I’ve basically given up on parenting until the weather gets better, so the fact that I took ANY pictures this week that aren’t just of us staring at the television is impressive. We’re supposed to get more snow at the beginning of next week but it might be 50 on Friday, at which point I will start wearing shorts and flip flops.

Sunday:

Private bowling alley is awesome

Why am I always tempted to steal the bowling shoes?

Bowling wears out toddlers

Monday:

Hot dogs for breakfast. Not worth an argument.

Bathtime

Editing photos from the bowling party – turns out my camera does NOT know what to do under a blacklight. It pretty much totally freaked out. Thank goodness I shoot RAW and could fix them!

Tuesday:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS PONY I WILL PROBABLY HIT YOU WITH IT

This is called “Not being a good listener”.

Wednesday:

Gymnastics buddies

Quiet day at the library

I will never, ever cut those curls

 Thursday:

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE going to the gym while the kids are in school? ALONE!!

Hide & seek at the yarn store

A man in uniform giving a baby a bath. SWOON.

Friday:

Looking for more snow (there wasn’t any, thank god)

Do these sound perfect for morning sickness or what? I can think of about a dozen people I should send them to.

Loooong week = crash on the couch

Saturday:

Crafting like a champ

That looks safe.

Super excited by an emergency bathroom/Powerball ticket stop at a gas station

This weekend starts a few really busy weeks in our future. It will be mid-April before any of us get a day to relax again, but it’s all FUN stuff so I’m looking forward to most of it. The highlights are a fancy brunch at a fancy restaurant for Easter, Evan’s birthday party and a fancy dress ball I’m being forced (FORCED I TELL YOU!) to attend with E.  I’m hoping to get back to regular family/life/everyday blogging too, but it’s hard when I’m trying to stay on top of  family life every day. See what I did there?

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I am in a mood, by which I mean I’ve got a serious case of the why-do-I-even-bother’s? Some days nothing feels as pointless as being a stay at home mom, especially when it’s February and we’ve barely left the house in days and neither kid is sleeping through the night and they openly scoffed at the super cute macaroni craft I was counting on to keep us from strangling each other on Monday. Stop rolling your eyes at me and make a damn necklace already. 

The second I pick up a room it gets destroyed. As soon as I make a snack it’s gone and Caroline needs “somethin’ else eat”. I get 90% of the clothes laundry done and realize every sheet and towel in the house is filthy and needs to be washed. 60 seconds after I scrub the bathroom floor Evan has peed on it. Again.

It doesn’t help that I am losing – desperately – the fight against clutter and kids’ toys. For every box I take to Goodwill or basket I drop off at the consignment shop with a note that says “DONATE ANYTHING YOU WON’T TAKE FTLOG GET IT AWAY FROM ME” it seems like 5 more things appear in the house. I am totally out of places to put toys, so piling them up and shoving them into corners is the current strategy and that strategy sucks. Permanent removal is the only feasible plan of attack. I need 3 uninterrupted hours, a dozen trash bags and a memory-wiping device so Evan doesn’t ask “Mommy, what happened to my broken fire truck? I LOVED my broken fire truck!!!”

But that’s not going to happen. Instead, I’m going to put clean clothes on children, wash dirty clothes, feed children, wash dirty dishes, put away clean dishes, clean floor, clean other floor, clean other floor, clean first floor again, wash dirty children, put children to bed, clean the kitchen, wash myself, collapse. Because even though at the end of the day I have practically nothing to show for it, I’m exhausted. And that’s the worst part – nothing to show for it. I don’t have a spotless house or an organized pantry or a freezer full of meals or anything else beyond a headache. How come I can never get ahead?

I realize most of my angst is a result of a long, cold winter and a particular stage of childhood that requires maximum assistance. (Obviously a newborn requires a lot more full-time care but a newborn is incapable of dumping 200 Legos out on the floor. I’m looking at a ratio here.) There’s only so many cleaning-up games they’re willing to play before they realize those aren’t very good games at all. Closeness and familiarity are the enemies this time of year and a change in routine is the only solution. We need to be out of the house, if only so I can end the day with the same mess I woke up to, not one that’s 10 time worse. I’ve pretty much given up on February and I’m hoping too much TV, too many granola bars and too many dust bunnies don’t do the kids any permanent harm for the rest of this week.

C’mon March, I know you can do better.

p.s. We did manage to get Caroline’s room clean today – floor vacuumed and everything! – which is enough of a dent in the disaster that I’m already feeling better. This is how the kids “helped” me clean:

Moping

Hiding

Posing

More posing

Reflecting

Rocking

Resting

Playing

p.p.s. The gingers can even make February bearable. I love them to pieces.

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It looks like we’re getting another winter storm this week which, COME ON MOTHER NATURE. Even if it’s 75% ice (ugh) and sleet (UGH) it’s going to mean another weekend of inside activity with 2 kids desperate for a day at the park. Where’s my early spring, Punxsutawny Phil? Imma about to take off my earrings and make myself a nice groundhog fur hat. I need it for the storm, obviously.

I have fond memories of spending my early-April birthday at the beach in South Carolina back in college. And not “at the beach” in the sense that we were on a beach in winter coats, but at the beach meaning bikinis and trashy magazines and trying to get a nice even tan long before Memorial Day. In New England you’re lucky if you’ve pulled out your capri pants before Memorial Day, never mind a bathing suit. It’s going to be cold here for a while, is what I’m saying.

Luckily I have two hardy Yankee children who are happy to put on 6 layers of clothing and stomp around in the snow and ice for as long as their wimpy mother will let them.

A few weeks ago the kind people from One Step Ahead asked if we’d be interested in some winter gear to help keep Caroline warm for these next few looooong months. They sent us the Cozy Cub Vest and a Stay-Put Reversible Fleece Hat with Earflaps. She loves them both and I know they’re keeping her warm and cozy while she plays – especially since she asks for the hat and keeps it on her head.

I’m a huge fan of One Step Ahead (their catalog might be the only thing I ever read cover-to-cover these days) and the Cozy Cub products are the same great quality you would expect from their baby and kid’s gear (lifetime guarantee ?? I think so!). The vest is great now and is going to be perfect as we (hopefully) transition into spring. She can wear it over a sweater as an extra layer on the playground or under an unlined raincoat on cool, drizzly days. Plus it’s pink, which makes it an automatic favorite in her wardrobe. Pink is her jam. You can check out the whole Cozy Cub collection here!

To help you make it until spring too, One Step Ahead is offering a hat and vest to one of my readers! Leave me a comment on this post telling me what you’re most looking forward about spring. Honestly, I just want to see the grass again – although our first trip down to the beach is going to be a highlight too. I’ll pick a winner on Friday, March 1st using Random.org and notify them via email so be sure to use a valid one when you comment. Good luck!!

Fine print: Giveaway open to residents of the United States ages 18 and over. Winner can chose size and style of in-stock products. I receive a hat and vest to review but no other compensation. Links are not affiliate links. All opinions and photos are my own. 

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We love you, family and friends and internets.

We also love 50 degree weather – for my New England babies, that’s practically summer! Don’t worry, I put coats on them before I let them make snow angels.

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*Giveaway now closed*

I am blond-haired, blue-eyed, very freckled and of Swedish and English decent…but compared to the rest of my family I have a fantastic tan. E isn’t so much “pale” as “transparent” and the kids definitely take after him. With all that paleness comes the usual complaints – dry itchy skin, sensitivity to all sorts of soaps and additives and cleansers, and chapped cheeks from runny noses and cold air. On top of that, my husband has a mildish case of rosacea (I say mildish, since it doesn’t bother him much – “vain” is not a word in his vocabulary – but it is persistent.)

So when Aquaphor emailed me and was like “Hey, can we send you some Aquaphor to try?” I was like “You mean send me MORE Aquaphor? Since I already buy it in the giant tub since we ran out of the giant tub the Navy prescribed to E for his face? Yes, yes you can.”

They sent me the Aquaphor Baby Healing Ointment and the Aquaphor Baby Gentle Wash & Shampoo, both of which are favorites already in our house. The Healing Ointment is great on diaper rash, itchy spots and especially on the chapped skin on Evan’s face:

7:30 pm, right after bath. Poor baby. His nose runs and he wipes it with his right sleeve so the right side of his face is always the worst (We’re working on using tissues, I promise).

I used a teeny tiny bit of the Aquaphor Healing Ointment right before bed and…

8:00 am the next morning. Still a little dry but SO much better. Luckily a tube of Aquaphor lasts a long, long time so I just dabbed some more on throughout the day.

It even worked wonders on my thumb last night, after I burned myself lighting E’s birthday candles at 1 am (free tip: don’t play with fire when you’re really, really tired).

The Baby Gentle Wash & Shampoo is tear-free, fragrance-free and washes out really easily – all very important factors when trying to wash two squirmy kids who FREAK when you get water in their eyes or ears. Now that Caroline has hair long enough that I need to Deal With It regularly I appreciate that the Aquaphor Wash & Shampoo leaves it soft and shiny. It also took the marker right off both kids hands (and arms and knees and faces…) without drying or irritating their skin. We are Aquaphor devotees and I couldn’t imagine going through a whole winter without it.

To help YOU and your family enjoy your winter, Aquaphor wants to send one of my readers this amazing prize pack:

Bundle of Joy Package 

•  $50 Visa Gift Card
•  “Warm Buddy” to cuddle with
•  Ice Age Continental Drift (2012) DVD to watch with your family
•  A Pottery Barn kids picture frame to keep and share your memories!
• Godiva hot cocoa mix, perfect after a cold day
• Aquaphor Baby Healing Ointment  is a dermatologist and pediatrician trusted product that helps protect and relieve dry, cracked skin. It provides effective soothing relief for dry skin and its mild formula is safe for external use on your baby’s delicate, sensitive skin.
•  Aquaphor Baby Gentle Wash & Shampoo is a mild, fragrance free cleanser that gently cleanses both skin and hair. Enriched with soothing chamomile and provitamin B5, the tear-free formula is specially designed and clinically proven to be gentle for baby’s sensitive skin.

To enter, just leave me a comment on this post sharing something you’re excited about this month!  I’ll pick a winner on February 19th and notify them by email, so be sure to enter one when you comment! The giveaway is only open to US Residents who are 18 years of age or older.

p.s. The Warm Buddy in the prize pack is fantastic – it has a bean bag in the middle you can microwave and then tuck inside. Both kids love cuddling it after we’ve been playing outside and I swear it leads to extra couch naps. Exhibit A:

If you find that Aquaphor #WorksWonders, we’d love for you to take and share pictures of how your family is able to enjoy time together with us on Twitter and Facebook!

I was provided with the prize pack listed above as part of my review but no other compensation was received. All opinions are my own. 

And the winner is…Comment #1! (I love when Random.org choose #1)

Congrats to straderspiel for winning the prize pack! Watch for an email!

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