SNOW DAY...Take 2...

 We’ve had two snow days here. Thursday and Friday. Thursday felt so backwards…there was not a stitch of snow on the ground when we got up…yet school had already been canceled at 8:30pm on Wednesday night. It was so strange for K to not go to school when it appeared that nothing was actually going on out there.  The snow finally started around 11:30 and quickly became thick and heavy enough that it was obvious why the districts had made the decision to cancel. For hours (almost 24 of them, in fact) the snow fell and accumulated and blew all over the place.  By 9:00pm Thursday night, the schools decided that the road conditions and continuing snowfall were going to make getting to school more dangerous than necessary and so they cancelled school for Friday as well.  Friday morning, it was more obvious why we were all still at home…roads were still covered in up to 6 inches of snow (especially in the neighborhoods where the plows hadn’t gotten any clearing done) and flurries were still falling.  As the day went by, the snow stopped and the sun has come out…making it possible for driveways to be cleared and ice to be melted.  And now the sun glints off of pile after pile after pile of snow burning our retinas. LOL.

There have been three major downsides to these two ‘Snow Days’.  First, my hubby and I have both been sick for about the past week and a half. Thankfully, we seem to be alternating days…he’ll feel a bit better on the very day that I feel my worst and I will feel a bit better on the day that he is for sure on his death bed.  But for our children, it has been Hell.  You see, they’ve been perfectly healthy (thank God)…not a sniffle between them. But they are not accustomed to J and I being puny and less than 100% involved parents.  So in the past week, we’ve left the house twice for events not related to K’s school or J’s work. That has left them with a bout of cabin fever that is about to drive me nuts.  Second, K’s school just had a long weekend (5 days, actually) and have another long weekend scheduled over Easter (no ‘Spring Break’ up here…instead of a whole week off of school, they get two extended weekends instead).  Anyway, with so much time off of school K is bored and has really…REALLY…taken to bossing C around. Apparently it annoys me more than C since he just does whatever she says but it is driving me bonkers.  Finally, when the schools start closing, so do businesses, so anything that we might have had the energy to go do is a moot point since the place is probably closed anyway. UGH.

However, by Friday afternoon J and I were at least feeling well enough to fake it.  We bundled everyone up, invited over a friend that was going through the same thing (she’d been sick…kids were fine…hubby on a trip), ordered pizza and had a very casual afternoon of sledding on the hill across the street from our house, eating pizza, watching movies and drinking hot chocolate.  It was so good for the kids…and the adults.  All of us needed some interaction other than our own families and I think everyone really benefited from some activity and company. I love friends like that…where it doesn’t have to be fancy and we can just throw together a simple afternoon/evening and everyone has a great time.

Zoo Day with my Lil' Man...

I spend a lot of time grooming our children into the people that I want them to be as adults. Strong. Independent. Intelligent. Compassionate. Polite. With that comes a lot of teaching, structure, discipline, rules and (most important) consistency.  In doing that, I have been known to forget that every now and then they need to just let loose. And then I feel bad for the same strict structure that I enforce because I know is so good for them.  One-on-one time with my Bugs is oh-so-important and before C was born, it was so easy. I mean, when you only have one kid, one-on-one time is all the time…everything you do…it is built in by design.  But then you have a second child (or any subsequent sibling…parents with more than one child will immediately relate, but the concept is elementary regardless of how many kids you have currently…or if you even have children). And as amazing as that younger child is…and as amazing as the relationship is between those two children (my Bugs don’t just love each other, they LOVE each other…nearly inseparable and they each think the other one is **perfect**)…they each need, crave and DESERVE one-on-one time with Mamma and/or Daddy. 

Then it becomes a matter of scheduling.  Find a sitter for one kid while the parents do something with the other…or split the kids between the parents (Mamma and Daddy each take a child and do something one-on-on)…or once school starts, do something with the younger sibling while the older one is in school (assuming, of course, that your child goes to school outside of the home).  The one-on-one time is no less important with multiple children…it just requires a bit more creativity in scheduling.

K started Kindergarten in August. Yes, I know that was 6 months ago.  C is not old enough for Pre-K, so we get a whole year of school-days together…just us. And so we’ve had a good amount of one-on-one time.  But it occurred to me last week that we haven’t used it to do anything special. No trips to the Zoo, no Children’s Museum…just normal day-to-day stuff like errands, chores and the occasional extra playground trip, bike ride or long walk. WHAT was I waiting for? It won’t be long before school is out and one-on-one time becomes harder to schedule…then it’ll be August again and he’ll start Pre-K (just two days a week, but still making for a slightly less flexible schedule) as K moves on to 1^st grade. OMG…she’ll be moving to first grade…in just 6 short months…woah. That’s another post entirely.  

So last week, we packed a lunch, gathered snuggly jackets and a blanket (it was a bit chillier than I anticipated) and headed to the Zoo.  And we had a blast.  We got there just after they opened and didn’t have to be concerned with time (I’d already decided that C could skip his nap as long as he was having a good time and behaving well).  We visited gorillas, orangutans, antelope, and giraffes. Then we enjoyed lunch outside the aquarium.  When it got too chilly to continue sitting outside to eat, we finished our lunches inside the aquarium as we watched the penguins jump, swim and waddle.  Then we visited the tropical rain forest and the big cats exhibit.  There were very few things that we didn’t see or do, but we kept a leisurely pace and took our time watching the animals play.  We spent a great deal of time looking at the lion cubs. C was so excited over the ‘baby kitty cats’ that he wants to have his own baby lion. LOL.  I suppose every kid feels that way when they see infants of another species…but it is still so stinkin’ cute to hear it from your own child’s mouth. So innocent in their understanding that in just a few short months, that sweet ‘baby’ would be the largest thing in the house and not suitable for life as a domestic pet.

It was a wonderful day full of things that HE loved…no errands, laundry, dishes or other household chores. Just the things that an almost 3 year old boy enjoys…and he has talked about it non-stop since. Yes, I was ‘behind’ on the laundry and chores that I would like to have done before the weekend. No, I wouldn’t trade those few hours for anything.

~Jac