priceless

8 inches of new snow: FREE

New orange sled from the outdoor store: $20

A new pile of snow on top of an old snow bank on top of the already steep slope in the yard: 1 hour worth of work with the snow blower

Sledding down your own backyard: PRICELESS

My Valentines

Valentine's day is somewhat of an anniversary for us. We got engaged shortly after Valentine's day and we moved into our first house on Valentine's day and we made the offer on the house we live in now during Valentine's week. It just seems like this time of year is when we remember some big things that have happened to us.

Well, my true Valentine was out of town for the holiday. Don't worry, we celebrated and exchanged gifts before he left. He even took me to U2-3D on a date. That was really one of the best presents ever! What an amazing experience. You can't beat a movie that wasn't made for kids, a night out with my hubby, and my favorite band to boot!

But, for the actual holiday, I was home alone in Stow with the other loves of my life, Gracie and Hattie. I decided that just because David was out of town didn't mean that we couldn't do something nice, so we had a great evening together (and we're giving the bill to daddy!)

I took the girls out to a nice restaurant in Maynard. I made reservations for three. When we showed up at the hostess desk, they asked me if I was waiting for someone or if my party was already here somewhere? Well, the reservations say three people, and if I can count, Grace and Hattie and Mommy make 3! They looked at me in disbelief that I had brought 2 little kids to eat there by myself. I'm sure they were wondering why we weren't at the McDonald's across the street. Again, we got the same questions from the waiter when we sat down. Are you still waiting for the rest of your party? NOPE. Why do you have to eat at McDonald's just because you're eating with little kids? We want good food too!

Actually, one of the biggest reasons I chose the restaurant I did was that Grace said she wanted to go somewhere where she could get salmon. Usually it is a toss up between salmon and clam chowder for her. So, we didn't even order from the kids menu. I got a salmon entree for the girls to share. I had lobster bisque and a really spicy salad. I regretted the salad later...a little too spicy, but the lobster bisque was to die for.

Anyway, the girls were GOOD AS GOLD at dinner. They are really quite fun to take out. I have been trying to figure this out for the longest time. I do take them out to nice places every so often by myself and they are always very good and very charming to those around us. I brag about this, and then I take them out with David or heaven forbid with other friends and they are MONSTERS at the table. No one believes me that they are so good when we go out.

It finally occurred to me this time why they are good when they go with just me. It's because the nice meal is all about them. I talk to them the whole time and I can really concentrate on asking them to be polite in a nice way rather than just trying to manage the chaos. When we go out others or even just with David, I am trying to have adult conversations and they are just in the background while I'm quickly asking them to be good and trying to manage them on the side rather than focusing a lot of attention on them.

So, we had a great Valentine date, the 3 of us. We had a wonderful dinner and then walked over to the paper store nearby to spend some money that one of their grandma's had sent them in a valentine. Again, they were so good in the store because the shopping trip was all about what they wanted to look at and buy and I wasn't trying to look for other things in the mean-time.

This is seriously and epiphany for me. I just wish I could figure out how to get this behavior out of them when I do want to talk to someone else or when I do have to shop for something that isn't of interest to them...

So what did you do for Valentine's day? I caught up with my Oprah TIVO today and watched her Valentine special. It focused on all the different kinds of Valentines. A Valentine can be your friend, your grandma, or even your dog! I'm glad I spent mine with 2 gorgeous girls.

Sandman 911

Mr. Sandman... bring me a dream. MAKE MY KIDS SLEEP!!!!

10:30pm. Just spent over an hour getting both kids to bed and they're finally asleep. Mom and Dad in bed. Is it too good to be true? Do we actually get to go to bed by ourselves and get some sleep? NO!

First, the thunder starts. IN FEBRUARY? Yep, huge lightning and thunderstorm followed by torrential rain. I thought it was going to snow tonight? Oh, - it did at 4am. Thanks. Well, one of our dogs is scared to death of thunder. If you ever hoped to sleep during a thunder storm with her in the house, you were wrong. She comes right up to the bedside and pants with hot doggie breath right in your face for hours until you think she is going to have a heart-attack or pass out. We have doggie xanex for her, but it doesn't work very well. We use to have prescription tranq's for her, but they're not "safe" to use anymore so the vet won't give them to us.

Cue Hattie. Thunder (weather) and/or Shadow (dog) woke her up at what - 11:30pm? Another hour getting her back to bed. I lost count at 35 times of putting her back in her little toddler bed and walking out of the room. It was textbook sleep strategy -exactly what they do on tv, only it's pretty painful to do. FINALLY, she stayed in bed and went back to sleep.

Cue Grace 1:30am. Shadow still breathing hot doggie breath and freaking out. Grace sits straight up in bed and screams "Mommy" until you get out of bed, walk to her door and either put her back to sleep or tell her she can come in your room. It's a toss up which is more painful. I chose #2 last night and she came to our bed to David's dismay.

Finally David locks Shadow in the downstairs bathroom so that she feels safe in a "cave" and we close our eyes for a couple of hours.

Cue Hattie - 4:30am? She's up. She wants milk. Mom is seriously too tired to try the 35 times back to bed routine. I wish she would sleep with us, really, but whenever she gets in bed with us she does everything BUT sleep.
Mom takes Hattie to her room and sits in the rocking chair with her for an hour. Finally decides to go back to bed and take Hattie with her at 5:30 for dare we ask 15 minutes of sleep?

Hattie rolls and kicks and pulls Grace's hair. Shadow starts barking from the downstairs bathroom. David gets up for work. Hattie won't stay upstairs if Daddy is downstairs. Mommy and Hattie head downstairs for early breakfast and TV.

8:38am Grace is still ASLEEP in Mommy and Daddy's BED!!!! Lucky!!!

ps - this has been going on pretty much non-stop since the week of Christmas. Before that, both kids slept soundly in their own beds without a peep and didn't take much to go to bed. WHY? I know that sleeping in the same room for a week for our vacation didn't help, but it was going on long before that... I guess I did too much bragging about what great sleepers they were and now karma has me.