9 Days and Counting

It's always on the busiest of mornings that chaos breaks out.

Jane was in the worst of moods.  I finally finished getting her and Molly fed and dressed with barely an hour to spare to bake a coffee cake, clean up the house, and make myself presentable for a playdate we were having.

Now, you'd think after yesterday's near disaster with finger paint that I'd have had the sense to put any and all possible carpet destroyers away where Jane can't find them.  And I did think about it.  But they're in the basement.  And she mostly hates arts and crafts...except, it seems, when I'm not watching.

First she covered herself and the carpet in the basement in black stamp pad ink.  I changed her clothes and finished cleaning the carpet when the doorbell rang.  I went up ahead of Jane to answer the door.  When Jane finally came up, she had face painted herself with green watercolor.

By the afternoon, toys were covering every inch of the living room and Jane was still in a cranky mood.  I was dying to get out of the house.  So I had Jane open her advent calendar.  I had drawn some pieces of candy underneath Christmas ball 9.  And just like that, we were off to the candy factory.

Walking in the door, all we could smell was chocolate.  And it was heavenly!  We went to the observation deck first to check out what was being made.  And on the ramp Jane fell in love with Frosty.

She introduced herself to him, and continued to have a full out conversation with him for almost three minutes.  And then she told him to "come on".  And when he didn't I felt bad.  Maybe we listened to "Frosty the Snowman" too many times.  I was sure she thought he was supposed to come alive and follow her.

So I convinced her to come pick out a piece of candy.

And all was good....until we got into the car.

And cranky Jane was back!