylvania. We are getting pretty used to the routine by now: shovel and salt the sidewalk, clean off the car and driveway, and then hunker down with some hot drinks and a movie. We've got it down to a science.

One change this winter is that with Aiden another year older he is that much more excited to head out and play in the white stuff. I know that it is a pretty universal thing for all kids, but he really likes it. A direct quote from him when looking out the window the morning after the storm: "It's SO snowy!" For this particular snowstorm we decided to take advantage of the close proximity of Mom and Dad's new house and head over for a morning sledding session. Aiden had a great time (if it was up to him we'd still be there) and for us it was great to just be outside on such a beautiful, cold and quiet morning.

A Moment for Music

Instead of doing the long-winded top five albums of the year post that I've done previously, this year I decided to keep things simple. At the beginning of each new year I start a new iTunes playlist named after that year (for example "2009", "2010", you get the idea.) Over the course of the following 12 months I drop in my favorite songs, and the result is an always developing, constantly evolving "best of" list. So this year I thought I'd just share my best of 2010 playlist. It was a good year for music, and if there is anything on this list that you haven't heard, please check it out. It'll be worth it. I promise.

You might notice that there are a couple of names that appear in the playlist over and over. Sufjan Stevens, the Tallest Man on Earth, Mumford and Sons, and Kanye West (yes, I know that he's crazy, but I think that he might also be a genius) all put out albums that IF I was going to make an album of the year list (which I'm not) would undoubtedly be featured. Here we go, listed as Song- Artist- Album:

Power- Kanye West- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The Cave- Mumford & Sons- Sigh No More

Heirloom- Sufjan Stevens- All Delighted People

See How Man Was Made- Josh Ritter- So Runs the World Away

Forget You- Cee Lo Green- Forget You

Burden of Tomorrow- The Tallest Man on Earth- The Wild Hunt

Runaway- The National- High Violet

Runaway- Kanye West- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Excuses- The Morning Benders- Big Echo

Swim- Surfer Blood- Astro Coast

Ambling Alp- Yeasayer- Odd Blood

From the Mouth Of Gabriel- Sufjan Stevens- All Delighted People

I Think Ur a Contra- Vampire Weekend- Contra

Generator (Second Floor)- Freelance Whales- Weathervanes

The Drying of the Lawns- The Tallest Man on Earth- The Wild Hunt

Folk Bloodbath- Josh Ritter- So Runs the World Away

Zebra- Beach House- Teen Dream

Dog Days are Over- Florence + the Machine- Lungs

Too Much- Sufjan Stevens- The Age of Adz

Flume- Peter Gabriel- Flume/ Come Talk to Me

Lost in the World- Kanye West & Bon Iver- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The Wild Hunt- The Tallest Man on Earth- The Wild Hunt

Roll Away your Stone- Mumford & Sons- Sigh No more

If I was absolutely forced to choose my favorite 5 songs from the list (stop twisting my arm!) it would probably go something like this:

1. Runaway- Kanye West

2. Burden of Tomorrow- The Tallest Man on Earth

3. The Cave- Mumford & Sons

4. Too Much- Sufjan Stevens

5. Dog Days are Over- Florenece + the Machine

OK, that's it. I'm done. No more unsolicited music suggestions. (until next year)

Holiday Highlights 2010

2010 may have come and gone, but I still need one more posts worth of pictures to do justice to those last few heady holiday weeks that inevitably put an exclamation point on the end of our year. December does always seem to be the busiest month and this year was no exception. Thankfully our busyness was due to all the time that we were able to spend with family and friends during Christmas, New Years and all the days in between.

Our holiday activities started this year with a train trip into the city where we saw the Macy's light show, walked through the Charles Dickens village, and visited with Santa. Aiden was a big fan of the train ride, and while he didn't sit ON Santa's lap, he did sit next to him. So, that's a start.

Christmas eve found us all at Mom and Dad Jones' new house in Phoenixville. (It's right down the road!) Old traditions were carried over in a new setting, and we had a great time celebrating together and even got to spend time with Gwyn's friend Adeline who was visiting from Wheaton.

Christmas morning mainly consisted of some quiet hours at home for our little family. Jen made sticky buns, we sat around in our pajamas, gifts were unwrapped and played with, what could be better? Some notable gifts: Aiden got a super hero cape (modeled below), Rob got a beer making kit, and Jen got a new pair of Ugg slippers.

In the week between Christmas and New Years we made our yearly pilgrimage across the Pennsylvania Turnpike to State College PA, home of the Nittany Lions, Peachy Paterno Ice Cream, and the Penn State Jones family. For Aiden, State College means lots of cousin play time. In the picture below you can see cousin Claire in the adjacent swing, and in the background cousin Owen is cruising by in his off roading big-wheels Jeep. We had a great time catching up, sharing pictures, and watching all the kids run around together.

This picture may require a moment of explanation. What you see is cousin Chloe hugging Aiden, while Aiden pets a tiny, fuzzy baby chicken. The cutest picture ever? You be the judge.

There are plenty of other get-togethers that I wish we'd been better about documenting. We were able to spend time with the extended Weidner/ Hultslander family, and also had a great time celebrating with friends on New Years eve. Sometimes you are just having too much fun to reach for the camera!

That's all for 2010. Bring it on 2011!

A Joyful Noise

Well, here it is folks: Aiden's first school concert. Fair warning, this video may not be for the casual blog reader. However, if you enjoy 10 minutes of shaky camera work, and poor sound quality with lots of background screaming to boot, well then today is your lucky day! After watching this video you will literally feel as if you were right there with us. (I even included some pre and post show pictures to flesh out the overall experience.) If you do check it out, one highlight to look for is how Aiden is holding hands with his friend Alyssa for the entire performance (and at one point attempts an unsuccessful escape.)

Behold the glorious chaos that is a pre-school Christmas concert!

Aiden's Christmas Concert from Robert Jones on Vimeo.

HE'S BACK!

Merry Christmas to us Philadelphia, Clifton Phifer Lee, the coolest pitcher on the planet is coming back home! I heard the news while at work on Monday night in a real life Paul Revere type scenario (one of the nurses was going from floor to floor saying, "Cliff Lee is coming! Cliff Lee is coming!") It was a crazy night, and afterwards I had to give myself a pinch to make sure it wasn't all just a wild Cliff-Lee-themed daydream.

Aside from the obvious fact that it is exciting to now have one of the greatest starting pitching staffs ever assembled, I am also looking forward to not hearing the various "big three" nicknames that sportswriters were throwing around last season. (H20? What does that even mean??) On the flipside we better get used to hearing a LOT about Philly's "Phantastic four" (or "phearsome four", or maybe even the "phour horseman") the possibilities are endless.

To steal a headline from the Daily News:

Merry Cliff-mas Philadelphia! (And a happy Halladay!)

The saga of the Tooth, the Pacifier & the Puzzle

Lets just cut to the chase: on Saturday night Aiden tripped, fell, and hit his face. In fact, he hit his face hard enough to partially dislodge one of his two front teeth. He didn't knock it all the way out mind you, but he did rearrange it pretty good.

A visit to the dentist the following day determined that he'd be able to live with it as-is, but that we'd need to be careful with what he eats and MOST importantly- he wouldn't be able to use his pacifier for a while. A decision was made by the parental council that perhaps this was as good an opportunity as we were going to get to wean Aiden off of his pacifier for good. And that is how we got to this point:

In case it is not immediately clear, this is a picture of Aiden's pacifier sitting in a box on his desk, waiting for the pacifier fairy to come and take it away. Obviously.

Our initial attempts to convince Aiden that he didn't need his pac (pronounced 'pass' of course) were met with a lukewarm reception at best. It didn't take long for us to move to plan B. Plan B, as you may have already surmised, involved a story about the "Pac Fairy". The Pac Fairy (as the well-known children's story goes) comes in the night to take a child's pacifier and leave behind a beautifully wrapped new toy.

Luckily the Pac Fairy had already done some of her Christmas shopping, so it was no problem for her to quickly find and wrap a brand new numbers puzzle. The Pac Fairy likes educational toys.

The Pac Fairy's visit was met with much rejoicing the next morning. There was even a hand written note that we read with as much enthusiasm as we could muster in the seven o'clock hour.

It was an exciting time for everyone. Aiden was excited for his new toy. Parents were excited by the success of their genius plan. And Bailey was excited that actually got his fuzzy mug into a picture (look closely below.) It was a good morning.

The aftermath, while not bad necessarily, has not been as seamless a transition as we'd hoped for. On one hand, it's great that Aiden is actually playing with his puzzle on the floor right now as I type this. On the other hand, he is doing it at 6:30 in the morning because without the comfort of his pac he is waking up about an hour earlier every morning.

There have been a few other speed bumps along the way as well. Most significantly is the raging guilt that we feel every time that Aiden looks at us with watery eyes and says something like, "I can't find my pac" or "they (we hope 'they' means the mean Pac Fairy, and not his mean parents) took my pac!"

The path to pac independence is long and fraught with many pitfalls. But I am confident that our persistent efforts will be rewarded. Although the fact that Aiden just came over and saw a picture of his pac on the computer as I was writing this may have set us back a few days. Oh well...

Christmas came early

Thanks to the UPS man for delivering the first great toy of this year's Christmas season: cardboard boxes. I suppose it's a good thing that the boxes on delivery actually contained items that we'd ordered as Christmas gifts, but at least for now, the cargo is secondary to the packaging. This is how Aiden and I spent the majority of our morning after these boxes arrived, and I'm not sure who had more fun.

In Thanksgiving-related news: I am thankful that my child is a boy because it gives me a good excuse to do things (like build large hot-wheels tracks out of cardboard boxes) which, lets be honest, I would want to do anyway.

Backyard Camping

A little while back I thought it'd be fun to set up the tent out in the yard for Aiden to play with. He did like it, although he spent most fof his time running around it and opening and closing the zipper. To each his own.

It was a fun little morning activity and it makes me excited for when he gets a little bit older and we can take our sleeping bags out there, start a fire in the firepit, and do some real backyard camping.

The Parade

With Halloween just around the corner Aiden's pre-school put on a mini costume parade for the kids. As it turns out, there are few pleasures greater then seeing a gaggle of costumed toddlers ambling in circles around a parking lot, waving at anything that moves. It was pretty great.

There were some pretty creative costumes on display. One of my personal favorites is Aiden's little friend Leah who dressed as a "nurse in training." (I took some pictures) Aiden's costume was a Phillies player, which is something that we'd picked out before the Phillie's disappointing fizzle. Although the wounds from their loss are still fresh I think that seeing our two year old proudly strut his stuff in Phillies garb was the first step in the healing process.

Anyway, it may not have been the "Phillies parade" that we were expecting, but I'll take this one any day of the week! Enjoy the pictures...