January is Over.

Well.  January is over.  I am not sorry to see it go.  January has become one of my least favorite months.  For a lot of reasons, which are all something along the lines of:

                                               Bad Things Happen to the Caugheys in January.  

Without detailing my list of grievances against January, I will admit that some of the Bad Things are, truly, just minor annoyances.  Though others are more than just minor annoyances.  Unfortunately.  This January was more an unending series of minor annoyances.  All.  Month.  Long.  First, we had the hideously cold weather.  This weather caused several problems.  The heating system in our house was never properly installed and is in the process of being completely replaced, ductwork and all.  Which means is that some rooms are sweltering and others feel more like an unheated attic space.  The two rooms that feel like an unheated attic space are the children's bedrooms.  Annoying.  It also meant that school was delayed or cancelled day after day after day after day after day.  And a delay for Naomi is a cancellation, since she is in a 2.5 hour morning program.  I understand that some children are ecstatic when school is cancelled, but Naomi is always devastated.  She LOVES school.  Most days I don't even mention when she doesn't have school  because she cries with disappointment when I do.  So I try not to say anything at all about going to school until I am sure she is going to school.  Then she missed a day for an appointment in Pittsburgh, a day because her wonderful aide Tina needed to be out and a sub could not be found, and two days for being sick.  She attended school well less than half of the days for which it was scheduled in January.  I could have gone with Naomi as her substitute aide, but the last time I did that she was enraged the entire time.  Apparently she does not like having Mommy at school with her.  What kid would, really.  It's embarassing, I suppose.  And, really, she couldn't have been sick on two of the days school was cancelled anyway?  She HAD to get sick for two days school was actually in session?  Annoying. 

 Here are some pictures of Naomi and a few of Lydia too, just because.  

This is a girl who loves school.  

Oh, Naomi also got a hair cut!  She got a short bob.  Shorter than I intended but I accidentally cut one side too short and had to make it all match.  It is hard to cut her hair since she moves unpredictably and I have to keep her pinned in my lap while I do it.  It looks cute and it will grow back.  I have been missing her big, fluffy Dakota Ponies terribly. 

So big!

Lydia with two Dakota Ponies.  

Lydia showing the spray bottle of water I use to attempt to tame her epic frizz. 

Where's Lydia??

Lydia has become somewhat enamoured of Naomi, as well as intensely jealous.  Lydia's jealousy of Naomi is new.  Naomi has been consistently jealous of Lydia since she was born.  I try to spend as much time one on one with the girls as I can, and then I try to have someone here with me at least 3 hours a day when Naomi is not at school so they both get their needs met.  However, due to weather and other issues outside of my control, Naomi's nanny missed a lot of days this month too, especially the days when school was cancelled.  This was bad for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, Naomi loves Jenn (her nanny) and gets very sad when she doesn't see her.  But also, it means long, long, long days of just me and the two girls, with neither of them getting the attention and playtime they need and me feeling pulled apart at the seams.  It is really hard being alone with them for more than about 3 hours.  Naomi needs 100% assistance for every aspect of her life and to do anything (play, etc) so she really needs a one on one aide all the time she is awake.  If there is only one of me, and I have both Naomi and Lydia, well, you can see how it just doesn't work.  They both get bored and lonely and cry a lot.  But like I said, Lydia has a new found fascination with Naomi.  She tries to snuggle with her and play with her.  If Naomi happens to fall asleep on the floor, Lydia will snuggle up with her, or bring toys over and put them on her.  It is very cute.  And just recently she has started to approach Naomi when Naomi is awake, laying her head on her chest, or even  hugging her.  It is so sweet.  Naomi tolerates it.  I praise Naomi lavishly when she tolerates Lydia and tell her how much Lydia loves her and thinks she is pretty.  Naomi LOVES to be loved and she loves to be thought pretty and cute.  And I don't want Lydia to feel rejected.

First Lydia tried laying on Naomi.  

It was less comfortable than she anticipated.

Then she decided to lay next to Naomi.  It was cold in the house due to weather/lack of adequate heating system so I had Naomi's hood up and a wool vest on Lydia, which was even more hilarious in person than it is in these pictures.  Very English schoolboy. 

Then both girls also got sick.  Lydia spiked a fever, which after two days turned in to a nasty cough and cold, which made her needy, whiney, and clingy...during a week I had no help and Naomi attended not one day of school.  Not fun times at all.  A lot of screaming and crying.  Pretty much every day they both screamed non stop from 11am until noon.  Nothing would soothe either of them so I would end up holding both of them at the same time while they wailed and bawled and lamented their bad forture for having a sister.  Surprisingly, Mommy did not cry too.  They really hated being held at the same time, but not as much as they hated it when I would hold one and not the other.  If I tried to hold just Lydia, Naomi would siren scream.  If I tried to hold just Naomi, Lydia would scream and cry and through herself down on the floor with high drama, basically faking an injury so I would put Naomi down and pick her up, and then be highly offended and cry harder when I did not fall for her ruse.  One hour seems to be about the amount of crying it takes to wear them out.  Then we would have lunch and Lydia would have a nap. Ideally Naomi would have napped then too, and I could have had some minutes of respite, but pretty much every day  Naomi decided to fight sleep until Lydia was awake.  Which was good for the two of them since it for sure maximized their one on one time.  Just lousy for an overwhelmed Mommy with no help.

Then, Naomi got pink eye while Lydia was still sick and impossible.  Two days after that Mommy and Naomi both got Lydia's cold.  Then finally it was the weekend, and the month of January ended and we all started getting better.  As long and exhaustive as this post may seem, I only included a sampling of January 2014's treachery.  Sometimes it is better to just let it fade to black.

I have no expectations for February2014.  It's better that way.

A sleeping pink eye infested Naomi.  Note the discoloration on her eyelid. 

Naomi has been loving her jumper again, after many months of a luekwarm reaction to it.  

Maybe January being over put her in a better mood too.  

Naomi all ready for school this morning.  She had a terrible day at school.  It was state inspection day so they were not in the regular classroom, but rather jammed in to a small room.  Naomi hates change, so she was miserable.  It was very frustrating because today was her first day of school after missing 5 days in a row.  And tomorrow it will probably be cancelled again since a new storm with masses of ice and snow is being predicted.  Enough already.  Let me girl go to school and be happy.  On the upside, Jenn was here today and Naomi was very happy to see her best friend.  She played and sweet and cute and then peacefully fell asleep.  She even woke up in a good mood from her nap too.  

Lydia trying to grab the camera. 

Hi Sweetie.  

So, this is our first blog post in a while.  It is hard to find time to write when there is almost no time to think, and as you can read, the writing is not very good under these circumstances either.  Such as it may be, it is the best I can manage at this point.  I feel vaguely compelled to brightly write something along the lines of 'Hopefully February will be better!', but I am not going to.  Like I said, as I learned from my friend Tom, sometimes it is better to have no expectations.