What Goes Down...Must Go Up?

Basically, I need a full day off of  parenting to fully catch the blog up on our lives, but right now a rare moment is occurring.  Scarlett goes into her room for 1 hour every afternoon for "quiet time" and I let her bring Alice in with her today.  I'm amazed Alice hasn't cried yet!  Lately she has to have her eyes on my to be OK with her life, but she is laughing at Scarlett as she sings, "Let it Go!"  Its the sweetest.  I've noticed a lot more sweet things lately, since only a week ago I was struggling to find the positives, and struggling to find common ground with my 2 1/2 year old.

In my opinion, February is the absolute worst month of the year.  We're always so tired of Iowa winter by then.  The dark days stuck indoors are long and frustrating.  In last weeks of January and early weeks of Feb, all four members of the family took turns fighting a nasty cold/flu/fever.  Scarlett was ALWAYs begging for television and milk and throwing tantrums when her requests were denied. I was grumpy and mean from exhaustion.  I wished immensely for a day off of mom-hood, so I didn't have to hang around and try my best to lovingly take care of everyone else in the household, especially those who were least grateful for it! Ahem, the toddler.  And I was just dying for still, uninterrupted sleep, as Alice required more feedings during the night when she'd sniffle or cough herself awake.

Not even our weekend was restful. We realized that squirrels were nesting inside the hood of our new car and chewing away at the plastic and hoses. So, Brian biked to the nearest hardware store where we bought a trap and took measures to keep them out of our car and our shed.  Brian wants to kill them all now, I want to watch.  Crazy little critters.

Luckily, for our sanity, Brian took a Tuesday off of work to hang out at home while the car was getting looked at (and getting new airbags because of a Honda recall).  It served as the perfect rejuvenation for the suffering and tension of the last couple weeks.  After that, Scarlett started acting like a patient and polite little girl, and I had more energy to connect with her instead of boss her around all day.  Home life has been wonderful ever since.  I feel like everyone (including me) grew up over night.

 This was the day we had Dad home all day.  He saved our butts! We all had naps, played games, built a fort, and somehow survived without hours of TV. I'm so grateful we got out of that slump.