Snow-rain-pocolypse

Laurel wore her nightgown inside out last night. As she is prone to distraction during all activities involving hygiene and housework, I assumed she just grabbed something out of her drawer and threw it on without looking. But in fact, her teacher had instructed the class to "wear your pjs inside out and flush an ice cube down the toilet." I used to work with a woman who always told the kids things like that, and I suddenly missed her and that job when I thought about the fun we had. I was skeptical of the winter weather warning - the storm looked like it was going north to me- but school was already canceled for the day when we woke up. It's a heavy wet snow, mixed with rain. Heart attack snow, some say, because it's so heavy to shovel.

The people in my neighborhood seem to have given up on clearing their sidewalks. Another degradation of civility? There is a $300 fine for not doing it, but I take it more as a matter of courtesy to those who need to walk by your house. One of the agreed upon social norms of urban living. But now there are great stretches of the neighborhood that seem to go uncleared for as long as the snow lasts. Pedestrians pack the snow down into little icy patches, dogs leave pee trails, litter gets lodged in it. You can tell exactly where the transitional living apartments are, with their institutional grade salt and completely clear sidewalks.

I was pretty bummed about school being canceled, because that meant the boys' preschool was also closed and I have really grown to count on those three mornings a week to stay sane. I just really need to be alone sometimes.

We did make it outside and I was very pleased with the performance of Max's new full-body rain suit. He wouldn't stop eating snow off the driveway though. "This is soooo yummy, Mommy."

I helped the kids work on Valentines for their classmates. I cut out hearts from construction paper and they signed their names and decorated them with stickers. And that's as fancy as we are going to get this year. We had a dance party. Marko finished building one of the LEGO sets from his birthday. Laurel read all the e-books I put on her kindle. Max dumped things out, climbed on furniture, tried to reach the knives, ate playdoh, and then told me he wanted to "sleep in the buggy. With milk." So he's asleep in the stroller now, and I sent the other kids off to watch tv.