I arrived on Jan 11th, and today is Feb 11th. It has been a busy month!

After the coldest days in however many years in Madison the week that I arrived, last week saw the highest February temperatures ever recorded. It really felt as if spring had arrived. The snow has started to melt which means I now know I have a lawn outside my apartment (it even has a little sandpit in!), and the roads are much wider as the snow gets shoveled to the sides and then just sits there taking up space. The lake looks intriguing - the ice has not yet melted but there are large puddles on the surface creating beautiful reflections in the sunshine. Last weekend there was frantic activity on the lake as people went cross-country skiing and walking while they still could. The weather forecast had made it clear it would soon no longer be safe. I am secretly hoping we'll get a bit of winter back, I was rather enjoying it and I'd like to take Lucas skating a few more times. (Skating can only be done on the smaller lakes as the large lake doesn't get cleared and so is used for skiing instead.)

Today I took a half day 'sick leave' (allowed if you need to look after a dependant, how cool is that) so I could take Lucas to meet his new pediatrician. I felt my mothering skills would be evaluated and so I changed his clothes in the car park so he would look all pristine. Pathetic I know :-). The doc was friendly but said what all doctors say the world over - nothing to be done about it, he'll get better by himself. I guess I knew that but wanted it confirmed. Oh we also had a totally mortifying moment - I was holding Lucas so the doctor could listen to his chest, and I went to kiss Lucas' head to reassure him and just as I did that the doctor who was holding Lucas' head moved his hand - and I ended up kissing that! Yikes. I decided to ignore the incident, but the doc said "that was my hand". The best thing I could think of to say was "We mums do that in the hope of getting better treatment for our kids".

Then I braved the supermarket again as my enormous fridge was beginning to feel empty. Lucas sat in the car-part of the trolley/toy car- I have pics on my phone that I can upload tomorrow as the USB cable is in my office.

I left my wallet with all my ID in my office overnight so couldn't go take my knowledge driving test this morning as I had planned. I will do it on Friday morning, fingers crossed. The weirdest thing I learnt this week is that if you hit a deer you get to keep it. Useful information in the run-up to Christmas though perhaps scant consolation for totalling your car.

It's Lincoln's birthday tomorrow so I'm off to watch a program about him now. Lucas' Aunt Suzanne gave me an ancient and tiny TV which is brilliant for news and documentary watching. Sadly the US is going digital in a week and as there is a shortage of conversion boxes I won't be able to use that tv for much longer.

Pics above, with more to follow so check back in.