Shahbel?

Alex loves loves loves to shovel. He has his own little red shovel that he pushes up and down the sidewalks until he is almost frozen solid. We had to bring his shovel with us on the ride to daycare today...and yesterday...and Tuesday. Loves. His. Shovel.

A surprise snowstorm arrived yesterday much to Alex's delight, and Travis was out shoveling the sidewalks when we got home. After watching to make sure the garage door went all the way down, Alex took off yelling, "Walk! Walk! Shahbel! Shahbel!" So I fetched his shovel from the car and caught up with him. Travis was all excited to have a shoveling partner...until he realized what Alex's idea of shoveling is. Which would be to stick his shovel into the snowbank as far as possible, pull snow back onto the sidewalk, and stomp on it. It was awesome.

After a bit of that, Alex, the shovel and I went for a walk around the block. We got the end of our street and we could hear Aiden barking at something. Alex stopped, turned back toward the house, put his mitten-clad hand up to his mouth and said "Shhh A-en! Shh!" And then he gave me a look like, Seriously, what are we going to do with her? and turned to get on with his walk.

I ended up shoveling a little red shovel's width worth of a path on part of the sidewalk with Alex right behind me, narrating my shoveling performance. I thought I was getting scolded until he paused, laughed crazily for a second and then motioned for me to carry on with making a path suitable for his delicate feet. This kid kills me.