Skipping Town

Today, after Quiet Time, Lucia said she didn't want to use the iPad: she wanted to make peg dolls instead. "Can we make peg dolls, Mama?" she asked, excitedly clutching a new shipment of wooden pegs that had arrived in the mail. Yes, little one. Yes, yes, we can. Greta woke up from her nap just before we began, so make no mistake: this was not an hour of quiet mother-and-daughter crafting at the kitchen table. It was more a scenario of the girls spreading all of my felt across the kitchen floor to make an "island" and me madly glue-gunning as they attempted again and again to unwind all my yarn, like pesky kittens. Still: any request for crafting, especially when it's chosen over something like the iPad, is, I will say, a satisfying moment for this mama.

After another snowy week last week, I was counting the seconds until we could go to Connellsville and have a few days of R n' R, where it wouldn't matter if we were snowed in because Lucia and Greta wouldn't even know we were there, so focused they would be on Gra and Pop-Pop. Alas, we got another snowstorm on Thursday, so we couldn't leave that afternoon as we'd planned. I wanted to just get in the car and go; Andrew pointed out we couldn't even leave our driveway. Friday, we gave the girls their Valentine's Day gifts in the morning. I'll digress here to say that after years of assuming everyone gave Valentine's Day gifts to their kiddos, I see now I was wrong. It doesn't matter. I like planning their little Valentine's Day surprises, and this year I (fine, WE) gave them each a mermaid Hello Kitty, some colored pens, a few tiny notebooks, a unicorn necklace, a book, a coloring book, and a tiny teaset featuring the very kawaii Rikkukuma bea...

Another Tuesday. Tuesdays can go so many ways. They're always long, with no preschool or babysitter, and in such snowy, cold weather we're always completely cooped up. Running an errand is usually a good thing to do, except when trying to get Greta ready for an outing is more stressful than just staying home. So today we stayed home. I thought I'd try to remember and record all the many things we did and played with today, just for fun: Reading books (including a new book Andrew brought home from work--"Tea Time with Sophia Grace and Rosie") Having a snack (granola bars) Setting up a large expanse of pillows, doll crib, and doll bed and putting a variety of stuffed animals down for a nap Coloring. Lots of coloring. Sit N' Spin / rocking horse trade-offs Fort-building in the basement, with the red storage bins I still haven't used for organizing my life Dancing (Greta) Shopping-cart pushing (Greta) Clothespin fairies--they're lost in t...

Lucia at dinnertime:  "Eating dinner is not fun. I like playing and drawing." Lucia, looking at the refrigerator: "Mama, when are we getting a new refrigerator?" "When we get a new kitchen." [Panic-stricken face:] "But...but...When we get a new kitchen we have to TAKE ALL THE FOOD OUT OF THIS REFRIGERATOR FIRST!" We let the girls watch some Olympic figure skating this afternoon, which they loved. But Lucia seemed troubled that each skater was on the ice by herself. "Where are her friends?" she kept asking. She seemed relieved when the skaters returned to their coaches and teammates. Lucia and Andrew played outside in the ice-snow for a long time today. Andrew pulled Lucia on the sled; Lucia sucked on icicles; and they played an elaborate game of princess/giant/witch/etc. Greta, for her part, refused to go outside or even put on any socks. For one second, she agreed to go outside; I got as far as her snowpants before she mutinied. ...

This has been the longest week of my entire life. I feel like the past six days have pummeled me. I last posted on Tuesday, and the rest of the week proved to still be long and ridiculous. Wednesday morning we woke to yet another wintry wonderland, everything snow-covered, all the tree branches coated in ice. School and sitter: cancelled. Andrew worked from home, but the day was just long, long, long. I have no memory of how we spent it. I'm sure it involved coloring and dancing and the Sit N Spin, maybe the Squinkie fairies, perhaps the "slide" I make for them out of an old Ikea shelf. Yes: we did the slide. I remember now. There was a lot of jostling and arguing and pushing and it all ended very unhappily for all. That afternoon, pushed to the limit of feasible activities, I dumped the food-coloring-tinted ice cubes into a Pyrex baking dish, announced "Rainbow ice!", and left them to it. They squealed with excitement and managed to find ways to play with the...

Monday: snow day. Just a ton of snow. Snow and snow and snow. Snow covering our car and coating all the tree branches. Preschool was cancelled; I had to cancel the sitter since it was too dangerous to drive. At least Andrew worked from home so at least I didn't go totally insane. Still, our across-the-street neighbor does occasionally wonder if we're all dead inside, since on days like this our car just sits there in the driveway, snow-covered, and not a soul is seen outside our house. Our entire life on these winter days takes place within these walls. And then today--Tuesday is always my long day, and today was doubly long since it followed an identical yesterday. At least the roads were clear today, so I took the girls to Target, where the "fun carts" were not only buried in snow but also encrusted in ice. With my boot, I kicked and cleared one well enough to push inside; and then a very nice employee helped me clear and dry off the rest. So at least we had some ...