Making Memories

Ahhh, snow days!  Mama stayed home from work, daddy's work got cancelled... it's the perfect day to make some memories with the girls!  Except that they're at daycare.  That's right... before the weather got too bad here this morning I dropped them off at Nancy's house to make memories there.  We tried the "making memories" thing last snow storm... it did not go well!

About two weeks ago, I woke up and the snow was falling outside.  I had cancelled my Sunday School classes and had already decided I wasn't going to venture to church.  The lawn was covered in white, and it was just beautiful outside.  It was getting so close to Christmas, and I gleefully posted on Facebook our intentions for the day:  Homemade pancakes, pajamas all day, snowman building outside.  It had the makings of a beautiful day...

Gracie came upstairs when her clock turned yellow wearing nothing but her underwear.  "Where are my new socks, mommy?"  I explained that all of her new socks were dirty and she could wear her other socks until they were clean.  That was not an acceptable answer.  "I thought today, we'd stay in our pajamas all day, since there's a snow storm outside!  Won't that be fun, Gracie?"  Gracie is almost three.  Which means she's basically a teenager.  Which means that did not sound like fun to her.  "Mommy, I'm getting dressed.  I pick out my own clothes now, and I want to get dressed."  Fine, clothes it was.  (By the way, she means it when she says she picks out her own clothes now.  So if you see us out in public, don't judge me.  Judge her.)   Ella also chose that moment to, shall we say, dirty her pajamas.  Fine.  No pajama day.

With the girls dressed, I started prepping the pancakes.  We were also having bacon, a real treat in our house.  I was very excited.  The girls were too.  They wanted to eat.  Now.  Now.  NOW!!!!!  I tried to explain that I was cooking, and it would only be a few minutes.  Not good enough.  Especially for Ella who, I may have mentioned in the past, is her own special kind of bad.  And when she gets hungry, she's extra bad.  I spent the next 10 minutes chasing Ella out of the cupboards, while she screamed and yelled "Eeeeeeat" and pointed at the food I was denying her.  Finally, I gave her a bowl of cheerios to hold her over until breakfast was ready and sent her to play in the living room with Gracie.  Danny was awake by now and making us hot beverages (coffee for him, tea for me).  The girls were playing nicely in the living room, breakfast was smelling delicious and I thought, for a moment, the day might still turn out beautiful.

Then Ella dropped her bowl of cheerios on the floor while Charlie quickly gobbled them up.  She screamed like Charlie just chewed her arms off, and Gracie tried to scold the dog and calm Ella down.  Nothing helped, not even the offer of more cheerios.  Nothing comes between that girl and her food!  Finally, breakfast was ready, and we all sat down to eat.  Well most of us sat down.  I sat down for a minute, long enough to butter my pancakes, when the usual meal-time requests started:  "Can I have milk?" "I need a napkin." "Mom, I spilled it, can I have some more?" "I want ketchup."  "Yes, ketchup does go on pancakes." "How about mustard then?" "Eeeeeeeat!!!" "More milk please?" "I dropped my fork, can I have a clean one?"

We finished breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, and went downstairs to watch The Santa Clause.  We all snuggled on the couch and things were looking beautiful again.  Of course, that lasted mere minutes because Ella realized it had been 20 minutes since she had eaten and she was hungry again.  With snacks in hand, we sat down again.  Then the girls got up, and down, and up, and down, and in, and out, and up, and down.  We had toys from the bedroom spread all over the living room and the girls played while we watched the movie.  Then they fought, and fought some more.  Ella cried, Gracie whined, and I wished I could have a glass of wine.  

Lunch time came, and then our favourite part of the day... nap time!  I was exhausted, so after the kids were in bed, I laid down on the couch for a little snooze with Danny and finished watching The Santa Clause.  We decided that after nap time, when we were all feeling better and refreshed, we would go outside to play in the snow.  We had never really played with Ella in the snow before, so we were very excited.  This time last year, she was an immobile lump we used to stuff inside a snowsuit and lay on the ground outside while we played.  This year, she was walking, and talking, and it was going to be so much fun.  

Nap time ended an hour earlier than it should have.  That was not good news.  Danny went outside to shovel the pathway to the driveway while I was going to get the girls into their snowsuits.  I'm not sure exactly how it started, but both girls were somehow crying.  Gracie needed to have a pee before I would suit her up, which she was refusing to do.  Ella woke up an hour early, so she was crying when she came out of bed. 

"Go pee please, Gracie."

"No."

"Gracie, you have to go pee before we can go outside."

"I don't WANT to!"

"You have to, and I'm counting to three, and then you'll have to have a time out for not listening."

"NO! Unnngh!"

Gracie got her time out, which made her crankier, and she cried and whined.  Because she was crying, Ella felt the need to outcry her.  I kept trying to coax them into their snowsuits.  Gracie didn't want to put her snowpants on before her coat, and that turned into a big fight. I took deep breaths and calmly tried to explain why things had to be done in a certain order, but little tiny attitudes got bigger and bigger and bigger.  Ella was now lying on the floor bawling her eyes out and Gracie was standing in the living room with her snow pants on, head pointed toward the ceiling sobbing and crying.

"Oh for the love of God!" I yelled, "I'm just trying to make some freaking memories with you girls! Can we not just put on our freaking snowsuits and go outside and have some freaking fun?!?!"  (For the record, I did say freaking.  Good for me.)  They screamed louder.

I stomped down the stairs, opened the front door and yelled "Danny, come and get these kids dressed before I have a mental breakdown!"  He had no idea what was going on, since when he walked out the door the girls were yelling "Yaaaaaaay!" because we had asked them if they wanted to go outside to play.  He came in, and saw the three of us in tears.  He laughed, God love him, and started to calm Gracie down enough to at least get her dressed.  I tackled Ella and stuffed her into her snowsuit, while she yelled and screamed the whole time.  They were ready.  Thank God.  I got dressed, and Gracie had three more meltdowns on the stairs before we could even get her outdoors.  Finally, I told Danny to just throw them outside and hopefully that would help.  It did.  Gracie immediately smiled and started playing.  Ella fell and couldn't get up and started crying.  Then she couldn't walk, and cried some more.  Then she fell again, and cried even louder.  We decided to put them in the sled and give them a quick ride to lighten them up.  They both smiled and yelled "wheee" as Danny started to pull away.  Then he hit a snow bank, then sled flipped over, and Ella landed face down in the snow. It was not a good moment.  I spent the next 30 minutes carrying Ella so she didn't have to touch the snow while Danny shovelled the driveway.  Once there was a relatively smooth place for Ella to walk, she decided she didn't mind the snow so much and walked in circles and smiled.  Danny was able to try the sled again, and the girls loved it.

We went inside, had supper, had bath time, and put the girls to bed.  All without further incident.  But as for making those kinds of memories again?  I don't freaking think so!  Maybe when they're older.  Or when I can drink again.  Or both.  Memories are over rated... they wont remember them in 5 years anyway!