Snow Day!

The school districts around here were closed yesterday, which turned out to be completely unwarranted. Although it was snowing all day yesterday, the roads were completely clear the whole day as the snow kept melting when it hit the driveway or roads. There is some snow on our road today, and evidently in areas not that far from us they have a lot more snow today. My university was open yesterday, but they closed today, and they very rarely close so there must have been a lot more snow out there. I was glad the university closed since my in-laws wouldn't have been able to come up here in light of the snow. The meetings I was to attend this afternoon are going to be rescheduled.

It was such a delight to wake up without a headache yesterday. I honestly can't remember the last morning I didn't have a splitting headache from lack of sleep. Unfortunately the headache returned this morning. Last night wasn't an awful night (like Monday night was), but it wasn't as wonderful as Wednesday night. The good news was that he slept 3 times in the Nap Nanny last night which was a first. Previously he has only slept one or two stretches in it. The bad news is that the segments were much shorter than the previous night. He also only slept about 45 minutes in there for his morning nap (compared to at least 2 hours the last two days). In contrast, Nadia had a GREAT night. We backed her bedtime up to 7pm the last few days, and that has proven to be the right move. She hasn't been getting up as early. In fact this morning it was after 6:30. WOOHOO! She woke up in a happy mood for the first time in a long time which again proves she wasn't getting enough sleep before. The other reason I had decided to move her bedtime earlier was to prepare for the one hour shift we'll all be going through in the near future (at least those of us who follow DST).

In general I am far more optimistic than Paul is. You might guess it would be the other way around since Paul laughs a lot more than I do. Sometimes my optimism does lead to disappointment. After one good night of sleep, I find myself hoping (almost assuming) that the next night will follow suit. Paul doesn't expect that to happen. He keeps telling me these things "aren't linear." Can you tell he's a math guy? I would never say it like that. In general I think we balance each other out. I think it would be great to go to Hawaii, and he reminds me that it wouldn't be pleasant to be on an airplane that long with children this young. Last week I was ready to take the kids back to Sears to try to get one good picture of the two of them together, and he reminded me that Nadia had been fussing all morning and probably wouldn't do any better at Sears than she had the last time we went. Of course sometimes my optimistic view is what actually transpires. Ian has had 2 or more good nights in a row before. Even though it wasn't the case last night, I will go to bed tonight hoping for (aka expecting) a repeat of Wednesday night. I don't think Paul's pessimism (or realism?) has had too much of an effect on my thinking (yet anyhow). :-)

I've had fun shopping for Nadia's 2 year birthday party. I've decided it will have a VeggieTale theme. Last year we just invited family. I still plan on inviting family again this year, but I'm also planning to invite Sarah (her babysitter), Abby (Sarah's 3 year old daughter), and Beth and her 2 daughters (our neighbors who babysit Nadia and Ian). Last night I ordered some a glow in the dark Bob t-shirt (size 3T), 16 VeggieTale birthday napkins, 20 Bob & Larry balloons, a 4 ft inflatable Larry, a VeggieTale matching game, 3 DVD's, and 2 CD's all for $57 from Big Idea (the company that produces VeggieTales). The VeggieTale CD that Al & Millie gave her for Christmas is her favorite CD, and I'm rather tired of it which is why I got her two more VeggieTale cd's. Her second favorite CD is the Silly Song one which goes with the Take-Along Songs book. She asks for that one by saying "Silly Songs" whereas she asks for the VeggieTales one by pointing to the CD player and saying "Bob." Today on eBay I purchased a set of 3 VeggieTale stuffed animals - Larry, Laura, and Junior for less than $11 total (including s/h). Now we shall see if I actually wait until June to give these to her or not. I will definitely set aside the napkins, balloons, and t-shirt, but who knows about the other items. I have a feeling I'll want to give them to her as soon as they arrive in the mail. :-)