Snow Days

Atlanta got some CRAZY weather this week. We've been snowed/iced in for days! I'm going CRAZY myself. I am maxed out on time with my children.

Michele, our nanny, was sick last week starting Thursday. I had morning meetings Thursday, and Billy had some in the afternoon. Therefore, I went into the office in the morning, and Billy left when I got home. I was with them from Thursday afternoon pretty much 24/7 until today at 10:30 a.m. when Michele was finally able to get through the ice to us. I ran upstairs to hide in my home office the moment she arrived. I have not walked back downstairs. I don't plan to go back down there until tonight. I might lock Michele in our house and tell her there's no escape because I'm deathly afraid that somehow, she won't make it back tomorrow. I love the kids, but being trapped with them is really hard!

My boss asked me the other day if I would ever want to be a stay at home mom. My response was, "Yes, maybe, when the kids go to school, and I can do my own thing during the day." :) I stand by that answer. Right now, trying to stay sane and manage all 3 of them every day and night is too hard for me, and I must say, I really admire stay at home moms and the patience they must have.

Last Friday, we had quite an adventure. I usually don't venture out with them alone, but they've been skipping naps, and I had to find ways to keep us all entertained all day. Our first stop was my office around 11 a.m. I had to pick up some papers, so I dragged in my crew. Everyone was taking a donut break so they loaded the kids up with sugary treats. One co-worker asked the kids if they shook hands. Abby put her hand out, shook the lady's, and said, "Hi. I Abby. This Marie. This Will," and pointed to her sister and brother, respectively. She was our spokesperson. How cute is that? They then wandered into her office and came out with her giant green exercise ball and proceeded to push it up and down the hall while screaming and giggling. We caused quite a disruption.

Next, we went off to Super Target. At first, I had them all in the cart, but then, there was no room for the stuff I needed to buy, so they all had to follow me around. That was not a very successful strategy. It took forever! We also ended up with lots of stuff I wasn't really planning to buy...a big truck, Dora sippy cups, Cars sippy cups, hair bows, etc. Oh well.

We stopped at the Target Pizza Hut for lunch. High rollers, I know. As we sat there, I wondered how the heck I was going to safely maneuver 3 kids and a shopping cart full of random stuff to the car in the crowded parking lot. I ended up putting the 3 kids in an empty cart and pushing that one, while I pulled the one full of our supplies. I must have looked insane. It worked.

Next stop....Liane's house for a playdate. We went to play with Carley and Chlo-Chlo for a while. Cooper was at school. Will kept saying, "Cooper escuela" when we got home. Anyway, that was fun, and we discovered the kids love cutting with toddler scissors. Seriously, this entertains them for at least 3o minutes at a time. Whenever I need a few minutes, I say, "Tijeras?" (Scissors), and they all scream, "YAY, CUT!" Yes, they are cutters. I just give them each a sheet of paper and safety scissors, and they cut and cut. I love it.

So, on to the weekend. We had a playdate with my friend, Jamie's daughter, Marissa. Marissa is more mature...almost 3, and Abby got along well with her because Abby is the more mature one. Billy and I were kidding about this later that evening when Marie and Will put a little baby doll playpen on their heads and started running around. Abby was looking through a book at that point and did not want to be bothered. Classic illustration of the differences.

Sunday night, Mems came by to pick up Will because she had been out of town over the weekend and missed his turn. Then, later that evening, the snow started and it snowed hard! We woke up Monday to several inches. Will was snowed in at Mimi's house!!! We took the girls out for some sledding craziness. They had a great time. Several neighbors had sleds, and those who didn't improvised with cookie sheets, boogie boards, etc.

We didn't have an snow boots for the girls, so we went totally ghetto. They had on tights, and then, saran wrap around their feet, and socks on that. Then, they had on shoes, and we put Target plastic bags over their feet, and secured the bags with rubber bands around their ankles. I'm telling you, it's going to be all the rage next winter. We got lots of compliments on their feet. It was more like little kids asking, "Why does she have bags on her feet?" Pretty funny stuff.

I think Billy had more fun than the girls. He went out and sledded with other kids when the girls went down for naps. Then, when they woke up, we went back out for more. I made them cocoa when we got in, which they called "cafe" because they see mommy and daddy make their coffee every morning, and I tell them I'm making "cafe." They figured since they were drinking them out of mugs like ours, they were the same thing.

By Tuesday, it was pretty icy out there, but some streets were passable. Bill volunteered to go pick Will up from Mems' house. I wanted him back because I was afraid of everything icing up again and not being able to get to him until Friday. I was missing my little man! Will got home safely, and we played outside for a bit in the afternoon, but it was getting way too icy to be out there.
Billy spent the day hatching and executing a plan to clear our street because it was just a downhill sheet of ice. He recruited guys on our street and on the main road, which is not a hill, to go to Home Depot and get some shovels and salt. Well, when they arrived at Home Depot, they discovered something better...a small snow-plow thingy. All the overgrown boys fell in love and had to have this toy...sounds like my experience with the kids at Target Friday. :) Anyway, Billy shows up with this thing, and all the boys, I mean men, on our street take turns shoveling snow. I have to hand it to them, they cleared it! If they hadn't done that, we would have been stuck the rest of the week.

I told Will that only big boys got to ride the tractor because he kept saying, "Will on tractor?" When Billy got inside after this plowing, Will asked him, "You ride tractor, big boy?" Too funny. Yes, indeed, he was a "big boy."

Okay, I'm exhausted after this monster post, and I'm sure you are tired of reading about us. Let's just hope life gets back to "normal" soon for us. I can't take all this much longer.