Sheep Guarding Llama

I got into the office this morning and learned that there was a major snow storm expected to hit around noon.  I had no idea before going in.  It was clear this morning so it had not occurred to me that there might be weather issues today.

We pretty quickly decided that people needed to get home before the blizzard made driving too dangerous.  So people headed home in shifts.  I was the second out and left in the early afternoon after lunch.  The drive home took a full two hours with heavy snow and icy roads but it was okay overall.  I stopped at the Kurdish Deli and got late lunch or early dinner for Dominica and I and headed on home.

The girls were very excited that after my long three day weekend that I was home so soon, it was almost like an extra vacation day.  To them it felt like a four day weekend.  It was a nice surprise.

So we spent the entire afternoon and evening just hanging out together.  A lot of watching shows and stuff in the basement.  Good family time.

The girls and I slept in this morning, as you can imagine, with Liesl and I having been up until two in the morning.  I figured it would be good to shift their schedules a little late today because they will need to be up late tonight in order to go to the airport and get Dominica whose flight is not even scheduled to arrive until a quarter after ten and, as with flights, will likely not come until still later than that.

Dominica’s first flight had issues and they almost did not manage to leave Love Field!  Finally they took off with barely enough time for her to make her connecting flight in St. Louis.  It is a good thing that they left when they did because tomorrow is a blizzard and there will be no flights.  She has to get in tonight or she will be stuck.

Tonight I tried showing Liesl “Hannah Montana” which she has never seen before.  I knew that she would like it and I was right.  As soon as it started she was addicted.  Liesl always says that she wants to be a rock star so I knew that this would be exactly what she likes.  And she generally loves Disney Channel shows so this is perfect.

It was touch and go but eventually everything was going smoothly and Dominica was on her last flight leg and on her way to New York City.  Her flight was running just a little late so we waited until nine thirty before leaving the house to go down to Queens to get her.  The drive was fine tonight and went pretty quickly.  The girls were getting drowsy on the drive.

We had to circle the airport which is really hard to do at LaGuardia.  Finally got Dominica just before eleven and did the hour drive back home.  The girls both fell asleep on the ride up.

Our second day of the daddy / daughter weekend.  We slept in this morning, we were so tired last night when we turned in for the night.  Luciana was the first one up and got out of bed on her side, came around and tapped on me to wake me up then climbed into bed to snuggle with me for fifteen minutes or so and then asked me to get up and get her strawberry milk (or strawberry chocolate milk as she calls it) which is her version of Liesl’s chocolate milk.  So weird that they both love the same thing but they each like a unique flavour.

Liesl was up pretty soon, maybe half an hour later than Luciana and I.  We all needed our sleep.  Yesterday was a very long day.

No snow coming down today, bright and clear but a lot of snow left over from yesterday still.  It was really cold in the house in the morning.

I got a fire going in the fireplace nice and early to get us started for the day.  Luciana started her day by playing Liesl’s Nintendo 2DS for a while.  We all did some board games in front of the fireplace this morning.

This evening the girls and I snuggled in on the couch and watched Ghostbusters.  I have not seen it in many years and I have been wanting to start watching some classic movies with Liesl as she is now old enough to start enjoying them.  Both girls liked this one.  Liesl spent the whole moving bundled in a blanket sitting on my lap and Luciana spent it under my right arm.  Liesl followed the movie really well and did have some serious screaming to do during the scary gargoyle scenes but overall did pretty well during the movie.  This was the scariest movie that she has ever watched and right about at her limit.  Not that we want her to watch anything scary, but Ghostbusters really is not meant to be scary but funny.  They both said that they want to watch it again now, too.

Not long after that we put Luciana to bed.  We read another chapter is “Prince Caspian” and then Liesl went down to the basement and I laid in bed with Luciana snuggling until she fell asleep.  Then I came back down and Liesl and I stayed up until two in the morning until we beat Night of the Rabbit.  It was a special treat for the holiday weekend with just daddy.    This is the fifth game that Liesl and I have played through, from beginning to end, on the PC together.  Our fifth point and click adventure game.  This one was by far the best for both of us.  The graphics, music, story, dialogue – all quite superior to the others that we have played.  It was excellent.  We had a lot of fun playing through that one.  I am not sure what game is up next but I have a feeling that Liesl is wanting to play Deponia next, although we only own the first and second installments and not the third because it is brand new and there has not been a good sale on it yet.  I like to play the series one right after the other because it is easier for Liesl to keep the story straight that way.

Today has been a really great literary day for me and the girls with nearly finishing one of the greatest works of traditional literature “Prince Caspian”, watching one of the classics of 1980s cinema Ghostbusters and completing a modern video game storytelling classic Night of the Rabbit.

I believe that this weekend is my longest stretch, ever, being alone in charge of both girls.  Three full days just us, sequestered at the house.

The alarm went off at three and we had half an hour to get out of the door with the four of us.  That was a very short night.  Getting up at three really throws you off, that is early enough that it is truly the middle of the night.  If you consider a normal person sleeps from eleven to seven, three is the dead center of the night.  For most people on the weekend, midnight to eight is more likely, so this is actually on the early side of the night.  We sure felt it.

We did well, getting ready, though and were out the door nearly on time.  We got the girls up at the last second and had them just go in their pajamas although both of them ended up being wide awake and did not fall back asleep either in the car nor once I got them back to the house later.

The drive was fine.  We had forgotten water bottles for the girls for the car so swung into a Dunkin Donuts and got Dominica some coffee, me a Monster and the girls water cups so that they could drink in the car.  It took about seventy five minutes to get down to LaGuardia in Queens.  No traffic though and only a few snow flakes on the way down.  So that was good.

We dropped Dominica off at the airport right on time.  She had plenty of time to get through the empty lines, through security and on the plane.  She is flying Southwest with a layover in Houston at Hobby right next to the Grices’, which is pretty silly as they could have all ridden together up to Carrollton since Francesca and Emily are going from right there at Hobby up to Carrollton to help Dominica pack up the house.

The girls and I got back home much more quickly than we had gotten down to the airport.  Less than an hour back to the house.  I took a different route through Manhattan and that must have helped a lot.  The snow was starting to come down on our drive back to the house and soon after we were home it turned into rather a serious snow storm.  The snow came down hard all morning and we got a few inches by the time that it was over.  A good weekend to be camped out in the house without needing to go anywhere at all.

I was not sure if the girls might not fall back asleep as it was still before the time that they would normally have woken up and they had been up for hours already.  I set them up with iPads in our bed and blankets and Care Bear and Lambie to see if they might just drift off.  They stayed there for quite a while but neither one fell asleep again.

The girls and I had a lot of fun today.  Playing board games together, having a big fire in the fireplace and playing Night of the Rabbit together.

Luciana had to go to bed on the early side tonight, she was over tired but wanted to stay up with us.  I took her up and put her to bed in our big bed and laid down with her for twenty minutes or so until she fell asleep snuggling with me.  Then Liesl and I went back to the basement and played more of Night of the Rabbit until Liesl was tired of it and then we put in “The Snow Queen” that Liesl likes on Netflix and we watched that, snuggled together on the couch.

I was asleep for half of the movie, I could not stay alert for any of it.  I have no idea what happened in the story.  It was probably ten when Liesl and I went up and climbed into bed with Luciana.  Liesl has been excited all week knowing that she would get to sleep in our bed this weekend.  It is one of her favourite things.  She lives for her snuggles.

Work went quite late tonight, I did not get to leave until seven.  That’s not quite late, I suppose, but for a Friday night when you hope to leave more like five thirty it is pretty late.  Especially when the evening at home is going to be so short.

I was surprised to find that the Kurdish Deli was still open, even though it was so late.  So I swung in and hung out while they made falafel for Dominica and I for dinner.  Dominica was hoping that I would bring home dinner but had not asked me to do so.  She guessed that I was there getting food while I was there.  The deli is experimenting with staying open until three in the morning to see if that attracts a weekend crowd as very little in the area stays open late.  That is a general shortcoming of all of downstate, including even Manhattan, this region is extremely “sleepy” compared to Upstate New York which is practically hallmarked by its late night venues and twenty four hour stores.  It is an odd combination considering that downstate tends to come from southern European stock that are well known for the late night lifestyle and upstate is primarily from northern European stock and culture known for its early to bed mentality and lifestyle.

I got home and Luciana was already in bed and asleep.  She had gotten into trouble and had been put to bed, no way for her to stay up waiting for me to get home.  It was nearly nine by the time that I got home.  Liesl was still awake but just long enough to see me and have me put her in bed.

Dominica and I ate our dinner, watched just a little Doctor Who and went to bed very early ourselves.  Only getting a little sleep tonight, need to be up at three thirty to get Dominica her to flight.