{poor.choices}

So, with it feeling like a negative six degree temperature outside, I, being the ever so creative mom (and especially desperate), tried to come up with some super fun ways to spend time together with my little girls while learning a thing or two. In theory, it sounds great. In real life, I wanted to staple my head to the floor . . . at least twice. Maybe three times.

First, I had the brilliant idea of having my oldest little girl (age 4 . . . almost 5) fill out her own Valentine's this year as a means of practicing her writing. I diligently filled out a list of her classmates and gave her a sample, assured that this would be more than sufficient. It wasn't. Delaney wanted me to assist her on each Valentine (we had 14 to fill out), and this process took OVER AN HOUR AND A HALF. Now, I know, I know. So what, right? It was quality time that we got to spend together. Um, not really. Delaney spent much of her time under her desk, singing or staring off into an unknown space. Have I mentioned before that Delaney is rarely in a hurry? AT ALL. So while she's off in Delaney world, Addy is next door throwing a fabulous temper tantrum because she does not get to participate in the oh-so-fun activity of filling out Valentines. So, being the ever so patient mom that I am (you do taste the sarcasm, right?), I grab a few of the extra Valentines, some heart stickers, and toss them in Addy's room. As in true Addy fashion, this is not good enough, as I failed to include an Ariel Valentine. (Side note: Ariel is the star of Little Mermaid, which Addy is currently obsessed with, along with her pink tutu and monkey PJs, which she can be seen in EVERY DAY. Is this normal?) Another tantrum follows that I choose to ignore, believing that someday Addy will realize she is NOT the center of the universe. Addy strips down to her panties and flails on the floor, sure to make me give in. I do not. She remains in her panties, on the floor for quite some time. In all honesty, I do not care.

Now, we FINALLY (and I do mean FINALLY) wrap up the whole Valentine's-card-filling-out disaster and, for whatever reason, I think it's the perfect time to put icing on the heart cookies for the school party tomorrow. Now, really, does that make sense? Do you think it will go well? Of course not. Addy eats at least one pound of icing, claiming that she has to lick it off of her fingers or she'll be sticky, while Delaney painfully ices one of twenty cookies. I'm just bustin' a move, trying to get this done as quickly as possible. So much for quality time, right? Addy continues to eat the icing, despite my requests not to, and Delaney is STILL icing the SAME COOKIE.

So, we move on to sprinkles, as Addy will surely throw up if she eats any more icing. POOR CHOICES. The poorest choice I made today. So I got those round multi colored sprinkles (see picture above) that bounce when they hit the floor and the vacuum doesn't suck them up. Addy decided to sprinkle the floor rather than the cookies and that's when it all came to a halt. As tiny little sprinkles bounced all over the kitchen floor and rolled into the living room, etc., it became clear that this also would not be the bonding activity I thought it might be. I did try and let the girls finish sprinkling the cookies, as I didn't think it could get much worse. But it did. And so the activity was terminated, and the only bonding that occured was between me and my kitchen floor.

Poor choices. Very poor.

Did I mention I dislike Valentine's Day? Strongly.