Counting Blessings in A Blizzard

Morning. Only about 2 inches of snow. I dropped off Sienna at her ballet class. Went into Fairview Mall to exchange Lui's sweater for a bigger size. Then I sat at Timothy's sipping coffee and reading newspaper. Missed a warning call Lui made to my cell left in the car. So when I stepped out, I thought somebody was dumping pop-corns from the above: it was snowing and blowing like I'd never seen. Thanks to our Swedish Stallion, it worked very well on its W(inter) gear. Sienna was very cooperative on the ride with her favorite Mozart "Turkish March" being played. I made it home with a determination of not going out again for the rest of the day.

Cousin Alex and his wife came to drop off Seinfeld DVD they loaned. They didn't know enough about this kind of weather to fear it. I said, "Sienna, your Jiujiu (uncle as in mother's brother) and Jiuma (his wife) are coming." "Are they my family?" she asked. "Yes, Sienna." We chatted over a warm pot of green tea. Sienna watched "Shriek 2", for the 17th time, I guess.

We played shopping game. On her white little table, she laid out her pink blankey and on top of it a whole array of goodies. "Mommy, you buy something," she started to sell. A pink plastic seashell is 3 dollars. Deal. A "Blue's Clues" type of note pad was asked for 5 dollars. "Too expensive," I complained. "All right, 2 dollars," she was pretty easy. Deal. And from there, I tested her on a sheet of paper and I realized my daughter can do simple addition! Without learning? I was not aware of the teaching at the York Mills campus. It must be from the previous preschool then?

Her new game is to write on a black-sheet note pad with neon-colored pens. She wrote while talking to herself, "I go to school every day. I play with Olivia. She's my friend. My birthday is in March." Then she asked, "What year is it, Mommy?" I answered, one digit at a time, "it's 2-0-0-5," in case she needed to write it down on her "blog" in progress. "No, It's two thousand and five, Mommy!" Isn't it? Wow, what a surprise! I thought she still counts to 100, as the teacher reported.

Somewhere on the book shelf, she found a new identical note pad. She decided to keep the new one for herself. How did she confirm her claim? She wrote on the cover of the new one her own name ""SIENNA". Then she wrote on the cover of the used one, most definitely, "MOM."

Then came Rachel's family for dinner in the evening. Right before that, I heard a heavy machine rattling and looked out: the snow prowler roared onto our street with lights flashing busily, on one side and then the other. It felt like we were being rescued after an avalanche or something... Dad made the best beef stew soup. It was served ideally over whole wheat garlic bread I made. Yes, it was a blizzard. But nothing too bad about it.