Any one of last week’s events individually would not have been too bad. Combined, however, they created the perfect storm of, what I like to call, “Not a Very Fun Week.”
First, there was Jake working like crazy on his trial and not seeing the girls all week, which made them cranky and sad. Then, there was Samantha’s ear infection at the beginning of last week, which made Samantha even more cranky and sad. Finally, there was a literal storm in which it rained non-stop all week, which made ME cranky and sad. Actually, I enjoyed the departure from our mundane 75 degrees and sunny, and we don’t see it very often here in SoCal, but finding things to do with the twins indoors ALL WEEK was a nightmare.
After breakfast and lunch, Samantha and Amelia would clamber over to the sliding glass door overlooking the patio and pound on the glass, demanding to be let out. Apparently, they didn’t care that it was raining and wanted to play outside. When I didn’t oblige, they crawled over to the door leading out to the garage where the stroller is kept and banged on the door. They even grabbed Bandit’s leash as if to say, “HELLO, MOM. CAN WE MAKE IT ANY MORE OBVIOUS? WE WANT TO GO OUTSIDE!” Occasionally, when it was just a light drizzle, we’d go for a walk and with the canopy on the stroller, the twins didn’t get wet, but the majority of the time it was just too wet to go anywhere.
Obviously, it was no where near as bad of weather as I was used to dealing with growing up in Utah, but when you become accustomed to sunny skies and being able to go outdoors year round, it’s difficult to suddenly feel limited by the weather, even if it was only for a few days.
Another last resort tactic I employed was (gasp!) the TV. I’m not necessarily against TV, it’s just that it’s never really on at our house and Samantha and Amelia have never really watched it, unless they remember episodes of Friends that I used to flip on when I was up feeding them at night in the early months. On one particularly crazy afternoon, I remembered that I hadn’t seen the finale of Downton Abbey, so I turned it on, thinking I would watch part of it while playing with the girls to help retain my sanity. They were enthralled! The girls sat on my lap and were quiet for a whole twenty minutes, before remembering that they were supposed to be bored, at which point they started begging to go play outside in the rain and I flipped it off. Thank you, Downton Abbey! In exchange for those miraculous few minutes of peace, I forgive you of your lackluster season finale.
Our very long week mercifully came to a close when Jake was able to rush home on Friday night just in time to hold the girls before they drifted off to sleep. Their reactions of pure joy at seeing Daddy after a week without him were priceless.
The rain didn’t let up until Sunday and we even experienced a little lightning and thunder (cue eye rolls from everyone else across the country suffering in never-ending winter snow and ice storms), which was exciting for these parts! I’m serious! It was as close to “bad weather” as we get around here.
Saturday night, I was out shopping for some items for the girls’ birthday, when the rain and wind came on so strong that the streets flooded and no one could see a thing. Fortunately, I was at the best possible place to be stuck for an hour– Michael’s! I’m sure they had a record sales night as the rain gave me and the rest of the customers no choice but to peruse aisles upon aisles of crafting heaven until the weather let up.
We’re back to sunny weather today, and with that, hopefully a return to the girls’ normal routine. I honestly don’t know what we’d do if we lived somewhere with snow. Yes, I am a wimp!
Lots of love,
