Because We're Cold?

I'm from the south.  I've heard all the lines about how we're terrible drivers in snow.  I don't have a problem with that, because we are terrible drivers.  We lack experience and we have fluctuating temperatures that often cause nice snow to turn into icy slush--and that can be a hazard to drive on for anyone.

When I was a child, we would get out of school if there was snow.  It didn't have to be much snow, and let me tell you when we saw those flakes falling down out of the classroom windows, we couldn't wait to hear the dismissal bell.  It never seemed to come quickly enough though.  It was as if they wanted to make certain it was going to stick not only to the ground, but the roads too.

That was many years ago.  There has been a trend since of being more and more cautious when it comes to snow and dangerous road conditions.   Not too long ago if it even flaked for a few minutes, school would be out--just to be safe.  Sometimes if there was a solid and confident prediction for snow they'd even delay or cancel school--before a single flake fell.

Today, something happened I am still flabbergasted about:  schools were on a two-hour delay due to cold.  Not snow, not ice, in fact no precipitation at all.  The grounds weren't wet and the streets were in no danger.  It wasn't even that cold.  There was a preemptive delaying of many schools for two hours simply because the temperature was going to be in the teens.

This morning was sunny and not quite as cold as predicted.  There was no frost on the ground.  I'm not sure why some schools needed to delay (ours didn't).  I heard it was because buses needed to be started early so they could warm up and something about thermostats in the schools needed to be turned on earlier than usual.

I'm not sure I understand why that's a valid reason for delaying school.  Was it because people wanted to be more comfortable--two hours later--when it was a mere four degrees warmer?

The Big Boy Update:  Looking for toothpaste?  I found him in our bathroom, on the counter with the water running in the sink.  He had the drawer with the children's medicines opened and had found all the toothpastes.  He had taken all the caps off and was sampling the flavors and using all the toothbrushes (we have more than one child's toothbrush in there.)  Fortunately, he didn't open the salves and creams also in tubes.  I suppose there weren't any interesting pictures on those.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Asleep with the iPad.  This afternoon I gave her the iPad so I could get dinner ready.  My parents arrived just as I went to check on her.  She was on our bed, slumped over asleep, watching some video on the PBS app with two bakers making cupcakes.

Someone Once Said:  You can't please everybody, because people want different things.

They Escaped

This morning, not too long before seven o'clock, I heard my son say, "mommy?" and I was jolted awake.  He didn't say it overly loudly, it was where the voice came from.  Normally, I hear him calling out in the bedroom and we hear it over the monitor.  We don't jump to react immediately because many times they same something and then go right back to bed.  But this time, I heard his voice from outside his room...from the bridge on the second floor.

Their room is at the end of the bridge, but hearing his voice from there meant he was out of his room.  I was mostly asleep and it startled me, because he shouldn't have been there when it was dark and we were still asleep.   That's when I remembered about removing the door lock.

I almost fell back asleep when I heard little tiny feet running across the floor on the main level.  I heard two sets of little feet.  They were in a hurry, but they didn't really know what was going on.  They'd never come to see us in the middle of the night before, so it was a new experience.  They came up to the bed and called out our names.  Then, they decided to climb on the bed and say a proper hello.

We didn't get back to sleep, much as we told them they could wait quietly with us until it was light outside.  If this happens all the time, I may well find that lock and put it back on their door.

The Big Boy Update:  He didn't want to go to bed tonight.  After daddy put him in bed and left, he opened the door, leaned out, said, "walk away, daddy" and shut the door. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Where's my fas-sier?"  This morning in bed with us she wanted her pacifier.  I told her it was upstairs in her bed.  She got off the bed, went upstairs, got her pacifier, and came back to get in bed with us (something they haven't done before).  She tried to lie down with me, but she was too awake at that point and was taken over by both the wiggles and the giggles.

Fitness Update:  My neighbor's mother had early morning surgery so we got to the gym at five o'clock instead of our normal time of five-forty-five.  It was only forty-five minutes earlier, but it seemed strangely outrageous getting up at that time.

They Can Escape Now

For a while now we've been locking the children into their bedroom when they go to sleep either for a nap or overnight.  Not locked so much as they couldn't work the child-safety knob on the door to get out.  At first, my son was the only one who could work the door, then my daughter could.  We've been debating if they're old enough to give them the ability to leave the room if they want to. 

 For some time at nap time we would leave the door cracked if we wanted my son or daughter to come out and downstairs when they woke up.  Sometimes we'd even open the door and bang around pots and pans or socialize loudly downstairs when they were sleeping soundly (they're both excellent sleepers). 

Three days ago we decided to see how it would go in the morning to give them their freedom.  We didn't expect it to be a major change, mostly because they're accustomed to spending time in their room playing when they wake up.  Also, we didn't think they'd notice right away. 

They did figure it out on Saturday morning and both came down.  This morning only my son came down.  I didn't realize why my daughter wasn't coming down as well, especially since I was telling her breakfast was ready, and then I realized she'd gotten herself stuck.  She was calling out asking for help to get down from the desk she'd used a riding car to climb onto, only to have her brother remove the car later. 

Last night, my son didn't want to go to sleep and he tested his freedom several times.  I sat in the room with him and we talked about how he wasn't invited out of his room until morning and that it was his time to sleep.   He was good the rest of the night.

The Big Boy Update:  Apparently there doesn't need to be water in the tub to have fun.  This morning he put lots of tub toys in the tub, got in and out lots of times fully dressed and had a great time.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Do you want a band-aid for your finger?"  My two-year-old wanted to make sure Mimi's finger was taken care of.  Band-aids are very popular for "boo boos" in our house.

Fitness Update:  Six miles in the park.  I like the park in the winter as well as the summer. 

The Surprise Shoes

My son needed some shoes when school started and while my daughter and I were out shopping, we stopped in to get him a new pair of Crocs.  I asked my daughter which pair she liked for my son and she picked out the camo pair over the basic blue pair.  I rather liked the camo pair (I was hinting in that direction as I took her to the shelves) because my son likes camo pants and he just looks good in camo colors. 

We got the shoes, got home and she gave him the pair.  He's loved them ever since.  Flash forward in time to Halloween and we're at our neighborhood party and one of my neighbors is in some sort or redneck outfit or something.  I asked him what he was and he told me some name and I still didn't have any idea who he was.  His wife said, "from Duck Dynasty," but that didn't help because I'd never heard of that band before.  She told me it was a television show and asked what rock I'd been living under to not have heard about it. 

I forgot all about it and then at my son's three-year checkup he was wearing his camo shoes.  His pediatrician said to him, "I see you're wearing your Duck Dynasty shoes."  I looked down at those camo shoes and didn't say a thing to the doctor. 

Later, I told my husband to look at his shoes carefully.  They weren't traditional camo, they were these reed and grass things that, while definitely in the camouflage realm, weren't the standard pattern.

So it turns out my son had Duck Dynasty shoes all along.

The Big Boy Update:  Oh shit.  That's right, he heard me swear and immediately repeated what I said.  I'm only surprised it hasn't happened before now, given the total number of swear words that must have come out of my mouth in his presence by now.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "No thank you, Fox."  My son's middle name is, "Fox" and for some reason today that eludes me, my daughter decided to call him by only his middle name.  He was bothering her and she kept saying, "no thank yo, Fox!" to tell him to leave her alone.

The Doctor

If you know, then this is not a surprise.  If you don't, then this is a Doctor Who post.  I am a fan.  I have been a fan since I was a child.  My doctor is Tom Baker, but I love them all.   My niece is just beginning her adventure, and I hope it is a meaningful one for her.

My children are too young, but I hope they will grow to enjoy it as they grow older.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The Tiger.  She dressed up as the tiger and had a fun afternoon with our sitter as as tiger.

The Big Boy Update:  He was a gentleman.  We hope (but don't expect) the trend to continue. 

Where Did TheSweaters Go?

I had an unusual day today, I had several hours of time, just to myself.  We have school on weekdays with the children, but that three hours between driving them to school or picking them up from school usually gets taken up with lots of things that need to get done when children aren't around.  But today, I had a sitter--for five hours.  And five hours of freedom when you have toddlers, is a long time.  A wonderfully long time.

My husband and I had been working hard over the break to get caught up on everything, and today I decided I was going to do several things I'd been wanting to do for a long time.  Sure, I could have made time for them before, but things related to Christmas and family maintenance kept getting higher priority, so my "leisure goals" had to wait.

I ran a marathon on November third.  Prior to that I didn't want to get a pedicure (much as I needed one) because my toenails and calluses were just fine and there was no need to mess with them and cause some sort of irritation that would bother me during the run.   The pedicure (and manicure to boot) were something I haven't done in probably six months.  It was so nice.  

After that, I called home to get food orders for the family and brought sandwiches to everyone.  As soon as we were done eating I dashed back out because I still had over two hours to accomplish my other goal: finding some winter sweaters.

I have some sweaters, but only a few that fit me well or aren't old, out of fashion or worn out.  It's winter, I thought, it's the perfect time to go get a sweater or two at the mall.  Off I drove and I went to the same department store I mentioned here the other day, expecting, like always, to find everything I need in one location.  Only there weren't any sweaters. 

That's not exactly true, there were sweaters, but not what I was expecting.  There were these diaphanous, open-weave things that you had to layer with another sweater-ish thing on top to work with what was apparently the current style.  They were hanging poorly on the hangers and only the dummy models looked good in them.  They looked awkward to wear and I was afraid I would break them as soon as I got home and put them in my closet, much less wore them.

There were long, cardigan-type things that went to your knees, but I didn't want a cardigan, I wanted a pull-over sweater.  I also wanted something that would keep me warm--the whole reason I was looking for sweaters in the first place.  Weren't people cold this winter?

I left the department store and walked by another twenty stores, gazing in to see if they had substantial sweaters I could browse for purchase.  I hardly saw anything.   I got all the way to the end of the mall and one very large chain store and I found the sweaters.  They must have all met up in this one store to be together.  I was on the phone at the time and couldn't believe my luck.

You know how you think you can pay attention when you're on the phone but you're really not?  That's what happened to me.  I hung up and started to find all those great sweaters I was seeing.  And yes, there were sweaters, but they were mostly in the wrong size and most of them were some sort of fashion statement and not designed for warmth. 

After a while I took three options to the dressing room and left with one sweater I'm hoping will work with lots of pants options.  It was a strange shopping trip.   But it was my morning off!

The Big Boy Update:  Branded socks.  We started with boring underpants, solid in color, and at one point someone told us to get fun underpants with characters on them to get the children into wearing them and potty training, and that worked well.  It never occurred to me to do the same thing with socks until we were given some Avengers socks for Christmas.  My son loves them.  But he only wants to wear the ones with the pictures of the characters.  The ones with the big A logo for the Avengers means nothing to him because he doesn't read yet. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "Woooosie"  I call our dog, Lucy, when she's outside and we want her to come in by yelling out her name and drawing out each syllable.  My daughter likes to help me call her, only she says her name with a "woo" instead of a "loo".

The Non-alcoholic Success Story...Sort of

In November I decided I drank too much alcohol.  And by that I mean I felt like I really wanted to have a drink of alcohol more than I thought was healthy.  Any time this happens, I stop drinking for a while.  I think I mentioned this before.  When I was in my twenties I went an entire year without drinking, just to make sure it wasn't an issue.

These days, I know I don't really have a problem, but that doesn't mean I don't go overboard from time to time in my mind.  November seemed to be one of those months.  It was a month in which I was looking for a reason to "need" a drink, and that, I didn't think, was a healthy attitude.

So I dubbed December, "non-alchoholic month".  I've done this recently and honestly, it's a pain from a social perspective.  If I never drank (and we have friends that have never drank) then it's an easy proposition; but it is so not worth the hassle to explain why you don't want to try the lovely wine the neighbors are so excited about when you're at their holiday party because you're not drinking for the month.   And it's not because I don't have enough courage to explain or gumption to stick to my resolve.  It's just so much easier to get a glass of wine or beer and hold on to it and sip it slowly, than it is to go into the whole thing about how you think it would be better for you if you cut back a little for a bit.  Trust me, I've tried the explanation route and it's a lot more hassle than just holding a glass of wine.

I think it's mostly because you get two types of responses.  The first is, "oh, you're fine, you should have another drink, here, let me go get you one."  The second response is of the, "oh no, she must have a serious problem and that is such a shame" kind of thing.  For some reason, alcohol seems to polarize people and I don't quite understand why.

So back to the non-alcoholic month and how it was only a sort-of thing.  I decided that unless it was a social event (and mind you, December is packed with social events,)  I wasn't going to drink anything.  And at those social events, I was only going to have a very small amount of alcohol.  If I was able to do that, that would accomplish my goals.

And that's what I did.  I had a lot less desire to drink alcohol whatsoever for the month and the little bit I did drink was just part of the evening, and not some sort of goal or destination.  These types of resets help me keep a good balance in my life.  

The Big Boy Update: "Camels have one hippo."  "Do you mean 'hump'?"  "Yes."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: "What's that?"  "It's rice."  "Oh, it's wice!  I want wice."  (goes off to find bowl to put uncooked rice in.)

Fitness Update:  Last day of the year and I ran seven miles with my two best running buddies.  It was a fun afternoon.