Still learning...

You think by the time that you have your second kid that you have this parenting thing down pat.  Ha!  Here are a few recent lessons that taught me that I am still learning as a parent.

Snowstorm Nemo, or blizzard or supersnow or whatever hit us on February 8.  We got probably about 16 inches of snow overnight while the rest of NE probably got about 3 feet.  It was lots of fun (especially having to drive in during the heart of the storm to take out a dead nut) because we really haven't had much snow this winter.  Not as much fun as when we had to shovel out our driveway and clean off 3 cars, but still I love snow. 

By 4 pm on Saturday afternoon we were finally ready to go out and do some sledding.  No small feat to get Ellie all dressed up, me dressed up and Zack strapped into the carrier etc.  But fortunately there was a little hill just a couple streets away so it seemed like a good idea.  As Ellie was putting on her hat the thought "when was the last time she went potty" flew through my head, but I ignored such a subliminal warning.  We marched down to the end of the street, took one trip down the hill, and Ellie got a face full of snow.  Tears ensued and so did the...."I'm peeing in my pants".  Well, that was a fun and worthy outing.

When we went out the next day with her friend Serene, both girls peed about a dozen times before we left the house.

Ellie D and Serene Jourdy

We also braved the snow to go to Courtney's game against Yale.  We didn't realize that New Haven hadn't seen a plow since getting dumped with 34 inches of snow.  It was quite an adventure.  And the Princeton tigers hosed Yale.  Ellie kept yelling "go Daniel Tiger!"

Valentines day also quickly approached us.  Ellie's school was being very disorganized about it and I was determined not to have Ellie be the only kid in her class that didn't hand out valentines (ahem, like last year).  I was determined to make the valentines with Ellie.  Well the snowstorm and being on call and having "not" uncle Aaron visit us made the weekend disappear into thin air.  So I figured it would be easier to buy a put it together kit.  And with Paper Source right down the street, it should be a snap.

Wrong.  Dumbest idea ever.  Not only did the store not open at 8 like advertised, I got home late and basically took Ellie at 4:45pm to go pick out the valentines.  And for some reason thought that put it together finger puppets for 28 people was going to be a snap.  Got home at 5:15 and took out the kit.  Um, there were 7 different animals, each of them had at least 5 or 6 different steps and oh, you have to cut out the strips to roll together and glue into the ring and then glue onto the valentine, and each animal has 2 googly eyes?  WHAT WAS I THINKING?  Plus we had to make brownies.  At 7:30 pm.  Ellie happily gave up her book and "doulu" for this.  I was up until after 11 finishing the whole thing, with a little help from Mike (begrudging help from Mike because he clearly acknowledged what a dumb idea this was).

This was actually my first gift from a patient.  It was gigantic.  There had to have been 100 strawberries on it.  I do a mean circ, I must admit.

These were the finger puppets.  Its hard to see cuz the pic is a little blurry.  They aren't very big either.  Next year--Charlie Brown.

But they looked super cute and I'm sure Ellie couldn't have cared less or even had a clue, but she did help make both the brownies and the valentines and put the brownies in their neat little valentines bags (provided by my nurse practioner).  It was good quality time spent.  And some mom in Ellie's class commented on how Ellie's mom must have a lot of free time.  HA!