Cabin Fever

The Lady stayed home from school almost all this week. We started the week on Monday morning in the pediatricians office with all three kids. The Lady had some sort of cold/cough combo with a fever. The Little Lady had a much lighter version of a cough and cold and as it turns out QT is suffering from an ear infection.

When the doctor told us about QT both my husband and I said "oh, good" not because we want him to suffer but because we just wanted to justify rolling up three kids deep at $25 bucks per kid and not walking out of there with the doctor telling us that everyone just had a cold.

Because the Lady was homebound this week so was everyone else. The Little Lady made it to school two days but for the most part they (and my poor babysitter) were stuck inside all week. Things started unraveling quickly, although not during the day when the sitter was there, but at night as soon as I walked in the door.

QT was clingy, the Little Lady was whiny and the Lady was. . . well let's say bitchy, um. . . grouchy? Yes, let's say grouchy.

The lady wore the same pair of pajamas for three days straight. This morning we tried to get her in the bath.

Why didn't you try to bathe her last night Bean?

What's that you ask? Why didn't we try to get her in the tub last night? Well, I was radioactive and quarantined to my room, which meant that I tried to stay in my room and clean out my top two dresser drawers that had somehow turned into our filing cabinets while QT pushed his way into the room, tried to climb up my leg and then spent 10 minutes emptying my out my purse and slamming the top down on the new filing system I was trying to put into place.

Also, the Lady was so grouchy that it totally wasn't worth it. Well, I thought it wasn't worth it until this morning when my husband had both Ladies in the tub at 8 am after bribing the Lady that he would drive her to school if she took a bath and then proceeded to lose it when the bubbles started flying in his general direction.

That is when I gathered up my bags and crept out of there. I think the sitter thinks we are crazy. I am also pretty sure we are going to have to change up our morning routine. Here's to hoping everyone feels better soon!

We Saw Annie!

When you wake, ring for Drake, Drake will bring your tray

When your through, Mrs. Pugh, comes to take it away. . .

We saw Annie. We saw Annie. Sorry, I am writing this while the songs of the Broadway musical Annie are meshed together with scenes from the movie. I am a little bit on Annie overload.

Who knew that when I bought a copy of the movie Annie at Target for five bucks a few months ago that not only would the Ladies have watched it over 100 times (moderate estimate--it could be 200) but that we would get the opportunity to see the play on Broadway.

I am not sure who was more excited, me or the Ladies. I have vivid memories of listening to the record when I was little at my best friend Mare's house. So clearly, we couldn't have gone with anyone else but her and her daughter. OMG so exciting!!!!!!

It was a 6:30 performance so I was actually quite pleased that the Little Lady passed out in the car on the way to my parents and ended up sleeping for over an hour or so, I didn't want her falling asleep on my lap and missing it. The Lady had woken up that morning worrying that she might fall asleep during the performance, she too passed out in the car on the way into the city, so I was left with two moderately well-rested children who were ready for the bright lights, big city and a musical where they would know 95% of the songs.

I am going to glaze over the part where the Little Lady threw a fit about not going in Minnie-Ru and just say that I am glad she got her temper tantrum out before we hit Manhattan.


The Ladies in Duffy Square before the show

 When we finally got into N.Y.C. (yes, I am singing the song N.Y.C. from the musical under my breath as I type this) the Little Lady couldn't have been more excited. She held my hand and kept saying over and over "we're going to Annie, we're going to Annie." She couldn't understand why we weren't going directly into the theatre, but since we arrived over an hour before the play started we tried to distract them with some of the sites of Times Square.

I never knew how many people were out there trying to make a living wearing knock-off Mickey Mouse and Elmo costumes. We looked, but no photos. I am not paying some random five bucks to take a picture with my kid in some half-assed non-licensed Hello Kitty outfit, so we settled for the next best thing and took them into the Disney Store. This worked out well for about 10 minutes until everyone decided they were hungry/thirsty/in dire need of seeing Annie.

Can I just say that there are some days where I look at my children and think "how can these little creatures possibly be mine?" then we roll up in NYC and the Lady wants nothing but a giant hot pretzel and I think "oh yeah, that kid belongs to me."

We made one last stop for a couple of snacks and headed toward the theatre. We got on line early enough that we were able to wait inside. Once the line started moving we were in pretty quickly. Mare made the very good suggestion that we try to hit the bathroom before we went to our seats.

There is nothing like being in a standard-sized public restroom with your two children. Space is limited, things are touched that shouldn't be, and to top it off, I have a slightly uncomfortable wig on that I could see falling directly into the toilet in my attempt to help the Ladies maneuver their way around the stall.

We left the bathroom, grabbed three red risers from the back and headed towards our seats. Both of my girls wanted to sit next to MM so it was me on the aisle, the Little Lady, MM, The Lady and Mare. The girls immediately wanted to eat their snacks and I shoved multiple wrappers of whatever candy they had chosen along with 10 inserts announcing cast changes from the Playbill into my bag.

The Little Lady wanted to know if Punjab would be in the play. Alas, he was not.

Finally the music started.

Can I just say that this Annie had a very aggressive New York accent? So much so, it was kind of distracting. I am all for a well placed "dawg" and I admire the grit and spunkiness of Annie as a character, but it was almost too much. The worst part was that it didn't leave while she was singing, which I felt removed a bit of tenderness from some of the more poignant moments including Maybe, the Lady's favorite song.

Anyway, I got to almost the end of the first act before the Little Lady started to lose her patience. She kept on asking me questions like "why aren't there more orphans?" "where is the helicopter?" and my personal favorite "why is Annie's face so white?" She also started sliding down her riser, kicking her feet against the chair in front of her, which caused her light-up sparkle shoes to give off a bit of a glow, and announce to me on multiple occasions that she had farted. Mrs. Pugh indeed.

By the end of the first act, she was bent over backwards on my lap with her hands touching the floor of the aisle. I was at that point kind of regretting that she had fallen asleep earlier in the day.

Thank goodness for the intermission.

The older girls had a great time. I was so pleased to see the Lady clapping and laughing and singing along. I was so glad to share something with all of them that had been so important to me.

We ended the evening by buying a CD of the original cast recording of the musical. More Annie! More Annie!

The Little Lady after the show






The Lady after the show



The ride home

All the girls fell asleep on the ride home. Yes, the Lady is sleeping in the photo above, she sleeps with her eyes half open, which is a little scary and can be directly attributed to her father. The Little Lady had just opened her eyes because I was trying to take a photo of their peaceful little faces and the flash momentarily blinded her. Clearly, she wasn't too happy.

The Ladies, of course, woke up once we got back to my parents and moved into Minnie-Ru for the ride back to Connecticut. What did we watch in the van you ask? Why Annie, and they proceeded to spend the next 25 minutes comparing the Broadway version to the movie. QT would have been very disappointed that the play doesn't include the song Sandy. He is a sucker for a dog-dog, or in the case of the very talented, but perhaps overly aggressive-accent of Annie, "dawg-dawg."

I Also Hate the Bus

I think we all know that the Lady doesn't like the bus. I don't really blame her, but the fact remains she has to ride it.

Do I wish we lived closer to her school? Yup. Do I wish I could drop her off and pick her up every day (well, maybe not every day)? Yup. However, that isn't the case and unfortunately we pack her on a bus full of kids who we don't know and who can be saying or doing any number of things out of my control.

So last night when the Lady said she had a secret for me, I wasn't sure what she was going to say. I leaned over and she cupped her hands around my ear and got really, really close and said:

"Guess what (insert some name here that starts with an M and I couldn't understand due to the close proximity of her mouth to my ear) said to a little kid on the bus today? You are going to be so angry mommy (said in a giddy voice)."

"What?"

"He said 'fuck the shuck up'"

FYI. . . in our house "stupid" is a bad word.

Although, I will admit that both me and her father curse like sailors and that I had to stifle a quick laugh after she repeated those words to me because I am pretty sure he said "shut the fuck up," I don't want the Lady to say anything close to that.

I feel like I have thrown my Lady to the wolves and said "Have at her world, have at my sweet Lady, teach her curse words and make her dread the bus. Shove her into an uncomfortable seat with no supervision and make me feel guilty about it because I am supposed to be at work 15 minutes before she gets on."

Ugh. I already promised her that I would drive her one day next week. Hopefully, she won't hear me telling the other drivers to fuck off on the ride there.

Christmas Wrap Up

Was everyone else ready to send their kids back to school yesterday? The Ladies once again doth protested. The Lady thinks school is "boring" she wants to be chauffeured there in the morning and home again in the afternoon and hates the bus again.

Speaking of the bus, you know that one that drops off everyday at 4 p.m. sometimes not until 5 after. Yesterday it showed up at 3:45. Guess who wasn't at the bus stop waiting? Me and our new sitter who needs to know when and where to get the Lady off the bus. Thank you kindly to the very nice mother who walked the Lady home. Can you say total parenting fail on my part?

Below are a few photos from our very busy couple of weeks. The Ladies went to see the Nutcracker ballet the Sunday before Christmas. They thought sunglasses were appropriate attire. They did have a great time and it did allow me some time to wrap some gifts.

We headed up to my in laws on Christmas Eve and headed home with the beginning of all the loot these kids would receive. I will admit that this year I went a little overboard for them. Add that to everything they got Christmas afternoon at my sisters and the Christmas Eve haul and these kids made out. So much so that my husband actually went out and bought a shelving unit with bins to store all the new crap. We probably should have removed a few things from the house before we brought anything else in but I am hoping to sneak around their room one night hoping not to break my neck on any small pieces of plastic that might be strewn about the floor and gather up some old toys to donate.

My hubby had the kids all week and he did get them out of the house for a bit. We celebrated the Wild Man's 5th b-day and hung out with some family. Overall it was busy and full of arts and crafts and cars and trains.

Here are a few pics:

The Ladies on their way to the Nutcracker! Thank you Aunt Stephie and Aunt Courtney!

Christmas morning. Santa brought scooters for the Ladies. The Little Lady was unhappy that she couldn't ride it outside. I explained to her that even though she was wearing the appropriate safety gear she wasn't wearing any clothes.

Poor QT. Soon they will be applying sparkle face cream on you as well. The Lady created her own Salon, complete with an open/closed sign. You should have seen the botched nail job the Little Lady did on me.

The big kids Christmas afternoon.

QT "ice skating" in silly socks he took from his sister's drawers. I have to love not only his commitment to cars, blocks and balls but to pink socks and princess legos.