Who dat, Mardi Gras, and SNOW...yes, snow!

What a February it's been! The good people of Louisiana have been partying to the extreme ever since the Saints won the super bowl. Chants of "who dat?" could be heard from every news broadcaster, street-side shirt vendor, and raucous neighbor for days. And why stop partying when Mardi Gras is upon us? The businesses that are closed today do NOT have signs saying, "closed in observance of President's Day." Instead, they say, "closed for Mardi Gras." It's nice to know we all have our priorities straight!

Unfortunately, the weather hasn't exactly been worthy of celebration. Shreveport rarely gets snow, but this week was an exception to that. Here's the view we saw on Friday morning:
The consequences of the snowfall: no power from 2am to 10am.
The consequences of no power from 2am to 10am: a freezing cold and VERY dark house, needing to crank our wind-up flashlight every 30 seconds to restore our sole light-source, having to warm Caleb's milk in a pot on the stove by positioning the wind-up flashlight precisely so I could actually see the stove top and then lighting the gas range with a match while attempting to keep my eyebrows and flesh intact. Mission accomplished!

As an update, here are a few of Caleb's likes and dislikes now that he's a big 1 year old:

LIKES:

*making this face and saying "ooooo" every time he finds something interesting
*Studying the anatomy of the skull with daddy

*Raiding the cereal cupboard when mommy's not watching and stuffing his face full of mini-wheats:

*Pretending that daddy's Avatar 3D glasses are sunglasses:

*Setting up camp in the laundry basket

*Climbing the ladder just like daddy

DISLIKES:

*Wearing a size 2T snow jacket and having to stand in the snow to pose for a picture

*Wearing a neck tie to church for the first time

*Being forced to pose for a picture while mommy wears a freaky Mardi Gras mask

Thankfully, his LIKES far outweigh his DISLIKES.