Snowed In!

As usual -- I'm posting this WEEKS after I actually wrote it. Why am I so bad about clicking "PUBLISH POST"? I have no earthly idea. I'll try to work on a more recent post now. Look for it in six weeks. Sigh...


It's been five days since I left my house. Five. Days. OK, I've gone outside and shoveled a small walkway that went halfway down the driveway -- and managed to throw my back out in the process. But other than that -- just me and three small people, all completely dependent upon me for most things, including dressing, eating, pulling their pants up after the potty, etc. I'm ready to freak out.


Now, to be fair, they have been remarkably -- REMARKABLY -- well behaved for the most part. Sure there have been some fights, and Jack has been in time-out twice for kicking Kate, but other than that -- pretty good. Of course, I will admit that Playhouse Disney and Nick Jr have been on FULL TIME in my house. Nope, not afraid to admit that. I don't subscribe to the "TV rots your brain" theory, especially since Mickey Mouse Clubhouse taught Kate her colors. So to anyone who does the whole "OH GOD, I only let MY kids watch 30 minutes of PBS a week" -- more power to you people. My 3 year old can still write his name, my name, Andrew's and Kate's name, all by himself without prompting. So I won't apologize for Chuggington and Handy Manny. AAAANYhooo...


So far I have survived. More importantly, so have the children. Which is nice, b/c it would be awkward having to explain to Andrew that I had either sold them on eBay, or thrown them in the snow.



We have made projects, shoveled (seriously, Jack's FAVORITE activity), dressed Flat Stanley, which my sister-in-law was kind enough to send to us (LOVE, Flat Stanley, btw), and (a suggestion from friends) gone swimming in the bathtub. We are surviving. But I Can't. Wait. Until the roads are cleared, and school resumes again. SCHOOL!!! Right now I'm just dreaming of warm weather, and drinking A LOT of coffee.

Day One of my new life...

Well, it started out with a bang. That bang being the kids conspiring against my effort to sleep last night. First of all, around 10:00, when I was (FINALLY) relaxing in front of the TV, I heard the unmistakeable sound of little feet coming down the hallway, and was soon greeted with Kate, butt naked, and whispering that "I need thome new jammieth, Mommy. I need new oneth." Sigh. She hadn't had an accident or anything, btw, just decided that -- really -- she NEEDED new jammies. Oh, and a new pull-up, too. She had thrown her old, DRY pull-up in the garbage. At least she cleaned up after herself.

By 11:00 (no, really) she was finally asleep, and around that time Charlie decided he would take HIS turn. He rarely wakes up at night, but last night he cried, off and on, from 11:00 until 1:00 when I finally gave up and brought him to bed with me. Sigh. Because THAT makes for relaxing sleeping. Especially now that he's semi-mobile. I texted Andrew that I was going to sleep.

Around 4:00 am (4:09, to be exact, if you must know) I heard Jack come coughing into my room, hacking up a lung and gagging. This has been happening a few times over the past week, btw. So he climbs up in bed with me, at which point I notice that Charlie is wide awake next to me, and on all fours, thinking about playtime. Knowing I couldn't handle both kids in bed with me (I'd be up the whole time, paranoid that Jack was going to smother Charlie in his sleep) I put Charlie into his crib and THANKFULLY he decided he would go back to sleep. So I spent the rest of the night in bed listening to Jack cough, sometimes holding him upright in his sleep, and being randomly punched in the face from time to time as he flailed his arms in his sleep.

At 7:00 am Andrew came home. He had texted me around 4 that he should be home by 5:30, so I had of course been up and down from 4:00 to 7:00 wondering where the heck he was. Luckily, he came home in the middle of an argument on the phone with some other sergeants about how to charge some woman who drove drunk through Dupont Circle. Which, of course, woke the kids up. To give him credit, he tried to entertain Jack for me so that I could sleep, but once Charlie woke up it was all over anyway.

The rest of the day really wasn't that bad. We did some projects, the kids "helped" me with some laundry, and we went to the pedi and found out that the older kids all have the sinus infection that Andrew and Charlie just recovered from. After we got home (and, btw, Happy Meals, b/c I didn't make it to the grocery store), I let the kids go out and play in the snow while Charlie and I watched from the window and made excuses for why I couldn't go out and play with them ("Mommy doesn't have shoes on! Mommy has to feed Charlie! Mommy needs a gin and tonic!").

They went to bed without too much argument tonight, thank GOD. Although I did find Katie in bed around 9:00 with her jammies on -- but no pull-up on. Lucky for me I put a new one on her in her sleep so I won't have to clean her bed in the middle of the night. Currently Charlie keeps waking up and crying, but he's finding his binkie on his own and I'm hopeful I will get SOME sleep tonight. And God, I hope the kids sleep in past 7:00 tomorrow.