last day of november

Gloomy and dark, rain turning to snow, slippery roads.

 Their dad dropped them off later than usual this morning, battling icy roads on the way.

Inside the house it was 72 degrees of funny kids and teddy tears, nice cuddly naps, and a couple ice cream pops along the way.

 They didn't really even argue today, scarfed down their lunch, ran back downstairs to where the Legos and Barbies are.

 I told them to smile.  They tried.  I yelled, "Buddy, you're blurry!  Smile again!"

 There you go.

 And why are all those VCR movies taken out of the cabinet?  What is the plan with this?

Tim said it was fine. He was sorting them out.

Glad he was and not me.

 And this bin of doll clothes exploded. The teddy bears all have on outfits now too.

(Notice Julia working her fine baby wrangling skills.  Believe me, this is a life skill it's very, very helpful to have.  Babies appreciate it. Their parents even more: a pair of capable hands to take over so they can do things like earn a living.)

Here we team up on this.  I'm solo until about 11.  Then at lunch time everyone pitches in to get the meal served and cover the afternoon.

The clutter is kind of driving me nuts.  I keep reducing, eliminating, putting away, and it keeps on coming back like that old arcade game where you swat the rodent as the head pops up.

 And then this:

Faucets.  Twice as many as he ordered, so those are going back and better be credited back to us without any restocking fee.

Plus they were supposed to be here in five days and in the end it was over fourteen.

Bah.

 And then I noticed random baby equipment in my stairway.

What is going on?

It's multiplying!

Heidi took it away with her.

 And then end of this dark, rascallly baby day ended with this beautiful evening.  I drove Tim over the slush and ice to his piano lesson.

The sky had that bright pink thing going on that it does when it snows, like a gorgeous pink dome of a sky.

Santa got weighed down a couple times from the snow. The first time I brushed him off with my hands.

Mistake.  The snow went in my face and up my sleeves, down my neck.  Next time I took the broom out.

And that's the end of a very most beautiful November.

love to you all, Val, aka MOM, aka GRANDMA