Nice Busy Day

Today was an interesting day in contrasts. Milo has been very crabby with a cold, and he's not been sleeping that well which I'm sure doesn't help. So he woke up all cranky and fussy and out of sorts. But we decided to go sledding this morning to take advantage of the new snow and the sunny day, and to heck with whining kids. (Milo doesn't have a fever, just congestion, so he seemed okay to go sledding). And he did enjoy it. Nora took two runs and then declared herself done; she didn't want to do any more sledding. But I take that as progress seeing as how last year she wouldn't even sit on the sled or walk in the snow voluntarily. Today while Milo and Jake went sledding over and over again Nora was mostly content to tromp around in the snow and make snow angels.

But my the time we were ready to head back home, man. The whining. The bickering. The yelling. The complaining. It was endless. Jake said, "Have I died and gone to hell?" Because that's what it felt like. The kids were such irritating crabs all day long. They fought, they wouldn't share, they screamed, they were just a giant pain in the ass.

Moreover, their naps weren't so great which didn't have me happy because we had a party to go to after dinner. It was a department party at a senior professor's house, and let's just say, I didn't consider it optional. And our babysitter got strep throat and had to cancel, so our plan was to bring the kids for a couple of hours and hope for the best. (The invite did say "children warmly welcomed", or else I wouldn't have brought them, so I was just worried because they had been crabby and I knew they'd be up past their bedtime).

Well, I shouldn't have worried. All that crabby miserableness was suddenly turned into delightful charm once the kids had an audience. They were cute, energetic, funny, they jumped around and danced, everybody laughed and said they were adorable. Also, Nora decided to wear underwear today ("dark pink is my favorite color Mommy"), and she actually peed in the potty at the party! No accidents! One of my colleagues said "Hi, Milo, how are you?" and Milo responded, "I'm getting bigger!" Total charmer. The kids were just great and I was glad that I had the chance to show them to people.

When we got home Nora mentioned before bed, "Actually, my favorite color is dark grey!" These kids' favorite colors change on a daily or hourly basis.