The Greatest Show on Earth

Yesterday was a rather busy day. It started with Rebecca's 9am dance/gymnastics class, followed by a late breakfast at Manhattan Bagel, followed by a brief stop at home to change into Ben's basketball clothes, followed by basketball practice, followed by a trip back to Manhatten Bagel because Rebecca became convinced and hysterical in the car on the way back from basketball that she had left her bunny at Manhattan Bagel. (Of course she hadn't- it was at home). We stopped at home to change Ben out of his basketball clothes, and then headed uptown to go to the circus.

I should mention at this point that we were without Joel all day, who got stuck at work for 12 hours yesterday taking care of a sick newborn who, as it turned out, did not end up actually having cancer. So... it wasn't supposed to have been Joel's patient at all. Oh well.

Anyway, the circus turned out fine -- despite my extreme misgivings about being there by myself and convinced that Rebecca was going to freak out for some reason, requiring me to remove both kids from the show. Rebecca actually was very excited and remained so even after the lights went down and the music and all the activity started. She actually was so excited that at one point she fell out of her chair. After that I held her hand or let her sit on my lap to keep her from falling again (as she almost fell into the lap of the boy sitting in front of us). Towards the end both kids got a little ratty and started arguing with each other over the popcorn, lemonade and cotton candy they were sharing, but overall it was a success.

We followed the circus with dinner at Mama Fu on the way home, where my potty training luck with Rebecca ran out for the day... despite having stayed dry up until that point, she wet her pants and then not 10 minutes later pooped in her pants too. It was lucky that I had two extra changes of clothes for her with me and not just one, but unlucky that I did not also have a change of clothes handy for myself -- because somehow while I was wrestling her out of her poopy pants some poop ended up smeared on my pants. NOT cool. (You hear me Rebecca?? NOT COOL!)

After we got home Ben reflected, "I don't know why they called that The Greatest Show on Earth."

"You don't think so?" I asked. "What was missing?"

"Well," Ben said, "There wasn't enough tightrope walking."

"There was a guy riding a motorcycle on a tightrope," I pointed out.

"Yeah... but... I don't know. I still think it wasn't the greatest show on Earth."

Tough crowd....

Coloring

Rebecca loves coloring books but she tends to color the entire book in one sitting with a single (usually pink) crayon.

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Busy Weekend

Our weekends lately seem to be really filling up. Friday night Joel and I attended the annual Wish Ball for the local chapter of the Make a Wish Foundation, of which Joel is a board member. Saturday we were up bright and early assembling bag lunches with the cub scouts to deliver to the JCC for the Room In The Inn project, which provides meals and a place to sleep for area homeless people. We followed that with basketball practice (Ben) and a birthday party (Rebecca) and then went out to dinner with some friends.

Sunday was more low-key, with only grocery shopping and Ben's basketball game on the agenda. Ben's team played great yesterday and Ben scored his first basket! Yay Ben!

Next weekend already seems to be filling up as well, with Rebecca's dance/gymnastics class (now switched from Tuesday evenings to Saturday mornings) followed by Ben's basketball practice followed by tickets to the circus. The kids are really looking forward to the circus but Joel and I have a bet about whether or not Rebecca will totally freak out. Will let you know, of course.

Dance Recital

Rebecca had her first (but I am sure not her last) dance recital on Tuesday...

At Pinkberry

My chocoholic.

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Shaggy Kids

Finally got hair cuts... though Rebecca required a bit of bribery to get her into the chair, in the form of a candy lipstick.

Total Chaos

Total chaos is what happens when a city that rarely sees snow gets 4 inches of it followed by a little bit of freezing rain. Monday was fun. The snow and the day off school was a novelty. Tuesday both kids were off from school again. Joel was even off from work. That was a little bit ridiculous but good for me because he could watch the kids so I could get some work done. Except his idea of watching the kids was to invite one of Ben's friends over to play so there ended up being 3 kids running around the house instead of two.

Then last night we lost power for 3 hours. We NEVER lose power for more than 30 seconds. But off it went. We discovered that we have all of one flashlight and the bulb in that flashlight is almost dead. We used it as a night light until Rebecca fell asleep and then took it from her room and used it in Ben's room until he fell asleep. And we lit candles. Joel and I had a conversation that went like this: JOEL: Why don't we have any flashlights? ME: I don't know, but look at all these Hanukkah candles we have. JOEL: Yes but they don't last very long. ME: Now, that's kind of ironic, isn't it? JOEL: Yes, yes it is...

Being without electricity was quite shocking for Ben. He kept repeating, "But the *tv* went off too!" The trauma of having no tv to watch. I surfed the internet on my phone and Joel read stored content on his iPad and we were very relieved when the power came back on.

Today the public schools were closed AGAIN. Rebecca's preschool was open with a 3 hour delay, and as we were getting ready to head over there at 10am I read an email on my phone from the director of the after school program that Ben attends saying they were going to have a special "school's out/J's in" day from 10:30 until 5pm and I fired off a reply "Bringing him over NOW. Charge my card on file!" Ben was a little peeved at me for the last minute change in plans (I guess he'd been planning on whining and moping and being in my way all day while I tried to work). But he cheered up once we arrived. And I cheered up immensely once I returned home to a QUIET HOUSE for the first time all week.

Tomorrow Ben's school is finally open again - but on a two hour delay. I'm not sure if Rebecca's preschool is going to have a delayed start as well or be open at the regular time, but at any rate, I am very much looking forward to an almost-normal schedule!

Sledding

Editor's Note: Ok so now I know that when I take a video with my new phone (never done it until today) I need to hold the phone *lengthwise*... sue me... please everyone humor me by craning your necks at a 90 degree angle to watch these videos.

Here is our 2 year old neighbor Eli appropriately protected against head injuries, heading for the snow jump...

And Ben, on take 5, finally hits the jump:

Snow Day 2011

By the title of this post you can see that I am optimistically assuming this will be the only snow day of 2011.... the kids were both off from school for what (around here) was a veritable blizzard... maybe 4 inches of snow that began falling before daybreak and continued until early afternoon. We started our snow day with chocolate chip pancakes, then had some fun in the snow, and wrapped it up with some hot cocoa (which Rebecca called "coconut chocolate hot" because she got a bit confused).

If you are wondering why Ben was entirely inappropriately dressed for the snow (in two shirts and two sweatshirts but no coat) it is because he left his new winter coat at school on Thursday and then when I sent him to school Friday in his old winter coat with strict instructions to bring home his new coat, he not only forgot his new coat but forgot the old one as well. One of our neighbors did end up lending him a coat that is too big for her son, and hopefully he can manage to bring home at least one of his other two coats this week and not leave a THIRD coat at school!

I got about two hours of work done this afternoon while Rebecca napped, but I'm not optimistic about getting much more done. Hopefully school will be back in session tomorrow.

Basketball

A lot of basketball-related activities this weekend - Ben had practice yesterday, went to the Bobcats game last night, and had his team photo and his first game in his under-8 league at the JCC today. There's my boy, back row center. Stylishly coordinated in red and black to match his jersey, all the way down to his shoes... He played great defense today! Way to go Ben!

Boys Night Out

While us girls had a night in last night Joel and Ben had a night out. They went to a Bobcats game and Ben got to meet Gerald Wallace, whose daughter goes to Ben's school. Here is a picture of the back of Ben's head as he got Gerald Wallace's autograph. Ben had a great time at the game.

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Girls Night In

Becca and her BFF decorating sugar cookies.... and then they broke them all up into little pieces.

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Purple Icing Superhero Princess

...at her friend Obi's birthday party.

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Very Delicious

I may have been first in line to try Pinkberry's new flavor, blood orange, which made its debut today...

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Back to the Grind....

Ben went back to school on Monday, which means we all went back to getting up at 6:45, rushing around like maniacs to catch the school bus at 7:50, getting Rebecca dropped off in time to make my 8:30 a.m. daily briefing for work, spending 45 minutes a night doing homework and reading, and trying to get to bed at a decent hour so we can repeat it all the next day.

On top of that I started transitioning into a new position at my company this week, and training a replacement for my old position. The guy whose position I am taking is already gone, so that means essentially that I am trying to figure out how to do all his work, while doing some of my old work, while training someone. Needless to say, it's been a busy week so far...

Singing with the iPad...

Here's Ben yesterday morning singing along to one of his favorite songs... he's been comandeering Joel's iPad lately ... and Joel thought I was the one who was going to try to steal it from him... and in case you're wondering what Rebecca's up to next to him, she's playing Fruit Ninja on my phone (or as she calls it, "Fruit Bunja". We think it's so cute when she says that, we don't bother to correct her).

A Break From the Cold

Yesterday we had a welcome break from the winter weather with sunny skies and temps in the mid sixties. Ben and Joel got some basketball practice in and it wasn't long before Ben shed his long sleeved shirt in favor of something a little cooler...

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Happy New Year!

This week has been a little bit hectic. Ben's been on winter break, and went to winter break camp at the JCC four days this week, and had lunch and saw a movie with his grandfather the other day. Becca started getting sick on Monday night with what we now assume was RSV, and was out of commission Wednesday and Thursday. She's still a little under the weather -- very congested still -- but definitely improving. She went back to preschool yesterday.

Joel and I both had the day off yesterday, and took advantage of a day to ourselves by going out to breakfast, doing some errands, seeing a movie (True Grit), going out to lunch, and having some Pinkberry. It was a good day!!

Then we picked up the kids and headed over to our friend's house for New Years Eve. We adults had a great time hanging out and the kids had fun playing Wii and otherwise occupying themselves pretty well. Rebecca fell asleep on the couch at about 10pm, and we decided we'd better call it a night soon afterwards. We got the kids home and into bed by 10:30 or so, and went to bed ourselves not too long after that.

The weekend is shaping up to be a lazy one so far -- which is fine with me. On Monday Ben goes back to school so it's back to getting up before 7am, having homework to do, etc.

Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy, safe and fun 2011!