Baby it's cold outside

There was no blog post yesterday because I think I saw my children awake for about two hours total. I had to work in the morning and then came home for about half an hour, fed the baby and left for the show's first dance rehearsal which was three straight hours of dancing. I thought I was in pretty good shape from the Couch to 5k training (which is almost done!) but that would be a great big negative. My legs hate me today. Actually, they hate my choreographer, as I'm not the one who decided to tell them to do those dance steps.

It's just as well I have a new physical activity to do as winter has officially arrived and it is freezing. It's a balmy 24 degrees right now and I'm actually considering going out to run now because this is the warmest it's going to get and it's not snowing or raining. The other challenge is keeping my kids from going stir crazy in this weather. It's one thing if there's snow on the ground to play with, but my kids are like me and no way are they going to stand around in weather cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey without some kind of incentive.

Fortunately, my kids are kind of like puppies. I can bring home the most ridiculously simple stuff and they act like it's Christmas, the Sequel. Today's big hit is a Mylar balloon yesterday's birthday kid left behind. Of course, there's only one, so they'll be entertained but they may also fight to the death over it. I'll be taking bets after nap time. They're also suckers for craft projects, especially since I put a general embargo on crayons after they once again released their inner muralists when I was putting the baby down for a nap, and they like to help me bake, though that happens less often than they'd like. The day I built them a kitchen chair and sheet fort, their reaction was like I had parted the Red Sea. I have to take advantage of this now: There's only so long before they stop thinking I'm Wonder Woman and realize I'm just crazy.

After naps today there's about a four hour stretch before I have to leave for work and I'm clueless. It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day so going anywhere is absolutely out of the question. I love my kids, I'd jump in front of a train for them, but my love does not extend to Monkey Joe's or Chuck E. Cheese or any other Migraine Factory when the general population is out of school. Heck, it doesn't even extend to the Children's Museum. Patience, I have it not.

But first they have to nap. Mary is fighting it and managed to roll herself out of bed. Anna is talking to her toys. Mommy is morphing from Good Mommy to Bad Mommy and my threats about what will happen if they wake the baby are getting more and more creative. Ship you to the North Pole to work in indentured servitude with Santa Claus? I think maybe so.

So maybe we'll bust out the Play Doh for awhile. Maybe it will be Movie Day. I see Gnomeo and Juliet is on Netflix streaming. Maybe I'll hand one of them a bowl of pudding, the other the balloon and put them in a small room and see who comes out the victor.

What?