The Monday-est of Mondays

That’s what one of the other moms at Anika’s dance class called today and I have to admit that I’m inclined to agree. It started out fairly promising – the girls woke up pretty cheery, Alan was able to drive Pippa to school so I didn’t have to walk in the snow banks – but then I opened the door to take Ani to dance and found drop cloths lining the stairs. The apartment complex is doing some kind of MassSaves insulation project. Okay, great. Well, when we got home from dance and Target, the workers were all clustered at the bottom of our stairs with a dozen tanks of compressed air and a shop vac. “Do you need to use the stairwell?” Uh, yeah. It rendered that set of stairs basically useless for the rest of the day and provided a charming level of noise every time I opened the door. Extra irritating because I have mountains of laundry and I was only able to do one load.

And of course, they had no snow boots at Target. I was looking for back-up pairs for the girls so when they get snow inside the others they have a dry pair to put on later. Especially if we’re going to keep walking to school because in another bit of Monday-ness, the sides of the road were an absolute fucking mess. And even though it was cleared, the sidewalk at the school was icy. I want to walk along with some kind of small steamroller and just pack down the snow. Then sand it all. And maybe by spring I’ll have made a real path instead of having to constantly trip of leaves and garbage. I petitioned the City Council for a sidewalk, but honestly, I think being fucking irritating and contrary is a key part of the Worcester self-image.

After school was even worse. Pippa’s class got to shop at the Holiday Bazaar today. She had $25 to buy a present for Daddy and one for Anika. She got Alan a picture frame and a sock monkey, a little ornament for me, and a little stuffed cat. And herself an owl Webkinz. I’m not happy. Her teacher was supposed to be helping her shop and she had an envelope with her money and how much she could spend. It ALSO had a column to write down how much she actually spent and how much change she had. If she didn’t spend all of her money on presents, whatever was left was supposed to come home. Because then I could’ve used what was left to take her shopping properly for Anika, because what she bought her lacked any kind of thought about what Anika might actually like. I doubt I can return this fucking owl because the Bazaar is meant to be a PTO fundraiser. I can’t force her to give it to Anika because A.) Anika doesn’t give a shit about owls and B.) everytime she looked at it Pippa would feel bitter and jealous. I’m inclined to make Pippa donate it to a toy drive, but today was the last day for Toys for Tots. At the moment it’s just sitting on the top shelf of her closet and weighing on my mind.

I don’t know what’s been going on with her lately. It’s like she shorted out at some point on Sunday afternoon and rebooted as an unholy terror. She and Anika have been pushing each other’s buttons like crazy. I mean, Anika is 3, so she likes to push Pippa’s buttons, but Pippa’s reactions have been over-the-top awful. Crying, screaming. Today, despite constant reminders that her sister actually NEEDS to stand on the bathroom step to reach the sink, she threw a fit over having to move while brushing her teeth.

And her school pictures are fucking awful. She looks like a little imp, and not in a charming way. The photographer had her tilt her chin down so much that you can’t see the cute little gap where she lost her front teeth and her head looks bizarrely huge compared to her chin. I love that gap and I was looking forward to having it in her pictures and it obviously won’t be there if I get them retaken later on.

Fuck, I hate today.

~Liz