Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

The girls didn't have school today but we spent the whole day creating the perfect snow day.

My day normally starts at 2:00pm but I went to their house at 12:00pm today and stayed through until 8:00pm, working 8 hours instead of 6. The only thing that upset me about that was that the mom asked me to stay only until 4pm because of the snow, but after their bath she asked if I could stay through to the normal time to put them to sleep. I didn't mind, but 4 extra hours is a lot. I got a much more pleasant greeting today than I normally do. I rang the doorbell and the girls opened it. I was greeted with "Emmmmaaaaa!" and a huge hug. It was nice to know that they were happy to see me. They followed me into the "nanny's room" where I take off my shoes and coat and we made videos and took pictures on my camera on the nanny bed. There was lots of giggling and excitement around the snow.

We had lunch in the kitchen while they waited for W's friend, O, to come over for a play date. Shortly after she arrived, we headed off to F.A.O. Schwarz to build their own muppets! It was snowing so hard and blowing sideways which made it the perfect day to go to FAO Schwarz. Their driver picked us up and took us there and we were dropped off right in front which I always manage to find so bad-ass. They each had their designs which they created today and it took 20 minutes to make the dolls. I found out they were $130 each and the mom bought 3. That's one expensive doll. I took some really cute pictures of them creating them. It was really fun being inside FAO and looking out of the huge windows at the snow storm.

While the dolls were drying the mom let them peruse the FAO Schweetz section where they got $58 worth of candy. It's unreal. I actually got red and pink starbursts because you can pick out the flavors you like and I thought that was awesome. The mom said "I will put it all together" (meaning paying for my starbursts), and I said, "oh no, that's OK. You don't have to do that" and she simply said, "Ok." Not that I couldn't afford them, but she just spent $58 on candy for them, what's another $3.11 for the nanny?? That just irked me.

I've been reading a new nannying book called 'The Perfect Stranger' and I read a bit today about how the child will become so used to the nanny being around that they will call and reach for the nanny before they do the mother if they're both in the room. I found that happening today. W kept calling for me to come see things and for me to see what her doll was looking like. I liked knowing she wanted me there but I did start to feel bad that she wasn't asking for the mom and she was right there. That was the first time I'd been faced with that situation.

With a custom-made muppet slung over their shoulders and a full tin of candy in hand, we left FAO to head back into the blizzard and back to their home.

Not long after being home I took the 3 girls to Central Park to play in the snow. It was so much fun. We ran after each other and had a snowball fight and started to make a snowman. I got so much cute footage of them playing on my camera. The sound of kids playing happily and laughing is a great sound, but when I know it's because of playing in the snow it makes it all the better. W looked adorable lugging around a huge chunk of snow that she was calling her snowball. Their cheeks turned pink but they had smiles on their faces and we were surrounded by other smiling people who were happy to be playing in the snow too.

After half an hour of getting pink and frostbitten, we headed back inside. They put on a muppet show and I took more pictures and videos. O left and the girls had tea. Then I gave them a warm bath and it felt like the perfect ending to a perfect snow day.