snow day

Not just as in it snowed last night, but also as in the kids are home from school and the entire city has shut down! I know what you're thinking..."Wait a sec, I can see the grass through the snow! There can't be more than a half inch on the ground!" And you would be correct. Actually, there was a little more snow on the ground earlier, and had I been a little more lucid at 1:30am when I was up with Ainsley, I would have taken a picture because it really was quite beautiful. But about an hour later the rain/ice/sleet started and it has continued off and on throughout the morning. Guess this explains why I couldn't find a parking spot at Trader Joe's late yesterday afternoon...everyone stocking up for the blizzard.

About an hour ago I told the kids they could watch a movie. You would think that of the 500 DVDs we own (give or take a few!), they would be able to find ONE that they could both agree to watch. But it took them 45 minutes to decide. Seriously. 45 minutes. The only thing that motivated them was that warning that if they hadn't decided by 12:30 I was going to let Jack watch Thomas & Friends and then Bob the Builder on PBS. So now I'm going to put Ainsley down for her nap, pop some popcorn and snuggle up to watch Star Wars with them. I think I deserve a snow day too!

plotting her escape

I'd be willing to bet that she's also pondering which will taste better - the grass or the bushes.

no rest for the weary

So, we haven't been sleeping well lately. And by we, I mean me and Ainsley. Everyone else in the house would have no problem sleeping through anything. And by anything, I mean everything, including (but certainly not limited to) tornadoes, a Mack truck running through our living room, or even an alien abduction. But I digress...

Ainsley and I aren't sleeping well, because Ainsley is still infected with the world's longest cold, making it almost impossible for her to sleep longer than 2-3 hours without waking up because she simply cannot breathe. And I suppose it wouldn't be so awful if I could count on her to take a couple of good naps during the day, so that I could coerce Jack into snuggling in bed with me to watch hours of Thomas and Friends so that I can sleep, but she's really not sleeping very well during the day either. I've tried telling her that if she wants to be a beast at night, then she has to be on her best behavior during the day, but she doesn't quite get the message. Kind of like how she doesn't understand that she's not supposed to be almost WALKING at 8 months. So, if you talk to me in the next few days or weeks (or months) and I babble incoherently or ask you to repeat yourself 3 or 4 times, please be patient and repeat my mantra..."This too shall pass," (Thanks, Mom!).

Now, you'll have to excuse me. I need to go rescue Ainsley from eating an electrical cord, cleaning my oven door with her tongue or some other situation that is bound to resemble this:

b-a-l-l-e-r-i-n-a

Emily was so excited to come home from school on Wednesday, her first day back, and tell us that she had won her classroom spelling bee and that she would be going on to compete in the school-wide spelling bee. On Friday.

She was given a list of 100 words to study and she spent all of her free time, even getting up early this morning, looking over her words. She was hoping she would get the word independence because she had figured out the trick - all e's.

The spelling bee was this morning at 9:30...Doug worked from home today so he could stay home with Jack & Ainsley while I went to school. In her first two rounds she spelled reptile and answer, and then, in round three, her word was independence and she spelled it perfectly. After three rounds there were only 9 contestants left, Emily being one of them, and her fourth round word was ballerina. Which, unfortunately, she spelled b-a-l-l-a-r-i-n-a. I was really so proud of her, not only for making it as far as she did and being one of the last third graders in the competition, but for standing up straight, speaking loudly and clearly and not even once looking nervous, even though the spelling bee was being broadcast over the tv's in each classroom and she knew the entire school was watching. I hope she always has that kind of confidence.

Ainsley

Seriously, isn't she just the cutest thing?

I like too much!

One of these days, I will challenge myself to sit down and actually write something about something. But for now, it's just so much easier to write about the endless stream of funny comments that flow from Jack's mouth.

For example, as I was getting in the car last night to wrap up some holiday shopping, he opened the door to say good-bye and shouted, "Have a good weekend!" No idea where that came from...I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know what a weekend is, but I guess I am glad he wished for it to be a good one for me. As amusing as that was, a few minutes ago, he delivered one of the best one-liners I've heard in quite awhile.

We were in the kitchen and he had asked for a snack. Teddy Grahams and marshmallows. I told him that would be okay, so he went to the pantry and started to open the marshmallows. Only he didn't have a bag of marshmallows...it was a bag of confectioner's sugar. Luckily, I was able to get to him before he made it snow all over my kitchen. I put the sugar back in the pantry and took out the actual bag of mini-marshmallows. I must have been still congratulating myself for averting what could have been one of the greatest kitchen disasters of all time and not paying attention to how fast the marshmallows were tumbling out of the bag, but in an instant, the entire paper plate was full.

Jack said, "Whoa, mom. That's too much."

"I know, it is too much," I said as I started to put some back in the bag. To which he replied, "I like too much!"

Thus, leaving absolutely no doubt whatsoever that he is truly my son.

Why we don't watch a lot of commercial television...

Jack came into the office the other day, looking a little confused.

"Mom, do cows really live at Chick Fil' A? Or in fields?"