The weather is again playing havoc here in Seattle - after surviving the wettest month ever last November, and the windstorms in December, this week we had over three inches of snow in only a couple of hours ... and the temperatures have barely cracked 0degC since. The snow is still thick on the ground around home, and the hill on our little street is a bit dicey - so Isobel and I are confined to quarters until the weather starts melting things.

Isobel had her four-month checkup on Monday - she's now up to 16lbs 6oz, so she's more than doubled her birthweight and is up around 90-95th percentile. She's also grown to 25" long, which is 6" longer than her length at birth. She's growing so quickly, it's hard to remember how small she was when she was born - even though it was only a few months ago.

The forecasters had predicted snow for Tuesday, and received a bit of flack in the media when only a very light covering overnight. Turns out they were off by a day - I called Andy at work at 4pm on Wednesday when I started seeing 'bean bag' snow fall in the backyard - it looked like little polystyrene beads. Normally it takes Andy about 40mins to get home on his own, as he can't use the HOV lanes anymore - this time it took him FOUR HOURS!! 4WD mode all the way. Isobel and I watched the cars crawl past on the main road outside our house, trying to get down to the 520. The news showed footage of cars slipping and sliding on the ice, and running out of fuel idling along the freeways - luckily Andy had taken the Durango and it had a full tank. See what happens when you wish for a snow day?!

Andy and I took Isobel out for a walk on Thursday, down to the nearby shops to get some lunch and some little bits and pieces. The snow and ice was too much for the stroller, so we zipped Isobel into her snow suit and Andy carried her the whole way - about two miles there and back. We could see kids with their toboggans sliding down the hill in one of the nearby parks, which looked like a lot of fun - must have been better than school, anyway. Isobel had so much fun looking around from her perch on Andy's shoulder - not a peep from her the whole way. We stopped in at Uwajimayas for lunch, after deciding the slope down to Safeway was a bit steep. Yummy chinese food and fried rice, just the thing on a cold day!

It was still too icy in our street on Friday to make it out, so Andy took another snow day - the main suburban roads were pretty good, but our street was still very slick. We made a start on deconstructing the Christmas decorations inside, sorting all the wooden stuff to one side for Customs to check when we head home at the end of the year, so they don't have to rat through everything.

On Saturday we managed to get out of the street and out to the infant massage class I booked last week. We had a lot of fun - Isobel loved the massage, and was fascinated by a little seven-month old girl sitting next to us. Very funny to watch her ignoring us and trying to make eye contact with the little girl ... hopefully that means she'll be a sociable little thing as she grows older!

The Seahawks' run for the Superbowl this year has ended, and there's more snow forecast for this week. Hopefully the weather will improve soon and some of the snow will start melting off!