Not Fans of Solid Precipitation

To be fair, it was 25 degrees and sleeting when we ventured outside this morning. Ben was thrilled for about ten minutes, before deciding it was too cold, and he couldn't even be coaxed into joining some of the neighborhood kids for sledding. Rebecca observed the snow from the safety of the garage for the most part, venturing out onto the snow only briefly. Joel decided to pick her up and carry her, which proved to be a very bad idea. She screamed and thrashed until she was safely in the garage again. She thought Ben's snowball throwing antics were funny, but didn't seem to quite know what to do with the snow herself so she decided to ignore it and play baseball. That was about when I said, uh, why don't we go back inside ;) The kids obliged without hesitation.

What's New

The answer to that question is, unfortunately, nothing much. The week started out very busy at work, and I spent a couple of long nights working until almost midnight trying to meet unrealistic deadlines. By mid-week I was cranky and sleep deprived, and feeling like senility was rapidly setting in and all of the non-work balls that were up in the air -- field trips, birthday parties, school projects and about a million other little things -- were about to all come crashing down on me. I am happy to say that I have somewhat recovered from this feeling of impending doom ;)

Last night I went to dinner at Fiamma, a cute and yummy Italian restaurant, with all of the Moms in Rebecca's preschool class as well as her teacher, Miss Lindsay. It was a lot of fun, and so nice that all the moms were able to make it! I told Rebecca this morning, "I saw Miss Lindsay last night." She narrowed her eyes and pouted for a moment and replied, "MY Lindsay!" She is very possessive.

Snow is in the air, supposedly. Or rather, snow, sleet and freezing rain -- two to four inches possible starting late this afternoon and continuing through much of the day tomorrow. I thought about the fact that I don't have a snow shovel, or a sled, and whether or not I have boots that fit either of the kids is questionable at best, but then decided that if I attempted to procure any of these items none of them will turn out to be necessary. So, unprepared is how we shall remain.

Triple Threat!

The triplets turn 2 - Happy birthday Brody, Cameron and Lanie! Thank you for inviting us to share your special day!

All Dressed Up

As promised, here are Joel and I all dressed up to go to the Make A Wish Foundation's annual Wish Ball. (Of course, the kids had to get in the picture too).

Joel is the newest Board Member of the North Carolina chapter of the Make A Wish Foundation, and since I am a dork, I took a picture of his name in the program:

Turtles in January

Mother nature has finally started making up for the cold snap she put us through a couple weeks ago... after a week of high temps in the 30s, my trip to Boston last week didn't seem all that much colder than what I'd just left. But the weather this week so far has been downright warm. Today it was sunny and in the mid 60s. I took advantage of the warm weather to take a lunchtime walk around the lake in our development, where I saw the resident blue heron stalking some fish. I also saw a cute little turtle sunning himself on a rock.

Let me repeat that: A cute little turtle sunning himself on a rock. IN JANUARY!!!! Does that not just blow your mind? I mean, how COOL is that? Okay, I admit, I may be more fond of reptiles [excluding snakes] than the average person. And just rather kind of weird anyway. But -- TURTLES IN JANUARY!!! Come on, people! One of you has got to find that as awesome as I do.

Celebrating MLK Day the American Way

(Shopping).

The kids and I were off from work and school today. Ben had camp at the JCC, leaving Rebecca and I to have a rare "girls" day together. Though really at this age it's less of a "girls day" and more of a "mom trying to avoid/minimize her two year old's frequent tantrum day". We started our day at a new restaurant near the mall called Terrace Cafe, where I had the California french toast and Rebecca had a fruit cup and a chocolate chip muffin. The food was very good, but the service was haphazard -- Rebecca's muffin required two reminders after I'd gotten my food before it was actually brought out. (Honestly - WHO MAKES A TWO YEAR OLD WAIT FOR A MUFFIN?!)

After breakfast we headed for the mall and Nordstrom's, where against all odds I managed to successfully purchase a dress and shoes for a black tie charity ball that Joel and I are going to on Friday night. With a lot of help from the sales staff, who brought me tons of dresses to try on, as well as a balloon for Rebecca to play with.

Rebecca got a little antsy in the shoe department as I was trying to find shoes to fit my short, wide feet (I got news for you kid, you have my same feet). Every time the sales girl would head back into the store room for yet another pair to try Rebecca would look up and ask hopefully, "All done yet?" I rewarded her patience with a visit to the fountain afterwards -- Rebecca loves fountains and she sat on the side of the fountain for half an hour trying to dip various body parts and toys in the water whenever she thought I might not be paying attention.

After such an exhausting morning we came home and took a two hour nap (both of us) -- a fine way to round out the day.

Easier Said Than Done

While I was in Boston this past week Joel mentioned that his parents wanted to take Rebecca for a hair cut. "Sure," I said, neglecting to mention that there is a REASON why Rebecca was desperately in need of a hair cut... namely that she screams and thrashes when approached with scissors, and the only way you can actually manage to get the job done is to sit with her in your lap and attempt to hold her still and keep an eye from being poked out. So anyway I forgot to mention that small detail, and the hair cut was not successfully accomplished. So this morning I took her for her hair cut myself, and held her down while she screamed and thrashed and managed to get her bangs trimmed and the ends of her hair trimmed a little. Afterward she was very happy to tell everyone and anyone that she got a hair cut and you never would have known from looking at her happy, beaming smile HOW GODDAMN DIFFICULT IT WAS.

Happy to be Home!

I got home from Boston last night, arriving to a CLEAN HOUSE thanks to the cleaning service, which came Wednesday (although Joel claims the house was not in too bad shape before that but not sure I believe it). I arrived in time to say goodnight to Rebecca who was half asleep in her crib and paid me very little mind except to mumble something about polar bears. Ben acted happier to see me, and I was in time for his bedtime stories and to tuck him into bed.

This morning it was back to reality -- squabbles over breakfast, arguments about which Backyardigans episode to watch after breakfast, tantrums over not allowing Becca to climb into her car seat by herself (she was taking too long), and a long wait in the cold for a school bus that was 25 minutes late (by which time Ben was whining and Becca was bawling outright).

And then, back to work and the 80 emails sitting in my inbox... Ahhhh, so nice to be home....

More Pictures of Baby Amelia!

Introducing Amelia Catherine

My niece! She seemed a little grouchy about getting woken up to have a camera shoved in her face. But I am sure she will get used to it!

Off to Boston to Meet My New Niece

So my niece arrived a couple of days ahead of schedule, at 2:30 this morning, and although I have not met Amelia Catherine yet I already have a bone to pick with this young lady -- YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WAIT TILL YOUR AUNT COULD GET THERE! I can't wait to meet her in a few hours! Off to Boston!

Countdown to Baby Robinson

Tomorrow morning I am heading to Boston for the arrival of my newest niece or nephew, scheduled to arrive via c-section on Tuesday morning. I have done all the laundry, packed the kids backpacks for Monday, and left a list of notes and reminders on the fridge for Joel of such things as 1) Ben's basketball league which starts tomorrow afternoon; 2) Joel's traffic court date/time Monday morning; 3) Ben's Tae Kwon Do schedule; 4) what time the school bus comes in the mornings, etc, etc, etc. Hopefully he will do okay! I am missing my babies already, but so excited to be on hand for the arrival of our newest family member!! YEAH! Abby has been having some contractions again today, I told her, CROSS YOUR LEGS! Don't have that baby before I get there!

I will try to update from the road, or if not, I'll be back home on Thursday night.

PS, Go Eagles.

Star of the Week

Ben is the "star of the week" for his kindergarten class next week, which involves making a poster to share with the class. He finished his poster today (with some help from Mom).

Was Ben Ever This Ornery? I Think Not

Rebecca's favorite phrase, which I hear literally 50 times a day (which is impressive considering she's at preschool during the week) is "NO! MY DO IT!" Or some variant thereof. When I try to help her down the stairs. Into her car seat. With her clothes. Her food. Her seat belt. Brushing her teeth, her hair. Even when I try to READ to her for crying out loud... She yells "MY SAY IT!", grabs the book away from me, looks at the page, and tries to repeat what I just said. It makes reading a book to her very difficult. In fact, it makes DOING EVERYTHING VERY DIFFICULT!

Family Game Night in the 21st Century

Ah, family togetherness... But is it bad that my two year old is yelling, "Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!" ?

Monday, Monday

Back to the grind after another long weekend... in addition to a lot of lazing around the house playing video games, watching football, etc, we did get out and about a little bit this weekend -- Thursday night we went to a kid-friendly New Year's Eve party at a friend's house (made it to about 9:15 before we decided that we needed to come home and get the kids, especially Rebecca, to bed); Friday afternoon we had friends over and went to Cantina 1511 for dinner; Saturday we went to the JCC and the kids ran around after a tennis ball in the upstairs dance studio while Joel worked out. There was a guide dog puppy-in-training watching them-- apparently watching little kids chase a tennis ball around is a PERFECT "exposure" for a guide dog in training... the kids did not mind, either, and Ben enjoyed petting her. After that we went to Saffron for dinner, our first visit there but definitely not our last! It was delicious.

Ben went back to school today, and he seemed to adjust much better than I did to getting up early to catch the bus again. The only problem this morning was that it was 20 degrees out and the bus was 20 minutes late. By the time the bus came Ben was whining, Rebecca was crying, and I was just about frozen solid, wearing only a sweatshirt.

Hopefully the rest of our first day back to "reality" will go more smoothly. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2010!

Couch Potato

Be Careful What You Wish For

For the last five and a half years I have been waiting for the day that Ben could occupy himself for a while without needing my constant attention. Well, that day has come to pass, and Joel and I are not quite sure what to do about it. Since I bought him a used copy of Lego Star Wars 2 for his Game Cube a week or so ago (was it only a week ago?) he has been playing it every spare moment of every day. It can easily go from 1 to 2 players, so sometimes he and Joel will play together, but he's also perfectly happy playing it by himself for HOURS.

Yesterday while he played and Becca napped, I got to watch like two hours of non-animated television, without interruption. It was truly miraculous. On the other hand, it was about 3 p.m. before I managed to coax Ben out of his pajamas, and that was only because we had company coming over and were going out to dinner.

Rebecca spent most of her waking moments yesterday either watching Ben play his star wars game or watching an endless loop of Backyardigans episodes on DVD. When the cycle began to repeat itself this morning, Joel and I decided we needed to get the kids out of the house so we wasted a couple of hours at Lowes looking at carpet and kitchen appliances. As soon as we returned home the kids resumed their usual positions on their respective couches in front of their respective television sets.

We tried, right? I don't want to force Ben to do something else just for the sake of doing something else... it is, after all, the next-to-last day of his winter vacation, so part of me thinks I should not feel guilty about it and just let him do what he wants to, since we haven't got any plans anyway and it's FREEZING out today! And he did spend his two weeks of winter vacation doing a lot of active and educational stuff at camp, such as several museum field trips, bowling, Monkey Joe's, swimming every day, tae kwon do lessons... I am going to keep justifying his video-game-playing quietly to myself now while I go see what's on the Food Network....