Snow Day

This morning I woke up to the unusual quiet of my son still in bed.  Usually this kid is racing up and down the stairs getting ready for school.  This does not happen miraculously, it is after the heavy pounding of my husband's fist on his bedroom door, followed by his deep commands to "get ready for school."  None of that assaulted my dreams this morning.  I woke up at 6:38am and decided to skip my now morning routine of working out beside my bed.  I jumped in the shower and when I came out, still quiet.  What was going on?

I dressed - makeup and hair - and opened the bedroom door, even my husband was quiet downstairs.  A knock on the teen's bedroom door was met with quiet.  I opened the door, "Hey Joshua!  It is 6:54am!  Get up and get ready for school."  "Ma, we don't have school, snow day."  "No Joshua, there is school."  "Ma, really, they called...didn't you hear the phone???"  I looked at him quizzically and wondered if I was sleeping that soundly.  "Open your balcony blinds and let me see."  He did and I saw the winter wonderland.  "Ok, well, go back to sleep."

Just as I was closing his bedroom door, the six year old woke up, rubbing her eyes and begging me to stay right there with her while she washed up.  "Snow day," I tell her.  "YES!!!!" She did that six-year-old closed eye yell pulling her fist down in victory.  "I just knew it!!!!"  I smiled at her and wondered what I would have them do today.

We walked downstairs to my husband sitting on the sofa diligently watching the school closings run along the bottom of the morning news, the Today Show just getting underway.  "Joshua said they had a snow day."  "I'm not sure," he says, "that was Ladue that called."  "Oh."  I watched with baited breath and when they got to the "Ks"...there was silence.  At the same time he was watching the news, I was facebooking and no sooner did I turn around, my teacher friend said there was school.  Then the news raced past what should have been Kirkwood's place in the area school closings.

My husband raced up the stairs and pounded on Joshua's door, it is now 7:10am.  "Get up, I will take you to school."

There was a flurry of racing up and down the stairs as the two of them got ready, went out and cleaned off about 4 inches of snow off the cars.  Oh well, school today.

Then my eight year old woke up.  "This is just so NOT fair!"  "Well, honey, you have to go to school."  She sat on the floor of her bedroom, defeated, and frowning.  Her sister was already dressed and cheerfully exclaimed, "Well, I LOVE school."  I guess it is easier when you are in half-day kindergarten (translation, 2 1/2 hours of school).  "It is just not right, second graders have rights, our parents have rights, and you have the right to say we have a snow day," my daughter quips as she looks in her closet for clothes.  "No, honey, you have to get ready, get dressed and come down for breakfast."

I went back downstairs to finish making my morning latte and see what I had to work on today.  The six year old was eating her dry cereal (allergic to milk) and chipper.  The eight year old came down frowning.  Her protests got even more urgent as she opened the balcony blinds and saw the winter wonderland shining in the sun.  "Look at all this snow!!!"

We made it through breakfast and even managed to get out of the house in a reasonable time, all to her protests.  I reminded her that the new superintendent was from Iowa and like Chicago, they almost NEVER closed school for snow.  "Well, he just does not know how we do things," replied the eight year old.

She actually wrote a protest letter from herself and the second graders in her classroom.  She was going to circulate a petition and have her friends ask that the next time there is 3-4 inches of snow, Kirkwood should close school just like everyone else did.  

I will have to wait until school is out to find out if there was massive eight year old protest about the denial of a snow day.  She had me literally laughing out loud as she launched her logical reasons why school should be cancelled.  "We have RIGHTS!!!!"

Oh well, it won't happen today and hopefully this will be the last big snow of the season.  She is not happy.  I guess she will just have to save her protesting for third grade...and a snow day in the future.