Trying to overcome my grinchiness

I am trying to be "one with the snow." To not be so grouchy. To focus on the family together time and the beautiful snowy world outside instead of the trapped feeling, the missed work, and the way my kids have morphed into the most annoying children ever.

But I'm struggling. I just want it to stop. I know we're lucky because we haven't lost power, because we are warm and safe and dry. I'm lucky because I have Pat home on vacation too, and am not stuck home by myself with abovementioned children.

Some lovely footage shot this morning...

The view out the front door. Right out the door, under the covered porch.

Walkway? What walkway?

The area formerly known as a driveway, and way in the distance, frozen lumps formerly known as the garbage cans.

A snowy day in the forest... I mean, my front yard

Our covered patio. And by covered, I mean covered in SNOW

Sandbox, you say? Where? (see the lump?)

Crazy boys, including one wonderful, dedicated father who braved the 15-degree evening for some snow baseball

In the words of my sister from Pittsburgh to the cities in and around Seattle:

"It's called salt, people. Use it." I do not understand why we can't salt and plow better for just a few weeks. For the sanity of everyone involved.

Sliding into home

I did it. 30 posts in 30 days, and it has just about ended me. I would really like to post more often, and if I got more organized, maybe I could save all those funny stories about my kids and post with some regularity.

But really, I'm just staying up too late at night. And after that Thanksgiving weekend o'family, I'm fresh out of stories.
I wish I had some beautiful description of how we played Christmas music today and decorated the house, the kids oohing and aahing as each ornament was unwrapped. Well, not really, but I wish I had taken a nap, done the decorating, and maybe figured out how we can get Christmas lights strung up with no outlet in the front yard.

But let's get real. I did vacuum, we finished the laundry, Pat took the Boy swimming, and we met a new cousin. My stepsister's 6 month old baby Mazie who is so adorable my kids couldn't keep their hands off her. The Boy wanted to hold her, and Bitty Girl wanted to boss her around. Luckily she's a happy, tolerant baby and her parents aren't neurotic first-timers like I was. They didn't hurt her, just a few extra-large hugs and one toppling over backward into the couch.
Now I'm just crossing my fingers that they weren't a vortex of infectious disease, silently infecting her with some nasty cold and cough that doesn't show up until Monday or Tuesday this week.

I should have plenty of blog fodder for December, given that it includes my 36th birthday (ouch), The Boy's 6th birthday, birthday party, family dinner, a couple of Christmas parties, a photo shoot, and 2 weeks off school. If I can just get some sleep.

Perseverance

Sometimes I can muster it up and sometimes it pays off.

To be honest, today I was just too lazy and tired to deal with Bitty Girl during the time she should have been napping, but it worked.

Timeline of Events:
1. I put her down for a nap around 12:45 pm. She chatted, arranged her dollies and chatted some more.
2. I give her one reminder around 1:15 pm that she needed to go to sleep, rearrange her blankets.
3. About 1:45 pm, I go in with more milk, read her another story, and did some wishful snuggling, and remove all but 2 dollies and blankets.
4. She is still chatting and wiggling at about 2:15 pm, and I'm convinced she won't nap, but am too tired and busy to go get her. Plus she's not crying and I haven't heard any sounds of Velcro diaper tabs opening which would indicate nakedness.
5. At 2:30 pm: All is quiet. Silent cheer!!
6. At 2:45 pm: I go in to peek and make sure it's not just a very quiet naked girl, and she's ASLEEP! All blankets and dollies thrown in the laundry basket, but she's asleep. I cover her up and tiptoed out, proud of my perseverance.

P.S. I may have to kill the neighbor who is daring to drill something LOUDLY outside as I'm typing this..

Today was a difficult day. Tomorrow will be better.

I wish today was one of those days where I was glad The Boy had another day off school, so we could spend some quality time together.

But it wasn't. Instead it was a day where the highlights consisted of the Kids Zone at the YMCA and a few good block-building sessions, and the lowlights featured me losing my temper more than once, several timeouts for both kids, and one embarrassing moment of quiet defiance right at the YMCA exit gate in front of the staff and his friend's grandparents.

So I made pumpkin chocolate chip bread after the kids went to bed (a mix from Trader Joe's, don't get too excited..) and I felt slightly better. At least it smells good so far.


During one of the brief peaceful interludes of sibling harmony today, Bitty Girl did have a funny moment.
I came upon a huge explosion of toys in the dining room corner and asked her to clean it up. She said, "It's for Nanny!" Quick thinking Mama said, "Let's take a picture, send it to Nanny, and then you can clean it up!"

Mess for Nanny


In another harmonious moment, her big brother actually helped clean it up.
Let's hear it for the weekend--our first with no soccer games since August!

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz

The whole "Fall Back" thing about getting an extra hour of sleep is kind of a trick when you have kids, because they just wake up early and defeat the whole purpose.

Bitty Girl woke up this morning at 7 am-which-had-magically-become-6am, but since she can't tell time and it was still dark, I tried to trick her. I snuggled her with a blanket and put her back down, saying everyone was sleeping. She was sleepily agreeable, but whispered something to me. I had to ask her to repeat it a few times--she was asking for a doll, "Judy." I didn't know of any dolls named Judy, but I was hoping it wasn't something downstairs that I'd have to retrieve. Luckily, as she got back into her crib, she found "Judy" sound asleep on her blanket.

Meet Judy. Sleeping Judy that is. Or as she's more commonly known in the world of Disney, Sleeping BEAUTY.

I guess that's a NOPE

Bitty Girl is in her bed chanting "Halloween Night, Halloween Night."
Guess that means she's not going to nap?

Ah, the joys of having an older brother and being this excited about Halloween at the ripe old age of 2 1/2.

At least she doesn't have a 9 am soccer game tomorrow...

Will post pictures after the big event!

Late afternoon edit: After a diaper change and 30 more minutes of "rest time," otherwise known as chanting, she FELL ASLEEP. For about an hour! Amazing.

Too Tired for Words

We really are. Between getting up early for 8:00 am school every day, soccer practice and games, and Bitty Girl giving up her lovely habit of an afternoon nap, we're all a few hours short of well-rested.

But The Boy is loving school and soccer, he switched from scoring an "own goal" one week to having an assist another week.

Assorted photos of a kick in motion,


a throw-in,


and the post-game huddle!

Reason #1 to always carry my camera

So kindergarten is going well, 3 days down and 1 to go this week. He's tired, having strange sassy meltdowns each night, but that's what we expected.

Today was my day at home, in which Bitty Girl decided not.to.take.a.nap. Grrrrr.

But making the best of it, we left early to pick up The Boy at school. School gets out at 2:30 and I walked into the class at 2:15, thinking they'd need some help getting packed up and lined up. But they are already kindergarten experts and they were packed up, sitting on the front carpet singing songs with the teacher.

The following is true. I am not making it up, and there were witnesses. I only wish I had my camera.

Teacher: Does anyone know any other songs? (The Boy raises his hand, but then says, "I forgot" when she calls on him.
They sing another song, like Row, Row, Row your Boat.
Teacher: Anyone else? Yes (to The Boy)
The Boy: Ten Little Honeybees
Teacher: I don't think I know that one. Do you want to come up here and teach it to the class?

Ok, I don't know if she always says this, and encourages them to come up, or if she figured there was no way in hell he was going to come up there.

Can you guess what happened next? That's right, he walked up next to her, so all the kids are sitting in front of him on the carpet.
The Boy: (VERBATIM) Okay everyone, hold up your hands like this. (demonstrates by holding out his hands with all fingers spread, and sings) Ten little honeybees, making honey, one flew out to get some nectar. How many were left?
Class: NINE!!
The Boy: Nine little honeybees making honey, one flew out to get some nectar...

You get the picture. The whole song... I have never EVER heard him sing this song - he says he learned it at preschool, but I partly think he made it up. But the whole class counted down with him, and it conveniently used up all the time they had left while waiting for school to get out.

Somehow the teacher held it together and didn't fall down laughing. I was laughing inside, but trying to look presentable on the outside. That's our Boy, former karaoke star! Maybe we could hire him out to entertain the preschoolers.