Fun Despite April Storms

The weather has been anything but normal since Holden was born about 18 months ago, and this April was no exception. We've been forced to head to the basement twice in the past week, and Friday night's tornadoes in St. Louis were the worst to strike the metropolitan area in over 40 years. I'd say that we've been to the basement with Holden during Tornado Warnings about 7 or 8 times, and each time there was actual threat of a tornado (including the storm this past New Years Eve, which produced a tornado near where my parents used to live ... not too far from us; and then there was the February storms this year, when we were sitting in the basement and witnessed one of our patio tables blow into our basement stairwell).

And aside from the tornadoes, we're now getting a deluge of rain ... ugh. But despite all the extreme weather, we've been able to find time to get out into our garden at home -- and get over to the Missouri Botanical Garden on a regular basis. And when it rains, we just make the best of things inside, building forts or playing with anything in the house that might make a fun an interesting toy.

Here are some quick photos and a video that update what our little buddy has been up to recently:

Novice gardener examines the soil (yep, tastes OK).

Spending time outside whenever possible, even if it means just chilling on the front steps and gazing off into the distance.

Lots of fun at the Missouri Botanical Garden, esp. with Holden's new favorite sculpture -- the sheep. Got to ride several of them, and run around a bunch (always a good thing). And here is the video:

And even when the rain kept us inside, we had lots of fun. This was our latest fort in the dining room, officially named Fort Boppy after the rediscovered boppy pillow became its central (and necessary) feature.

I know that I haven't been stellar at posting new entries to the blog recently, but I hope to get better. Spring is always super busy, but there is always a lot going on in Holden's life to keep the posts coming. Hope to get more updates up very soon (and more videos).