Regularly-scheduled program.

We are back in the saddle and OH HEY ALSO THERE WAS AN EXPO ON TODAY. Joel was working and it was across town and I was like HNNNNGGHGGHGHG do I really want to drag my kids out and around a huge convention center by myself?

WORTH IT.

Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty were there, too, but they were painting nails.

Eleanor was, as usual, completely speechless in the face of the princesses until they warmed her up a bit (there's a reason they pay these girls some dollars, and it's not just because they can fit into a dress, but they can carry on a conversation with a totally starstruck four-year-old for much longer than you would think possible) but Geneva has zero reservations and is just like, 'NOWE WHITE! DRESS! 'NEEVA DRESS.

But to back up a bit. First we went and got our faces painted, and everyone was so impressed by how still Geneva sat but it's because she's been watching Eleanor so closely.

Look at her, she's a professional sitter.

We also met a dog dressed like Snow White?

And the scrapyard, which I was literally just at, had set up their crazy scrap metal robots.

And then like bouncy castles and things.

GENEVA STOP PRETENDING TO SLEEP IN THE BOUNCY CASTLE YOU ARE GOING TO GET BOUNCED ON.

Is this a hat? This is not a hat. 

Both my kids are still some colors. That face paint is built to last.

And then in the evening, we brought noodle bowls to Joel at the hospital

and stayed to eat them with him, and to play at the hospital play place.

And today involved so many things that I hate. Driving to Prairieland Park, which involves going down that one like four-block stretch of Idylwyld that I have a weird hang-up about! Driving during rush hour! Making several stops with both my kids in tow! Parking at the hospital and then finding my car later! But I was really bummed these last few weeks by my inability to Mom Up, and I know that MOMS HAVE BAD DAYS AND SOMETIMES WEEKS and that we all just suck at our jobs for periods of time and it's fine, and you have to cut yourself slack. But all day today I was like, Yesssssss I am doing this, I am being a grown-up adult person who does things. And it was all just completely great.

Body, you are LETTING ME DOWN.

So, I'm still dying over here. But dying less? Dying to a lesser degree? And for the last five days, I've been dying quietly in my bed, with a book, while my children run amok in the living room with my mother and all I can hear are cheerful little voices saying, Let's go to the dark cave! Don't forget all your gear!

So my mom came to look after us and to pick up the spoons that Geneva keeps dropping and to put Eleanor to bed and to tidy my kitchen. Looking after children is SO MUCH BODYWORK and you don't realize it until your body is a hopeless pile of aches and night sweats.

I thought for sure we'd be better by the time she got here, but then we WEREN'T and when we picked her up from the airport, I cried because I was so relieved and so tired. I have been yelling at my kids. I yelled at Eleanor one night because she was having a coughing fit at like 2am and I had the chills and just wanted to creep back into my bed but she WOULDN'T TAKE A SIP OF WATER and I could hear Geneva waking up in the next room and I was so mad. So that was pretty fun, I guess, to see how lousy my parenting could get.

And then we dropped my mom off at the airport today, and we weren't ready but she had to leave sometime and really, are we ever ready. The weather is amazing, it's been in the double digits and we've been MISSING IT and it's supposed to snow tonight and then continue snowing forever, world without end.

But we planted a thing in some marbles in a jar, and it's sprouting, so that's something.

No, just joking.

I am probably gonna die. How am I WORSE today that yesterday? I do not understand how illness works. 

Things are looking up!

We might not die after all.

Eleanor is still really sick, and I have to keep reminding myself that she's not being sick AT me. She just feels horrible, and it makes her really grumpy, and Geneva is now sick and SHE is really grumpy and I AM SO GRUMPY and anyway there's a lot of exasperation happening up in here. 

Also a lot of Cinderella and some more Pingu and then this evening I bullied Eleanor into going to dance class because I HAD TO LEAVE THE HOUSE. She is frankly terrible about getting out the door on a good day, even though she's always delighted to be at school or gymnastics or whatever. It's the tearing herself away from her projects, putting on her coat, she hates the whole rigamarole. 

So I hauled them both to dance and IT WAS VISITOR'S DAY which is the day we get to come watch the class and also TRYING ON COSTUMES DAY and basically I died. 

We drove there but she wanted to WALK home because she was all jacked up and I was like Hello that is not how cars work. Then she demanded FOOD ENERGY by which she meant supper, and even though she only ate like half of it, it wasn't cashews and oranges, which is all she's been eating till now. 

And tea. Duh. Now we just have to get through tomorrow and Thursday early morning because did I mention MY MOM IS COMING. My mom is coming to save us from ourselves, and all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well. 

Sick day: an itemized list

Things Eleanor refused to eat yesterday: breakfast, her pizza bun, the rest of her 'fancy cheese,' the rest of her tea, more than one cottage cheese pancake. 

Things we watched yesterday: Cinderella,The Jungle Book, almost Cinderella again but then just like three episodes of Pingu instead. 

Places we went yesterday: the store for sick-people food, the walk-in clinic just to make SURE she doesn't have influenza (we got our flu shots but also I am terrified of having to take my kids to the ER at like 3am when Joel's not here because then I have to bring them BOTH).

Times Eleanor woke up last night, coughing and wildly feverish: 2, unless you count the 8:30pm wake-up, which I do, because I was already in bed.

Time we were all up this morning: 5:45am. 

People who are sick in this house: allllll of us. 

Josie brought me some of her mom's chicken broth so I could make soup, and I drank some straight, from a mug, like a Victorian invalid. It was most restorative. Eleanor is missing a field trip today, she missed gymnastics last night. We are all missing Joel. 

We just have to get through all of today, and then all of three more days. 

Both my kids in bed before it's dark out.

Ughhhhhh yesterday was so great. Joel was sick so I took the girls to story time at the library, which Eleanor LOVES but which we never make it to now because the other story time days are preschool days and then Joel usually takes the girls out Saturday mornings and anyway, Eleanor was DELIGHTED.

I give them five minutes to fool around on the library computers and Geneva's always like, Hello yes, is this how I mouse?

And the afternoon was so warm, and everything was melting and there were rivers through the ice

and we spent like an hour sending sticks and twigs down the gutters

and then we had a snack outside in the playhouse, and then spent another half hour just, like, dumping snow into this puddle to see what would happen.

I am getting a ton of mileage out of these tiny snow shovels, I tell you what.

And this morning started off SO WELL (except for Eleanor's fever and cough, when she hadn't even gotten over the last cough yet. When will I feel better, she asked. I dunno, Eleanor. Maybe I'll feel better when I'm dead. Maybe you will.). LOOK AT DAT SUNSHINE.

We walked down to the farmer's market and got a brownie, and for some reason, every time she forked it, Geneva would scowl and say, scowlily, BROWNDIEEEEEE.

And then we went to the park and then got some samosas and walked home and everyone went to bed. Eleanor went STRAIGHT TO SLEEP because she is so sick, but Geneva just hung out in there, talking to herself and then telling me she had a poop and then CACKLING when I came in to change her and there was no poop YOUR PRANKS ARE NOT FUNNY GENEVA and then like two hours later I gave in and let her out.

HA HA LOOK AT ME I DON'T NAP. And then Eleanor woke up, and did I mention that I am also sick. And that Joel is gone for the week now. Anyway, Eleanor woke up sick and sad, and I cannot, so we had a Bonus Movie Day with tea.

Geneva is, like, incredibly serious about her tea consumption. Eleanor sits and sips it like a grown-up lady but Geneva doesn't even come up for air until her tea is gone, and then she refuses to relinquish her mug until you forcefully take it, and then she keeps glancing over at Eleanor's, saying Nohr! Tea! Drinkit! And I'm like, No you cannot drink Eleanor's tea. Anyway. That scene in Cinderella when Lucifer the cat is sneaking up on Gus Gus.

SO INTENSE, look at their leetle faces.

Geneva lost her mind at around 5 so I fed us all toast for dinner, which Eleanor did not eat, and then put the bird and her lost mind to bed. I talked Eleanor into eating like four saltines and having a bath, and then at 6:30 she was asking if she could go to bed, too. Now I'm waiting for her to fall asleep so I can go have my own bath, and go to bed, too.

THE WEATHERRRR

I feel like I'm not usually having this conversation until April, or at LEAST March, and I guess it's March now but IT HAS BEEN SO WARM.

I mean. Yesterday was like -30 and this morning was hella cold, but this afternoon! So warm! We walked home from Eleanor's dance class and our shadows were like HELLO IT IS SO SUNNY LOOK HOW LONG WE ARE.

We went to the park like every evening last week.

Joel was gone and we were feeling antsy and shiftless and mourning Cuba a little bit.

I feel like previous hot holidays have tided (tode?) me over, given me a little shot of warm to get me through whatever's left of winter. But I dunno. I just want to start putting my kids in short pants and flat shoes. I HATE MY BOOTS SO MUCH I COULD DIE.

Being in Cuba, having my kids running around with their little knees hanging out, their soft shoulders. There's something so intensely satisfying about your child's body, the shape of it and the way it moves and the way it holds still, and that's something I miss in the winter when everyone is clothed to the eyeballs. This grumpiness feels ungrateful in the face of the weather we've been having, and we are so grateful.

It's rainsuit season like half the time!

Stomp them puddles!

You do you, Geneva.

Gotta shovel dat sidewalk.

We walked to the farmer's market last Sunday! You can only do that if you're sure you're not gonna die, because it's like an hour walk.

The walk home is always dangerous because Geneva gets dozy, so I bought the girls a couple of flautas to keep them awake because I am a wizard of foresight. 

It is supposed to be positive degrees this weekend. Everything is gonna melt, there're gonna be so many puddles, I'm so delighted.