Monday while the sun was shining, we loaded up the car and headed to the Zoo.  (Remember the days when you could just grab your purse and go?  Yeah, not so much.)  Being a holiday, it looks like all of Atlanta was there too.  I’m not really sure what Courtney liked better, the other kids of the animals.  She did wave hi to the orangutans and seemed intrigued by the giraffes.  But mostly, the other kids, running around, jumping with excitement and squealing at peeing giraffes that really held her interest.

Our house is laid out in a big circle – you can go from the front door, through the playroom, into the kitchen, into the tv room, through the dining room and you’re back at the front door.  I think that if you laid down on the floor, you could see the indentation that Courtney is wearing into the floor as she runs laps around and around the house.  She goes.  And goes and goes and goes.  That Energizer bunny has nothing on this kid.  She will go go go, sit in her chair for 12 seconds and then go go go.  In the meantime, Paul and I are laying on the floor, panting, our old knees and aching backs just crying out for her to STOP MOVING FOR A MINUTE.  You’d think I could quit the exercise altogether and just chase this kid and lose 20 pounds.  I can only imagine what we have in store for us over the next 10 years.

Being lazy isn’t going to work much longer.  My beautiful girl wants to see the world, whether I’m keeping up or not.

I was talking to a neighbor of mine the other day who’s already looking into their 3rd school option for their child.  She’s 19 months.  The mom was all, “My kid can speak 3 languages and the knows the Pythagorean theory.”  OK, not really but I was feeling like it.  Is Courtney going to start preschool at 3 or 4 or whatever and be so far behind that she’ll never get into college?  No, I know she won’t but the pressure!

Unfortunately, she has a late birthday, it’s in November, so whatever we’re looking at for the fall won’t be ideal in terms of what age she is and where a preschool would place her.  She’ll be an old 1 come September, so she’d end up in a class with a bunch of 1 year olds.  Potentially a bunch of older 1 year olds but still 1′s, I’d rather she be with young twos.  Right?  Wouldn’t you want her to have kids to learn from as opposed to kids learning from her?

And really, do I want her in something 2 days a week?  I was kind of thinking a Mom’s Morning Out would be ideal, you know 1 monrning a week.  And whatever we do with her, I’m not going to spend 30 minutes in my car in the morning just to get her there, I don’t care how good the program is.  And really, what is she learning at 21 months anyway?  I guess that’s the problem, I don’t have a clue what she should be learning at 21 months.  But, if Paul can get me knocked up (which hasn’t been going well so far) and we have 2 kids in the fall, would she be better served in a 2-day a week program?  Would I be better off with her in a 2-day a week program?  I. Don’t. Know.

AND THEN, ugh, I’m late with the whole damn thing anyway.  Registration for these places starts right. this. minute!  My friend went to one place for registration on Sunday and there were people who’d been in line since 4:30 in the morning!!  FOR REAL!!!  And let me tell you, I would have to think that based on the weekend temps, they must have frozen their asses off.  I hope they got what they wanted.

Man, all this stresses me out and makes me think that I should be having bloody mary’s for breakfast except that I gave up alcohol for New Years and I’m NOT DRINKING!!  Stupid idea.  Hm, maybe the kid would be better off in a 5 day a week program…

I grew up in CT and went to college in Upstate NY, you know, SYRACUSE.  I know something about cold.  And I know a lot of something about snow.  A LOT.  Snow is the reason I live in the south.  No lie.  There was no job, no friends, no man that sent my lily white ass running for warmer weather and longer days.  It was the SNOW and the COLD.

My senior year, my roommates and I came back to school after Thanksgiving break and it had snowed so much while we were gone, we literally couldn’t climb the 13 steps that led up to our house.  My roomie and I had taken a cab to the house from the airport and we were standing in the middle of the road, looking at the house and wondering how we were going to get up there.  At that moment, that minute, I decided that I was done with the white and the cold and the scarves and the runny nose and the layers and the cold toes and the shovels and the salt and how the snow turns nasty after 2 days.  OVER it.  Done.  No more, thankyouverymuch.

Guess what it’s doing right this minute (well, right this minute being 8:56pm Thursday night while I’m writing this).  Yup, snowing.  And I mean actually snowing.  Stick to the ground snowing.  Park the car at the bottom of the driveway snowing.  School will be closed tomorrow snowing.

Paul warm and cozy inside.

Flakes

Now, for all you Yankees or Midwesterners or people who live somewhere where you know something about snow, you’d laugh at this.  You’d get up in the morning and go to work.  You’d consider it a flurry and somewhat of an inconvenience.  But here in the South, we will be paralyzed for DAYS.  There will be mayhem and accidents galore.  The stores, I’m sure, have no bread, milk and eggs (because people like French toast when it snows?  Me, I want hot chocolate with Bailey’s and some chocolate chip cookies.)) and kids will be out tomorrow scraping every flake off the ground to build a snowman.

*****

When I get up in the morning, I layer up like I’m about to go out into the tundra.  Really, I’m just going downstairs to make breakfast.  I have on my pajama bottoms, I put on some big huge sweatshirt, and my slippers.  I’m bundled up, ready to face the kitchen until I drink some coffee and the heat gets above 70 in our house.  In the meantime, poor Courtney has no slippers or big baggy sweatshirts.  Maybe she needs a snuggie.  So I kind of fixed that.  I guess they aren’t called slippers for nothin’.

A Man and a Girl from Karen Chatters on Vimeo.

Our pool is frozen and Paul felt the need to be all manly this morning.  The ice is actually pretty thick but I wouldn’t go walking on it.

*****

And for those keeping score, I’m still shredding.  That makes a ton of days in a row.  I got on the scale this morning, the number moved, down 4 pounds.  My guess is that if I get on it tomorrow morning, it’ll be back up 4 pounds.