Single Parenting, Night #3

It was frigid here today. So cold that Molly cried during the entire preschool drop-off event (which went smoothly with the help of the preschool director). Claire said the cookies I slaved over last night went over well at school. I had lunch with the kids, and then the nanny showed up to man the house while I spent two hours at the office for my staff meeting. I returned home, got the twins their snack, and then packed up everyone and went to the clinic (that's three car trips on an atrociously cold day, blah). A lot of hassle and $75 later, I learned that everyone is just fine. I was wrong this time. Everyone is healthy, ears look good, and Claire doesn't have strep (she said she had a sore throat today which generally means she has strep). So I created a little stress for the day with that pre-dinner clinic trip. I had to rush the kids home and get dinner on the table within 5 minutes because Molly was starving and screaming ... not my favorite kind of dinner hour.

On a kid development note, Lily has learned how to walk backwards, and is now walking 80-90% of the time (versus just a week ago, when she still crawled 80% of the time). Molly still isn't walking though I know she's capable - she "walks" upright on her knees but refuses to walk despite her three steps from a while back.

Molly saw the Dora cartoon, looked at me, and said "backpack" out of the blue. Now I don't know whether I should be awed by the connection she made or appalled by how much tv I let my toddler watch, but I am impressed. For those of you not in the know, the Dora cartoon has a song about Dora's magic backpack that generally gets played once during the cartoon - so Molly saw the cartoon and made the connection it was the "backpack" cartoon and decided to let me know with her two-syllable word.

And Claire asked me how babies get in women's tummies. Hmmm. With some high-level concepts and deft distraction about hospitals, I stumbled through an answer and have probably put off that conversation for another six months or year. Whew.

Tomorrow it's frigid again and there's slight snow in the forecast (right at preschool drop-off time). I'm hoping to get my work done early and call it a day by 3pm at the latest. It's a 3-day weekend with the MLK Holiday on Monday!