Snow Day

In case anyone hasn't been watching the news this week. Guess what? It's unfathomably cold. It snowed here in Atlanta and also in FL, so I hear. Although I have 25 years experience to say that's impossible.

I saw snow for the first-time in my life (that I can remember) on Thursday. It started to come down mid-day while I was at work. I made my good friend Kaitlin go outside with me as it slowly saturated the ground, my coat, my hair. It was beautiful and magical. Something everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. I didn't even feel the bitter cold for those 30 seconds in the parking lot.

Lucky for me it stopped right before I drove home from work.

The next morning, to my total shock and surprise, we learned through the news that schools were closed, which meant Julianna's daycare was also closed all day. My and Julie's first official snow day!

One of the unfortunate complications of being new to an area without any family is that when things like this happen, I have no choice but to call into work because we don't know anyone else who can watch Julie. Well, except my awesome friend Karen who's offered to help out several times. But she lives about 30 minutes away and with the roads of Atlanta being called a "death trap" on Friday, I decided that would be impossible.

Josh took his chances and made it to work (thankfully) and Julie and I marveled at a day alone to ourselves.

We played all morning. We read books, watched Elmo, played tea party. Then it was nap-time. I tried to clean and do some laundry while she slept, but I too used my day-off for a little shut-eye.

Now is where the fun part begins! After naptime, Julie's mom, moi, thought of a fantastic way to spend the rest of our day. I said to Julie "Let's go to the movies." At 19 months old she had no idea what I was talking about, but the words "bye, bye" intrigued her enough to hustle to get dressed so we wouldn't miss the previews.

I would like to clarify some things. In mid-December, Josh and I were in FL and bought the new Chipmunks Squeakquel cd for Julie for our drive home to Atlanta. Anyone who has ever been in our vehicle knows that the original Chipmunks cd is a must-have for Julie in the car. For this long drive we just couldn't stomach it again for another 7 hours. While on our drive, I updated my FB status to say how awesome the Chippettes version of "Single Ladies" was and how this would probably be Julie's first movie.

When the movie came out a few weeks ago, I said to Josh "let's go now!" and I was shot-down with "I don't think she's old enough to get it."

So for our snow day I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to 1.) create a wonderful mommy/Julie only memory and 2.) prove Josh wrong. I didn't even call him to let him know we were going.

I was able to navigate through the treacherous roads, probably not the safest thing I've ever done, but I figured the cops would be out if the roads weren't that safe.

We bought popcorn, soda, and I packed M&Ms from Julie's stocking and into the movie we went.

Everything was perfect. Julie loved the previews, she sat in my lap so intently, feeding me popcorn, then herself. I even let her have some soda for the first-time ever. When the movie started her eyes lit-up. Then when she heard Alvin's voice she giggled so sweetly. She rocked in awe every time a song came on that she knew. It was great, something I'll never forget.

About 35 minutes in, she started to get a little disinterested. She wanted to sit in her own seat, which would flip up and crush her 24lb body if I didn't lay my leg across it. Then she wanted to stand and play and talk. All which was fine, because still every time a song came on (and there were a lot) she would pause, and look up at the screen in amazement.

After that things got a little shaky. She was now talking full blast and was starting to dart past the tiny yellow lights that she was scared to step over until that point. So at about an hour and 15 minutes after sitting there and mentoring her on how to behave properly in a movie, it was time for the secret trick I had rolled-up my sleeves, a bottle!

Now she never, ever gets a bottle in public anymore. In fact, the only bottle she gets is at night-time during the week and nap-time on the weekends. I am a firm believer, that this is OK, so please don't waste your breath telling me she's too old.

I pulled it out, and all of a sudden, amazement again. She laid back in her seat with that baba and for a brief moment I was able to think...Success!, we'll make it to the end. That was until CLUNK, SPLASH, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll.....WWHHHHAAAAAAA!

It rolled down under a bajillion aisles, never to be found again. At that point I knew we'd never stay to see if the Chipmunks or Chippettes won the singing competition.

She said "baba" with a confused draw all the way out the door and for about two more miles down the road.

Josh you were right...again.