The snow piled up thickly on the branches of the trees all night, so by morning everything was coated in white. A few tree-limbs came down with the weight of it all and the 16 foot tall arborvitae that separate our yard from our neighbors� were bent nearly double. After dropping AJ off at school in his enormous red boots, my husband and I headed to the forest preserve for the annual christening of our cross country skis. We were the first to set foot on the pristine trails, which always feels pioneering. But the snow was so heavy that it was extremely hard work. I am now recuperating with aching hamstrings and planning an afternoon of snowman building and snowball throwing with AJ.

And speaking of AJ, he wrote his first book yesterday. �It�s just a very short book,� as he has said, but it�s a book all the same. My husband helped with the transcription and the word �cashier.� The book is called �Mommy and AJ Go to the Grocery Store� and it goes like this:

Mommy said, �Let�s go shopping!�
AJ said, �Hooray!�
So they got into their little blue car.
They drove through the rain drops to Dominick�s.
At Dominick�s, AJ pushed the cart while Mommy shopped.
In aisle 5, AJ found his favorite yogurt.
In aisle 6, Mommy found some apples and bananas.
She weighed them on the scale. They weighed 9 pounds!
AJ and Mommy paid the cashier for their yummy food.
Then they drove home and ate their lunch.
The End.

As my husband (a writer by trade) likes to say, �Another piranha in the tank.�

We�re waiting for the publishing contracts to come rolling in.

[Click back if you missed last night's late entry on the snowstorm]

0 people said it like they meant it