Winter returns with a vengeance!!

We got back from Washington last weekend. I brought with me as a souvenir the DC strain of a horrible cold so on Sunday decided to stay away from having lunch with friends as planned. Instead I took Lucas to an enormous supermarket (so exciting!) where I bought a slow-cooker, aka a crockpot. My morphing into a Wisconsin hausfrau is almost complete. The gadget is fab though, you throw a whole lot of ingredients in it in the morning, and when you get home from work the cook has been! It doesn't wash up but otherwise it's great. We also went to a playground where Lucas was mesmerised by bigger boys wth swords, and he chased them hoping they would play with him. (They did once their father told them to lol.)
Lucas was very happy to go back to school on Monday and had a good week. I am now having to decide where he will go when he turns 3 and it is a bit of a minefield. Almost everywhere has waiting lists, there are some really nice fancy places but they cost as much as I am paying now and it is an enormous expense. I was rather looking forward to having a bit more money once he turned 3 ... . The current place is opening a 3-5 preschool which is great news as we get automatic enrolment and it is a great program, but the place itself is small with very little outside space. So I am torn as I feel he needs a lot of space to run around.
Workwise I had an exciting week. I gave a presentation at the Rotary Club on Thursday ("India in the World"), it was lots of fun and it was well-received. The Rotary Club here is essentially a bunch of rather ancient men, and they have some guests coming from India which is why they had invited me to speak. Someone asked me what the solution for Kashmir would be to which I replied that I'd give my friend Hillary Rodham Clinton a call and get back to him.
Saturday I had a meeting in Chicago so Lucas went to his aunt Jane early in the morning and I teamed up with my friend Jim who was going to drive. I had invited him along for company on the drive (it's about 2.5-3 hours) but when we heard that there were snow warnings for the way back he kindly suggested we take his car instead. The meeting was interesting enough and then I met up with a friend who lives there, and around 5.30 we set off on the return journey. It was pouring rain in Chicago by that time so that made highway driving tiring, and as we approached Wisconsin it turned into snow, and more snow, and more snow, and before we knew it we were in the middle of a snowstorm. Traffic crept along in single file, the salting trucks hadn't been out yet so we had to try to follow the tracks left by the other cars. As the snow got denser and the road more slippery, we saw more and more cars which had come off the road, facing all directions - it was like a computer game. Terrifying. My friend did a sterling job driving us home and I arrived at Jane's at 9.30 only to find Lucas was still asleep from his afternoon nap. Whoops! So I took him home and then we were up til well after midnight, which was OK as I needed to calm down from the drive and we could have a lie-in today anyway. Wisconsin went on 'daylight savings' a few weeks back so we had our lost hour already.
This morning it was bright and sunny but as the ground was covered with a thick layer of snow the playground wasn't really an option. So we took the bus downtown and went to the library. All was fine for about 15 mins as Lucas was the only kid there (it had only just opened) and so had sole use of the train table. When other boys turned up and unreasonably demanded to join in the fun Lucas threw a total hissy fit and I ended up dragging him out of the library - me embarrassedly apologising to the other parents, Lucas screaming 'my choo choo train, miiiiiiine' which he kept up til he fell asleep in his new buggy around half an hour later. Delightful. I took the opportunity to walk home along the lake, it was gorgeous and it gave me a good hour's walk which I needed.
Pics below of the new snow, the bus stop, the library, and Lucas playing ball at school.