Rainy days

The rest of our week has been rainy and gloomy, and non-productive. This weather has not been helping me with my plan to be less snippy. In fact, I think the weather is mocking my ambition to be cheerful. So I'm mocking it right back by trying to cozy up the indoors and ignore the fact that my lovely, crisp Fall is turning dreary and cold and the yellow and red leaves that made me feel so very happy just a few weeks ago are now almost all on my lawn, which is not nearly as lovely.
Ace has been to school only 3 days this week, and two of those days he was late. He woke up every day not wanting to go to school and his morning he hid my keys in an attempt to delay us as long as possible. I had already sent Hayley off with our neighbor so I wasn't in a big rush. I did tell him it is not okay to hid the keys and I told him that if it was too late the school may decide to open up a weekend school just for him to make up for the time he missed so he shook a tailfeather and went and got my keys from his pillowcase. Then I fixed him a second bowl of cereal and we sat at the table for a few more minutes. He said that last night he dreamed of flurries and transformers. He learned the word flurries from the news and now thinks that they must be the most exciting weather ever. He may be disappointed when he sees them. I was tempted to keep him home all day and stay at the kitchen table hearing more about his happy dreams. But we were late and Julia was eager to get to school so off we went.
Lucy and I went grocery shopping and then cuddled on the couch to watch Curious George. We picked Julia up from school. Julia wanted to swing and was upset the swings were wet. I told her I understood, this weather was just no fun. About an hour later Julia told me she likes the rain, because when her pants get wet she could go home and put on her ballerina suit.
I should take a tip from Julia and look on the bright side.

What a Week

Halloween and the preceding celebrations were fantastic. The kids wore their costumes pretty much the entire weekend, starting with Friday's school dance. Saturday we spent the day with friends, crossing some of our Halloween-ish activities off of our list (including "scary" movies like Ghostbusters, which meant we ended up with 3 kids in bed with us at midnight because of nightmares).  Sunday we carved our pumpkin, suited up, and Andy took all the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood for Trick or treating. Lucy came home and announced, in the cutest toddler squeak ever: "Guess what een here? Ess Can-day!"
I went to bed thinking what a perfect holiday it had been and just as I closed my eyes, Ace started coughing. An hour later we were bundling him in blankets and Andy was zooming off to the ER. He is FINE, thank God, just a bad case of croup but no one got any sleep that night. Ace got a shot in the batooney and came home talking about his pretty nurse and how cool it was to watch Transformers on Andy's phone. The shot must have done the trick because he didn't cough anymore that night. He was fine Monday but since croup often recurs during the night, I kept him home from school for two days until I was sure he was all better. As boring as it was, he loved being at home. He cuddled with me on the couch and watched cooking shows, we read books, and he announced he was hungry every 5 minutes (I think one of the things he dislikes about kindergarten is the limited access to snacks).
We were so lazy the past few days, it was hard to get back into routine today. I tried hard to shake my crabby attitude from too little sleep and no schedule but I'm still feeling out of sorts. Lucy must be feeling it too because she told me today for no apparent reason that Hayley and Ace are "so mean" and she threw her toothbrush in the toilet on purpose when I tried to help her brush her teeth. The only thing that cheered her up was the candy bucket. She loves to reach in a grab something and then look completely shocked that "Ess can-day!"
Lucy also now climbs in and out of her crib with no problem. We were watching tv one night about 30 minutes after bedtime and she just came strolling out of her room like it was no big whoop. The next night I went to put her in her bed and as I was turning on her noise machine she plopped right into her bed and pulled up her covers. So, time for a big girl bed. That is on the to do list for the weekend.
Also on the to do list, get a good night of sleep and stop being such a snippy mommy. And hope that no one else has to get a shot in the batooney.