It's Raining, It's Pouring...

I just have to say that I would not have been very good on the wagon trail years ago. I definitely would not be good at living in the Midwest or East Coast now with little kids. I have a renewed respect for parents of little children who live in states that get rain and snow. It has been cold and raining here for two days here in Southern California and I am ready to break. No, really. It was just warm and balmy a couple of weeks ago and we all complained how hard we had it because it was so warm and we were ready for some fall weather. I think we should have been more specific and said fall-like weather that was cool, but not too cool and didn't last for very long. We didn't mean cold, I know I certainly didn't mean cold. We were warned by the weather forecasters that it would be winter cold this week, so I bought several turtlenecks and a down vest.
All of my kids have warm clothes, though we really don't have good winter jackets. I also heard it was going to rain, so I pulled out all of our raincoats (that we have for the very few days it usually rains around here). But I really didn't think we would have non stop rain, cold and week-before-Christmas-shopping to do. Here are some things I don't get about the cold and rain:
How can people let their kids get into the car with dirty, wet shoes? I love my kids, but I do like a clean car too.
Who runs out to the car again and again in the rain to collect the several load of lunch boxes, school work, bags, food wrappers...left in the car at the end of the day?
How can we wear our warm, cozy Uggs if it is raining and they will get wet and look bad later?
How do you fit your kids into the car seat with a ton of layers of clothes?
Is there any way we could move Christmas back a couple of days since we had two rained out days of shopping?
Is it really even natural for it to be so cold and how much water is up there to have it rain for so many hours without a break?
Should I be looking into moving to a warmer, balmier area?
All good questions in my opinion. I have to go take a shower and get to bed. I have done the last of my on-line shopping and written a list of things I still need to go out and get. My husband (who hasn't shopped at all) got very tired while I was making the shoppping list while doing laundry and cleaning up the house, so he went to bed. It actually has been a rough couple of days. Sasha must be teething because she is really cranky, clingy and a little inconsolable. She has woken up several times the last couple of nights. We bought Brookelyn a toddler bed and put it in her room last night. She has stayed in it, which is great. But she developed a love for singing lately and sings songs she makes up as she goes along for at least an hour every night. It's very cute, but sometimes her singing seems to keep her awake and we really NEED her to go to sleep. Brayden's preschool class put on their Holiday show tonight. It was great! Two years ago he put one of his fingers in his mouth (which he never did before or since) and kept it there for the entire show without singing a note. Last year he did a pretty good job, though he seemed as if he might change his mind and sit down at any minute. This year he was amazing. He did everything he was suppposed to do, while singing and smiling. He danced with a little girl, did a couple of dance moves on his own, acted out all of the songs...we were so proud of him! My sister and her kids came to the show, which was great. Brayden loves them. Two of my sister's girls were in his teacher's class when they were in preschool, which made it even more fun. Tomorrow Brookelyn's class is having their holiday show. She doesn't have a shy bone in her body, and she knows the words to all of the songs. But she is still pretty young, so who knows if she will sing. I don't really care, she will have fun being up there in front of the crowd. All she cares about is that she is wearing a pretty dress. I can only add one picture of Brayden because all of the others have his classmates in it. This one you can't tell who the kids next to him are since their faces are turned.