Welcome winter

And so it begins...

I love winter. Only not the New York winter, the real one. In my mind NY winter is not real - it's not really cold, but I wouldn't call it warm either. The weather is completely unpredictable, and I never know how to dress in the morning. My main complaint about it is that there is no snow, and even if we are lucky to get a few inches, it turns into sleet and ice within two days. And I hate ice.

Now that I have kids, my love affair with winter is cooling off. Especially when the landlord, not I, controls the thermostat, and the apartment is more often than not unpleasantly chilly. They say it is healthy, but I would take comfort over health on any given day. Also the kids tend to get sick much more often in the winter. While there's nothing more fun than staying at home and cuddling with the baby guilt free, I feel so bad for my babies when they are having hard time breathing at night or can't nurse because they are congested.

This winter (thout it is not officially winter yet) is not an exception. My daughter just stopped coughing, and not too soon. I was getting a bit tired of telling the neighbors that we didn't get a new dog. This time I resisted temptation of taking her to the doctor, just in case. There was no fever or anything else wrong with her other than runny nose and a cough that sounded like a really big dog barking. This time of the year, we go there, wait for an hour in the room filled with sick kids, pay $20 just to be told that there isn't much the doctor could do for a cold, and then get my kids really sick from some other kid in the waiting room, repeating the vicious circle. I think I'll pass this time, unless it gets really bad. The website said to give it three weeks, it has only been one.

So while the daughter is getting better, I am waiting for the baby to get sick. I have given up on trying to instill some basic ideas about hygiene into my kids. No matter how many bottles of juice I prepare for them, they end up fighting for the same one. Even if they are not fighting, one of them decides to "share" with another one ("Look, hon, isn't this cute, she's/he's sharing, aww...Wait, it's gross, eww"), compare the consistency of each other's chocolate milk, or stick their little fingers into the sibling's soup. So I gave up... long ago...and now am waiting for the baby to get sick from his sister's germs. The minute I decide that maybe we have dodged the bullet this time, I hear my little one barking exactly like his sister. No, Mrs. Markowitz, we REALLY didn't get a dog. Sigh...

Therefore, I declare today to be the the first winter day in our household, and I don't care what the scientists or weather people say. Why? The apartment is once again cold, both kids are sick and whiny, both had a fit when I left for work, and to top it all off I got a UTI. Nice... Oh yeah, almost forgot, and they both wiped their noses on my sweater, black sweater, and I noticed only when I came to work, naturally in my boss' office. For those who don't know, the first time I show up for work in the snot-ornamented sweater is the first winter day of the year.