Today has been an ugh sort of day mainly because I've felt rather crappy. It probably didn't help that the kids and I were all up somewhat early (8 a.m. is early for the four of us to be up on a Sunday). Then Ella had a huge meltdown and wouldn't come out from under the table because she wants to paint the paint-by-number picture that Accalia has been working on since yesterday and wants to use those paints and that brush. Once Accalia is finished with her picture, Ella can go crazy with the paints and the brush, but since Ella is still quite the color mixer when she uses a variety of paints, we need to keep them pure for Accalia's sake. No other brush or set of paints would make Ella happy, so I walked out of the room for a minute. When I came back, I knelt by the table with my arms out, and Ella crawled out to me and ran into my arms for a big hug.

As I've mentioned, parenting Ella has been quite challenging of late. Two was never that bad with either Accalia or Cole - three is where it seemed to get a little bumpy - so I'm hoping we can get past this and on to a smoother run before the baby arrives. I'm hoping that it's the winter doldrums that's turning my normally cheerful children into snarly, cranky children. Oh, they're not like that all of the time, but it's definitely more prominent.

Yesterday the kids yelled "groundhog!" as soon as they got up because they had read that if you say that word first thing on Groundhog Day, you'll have good luck all year. They were really hoping that the groundhog would not see his shadow and that winter would be ending sooner. I suppose it's actually more like seven weeks until the official start of spring, but I can totally handle that.

Cory's delivering pizza tonight. No one could take off because of the Super Bowl. We'll see how crazy it gets. I think we had been invited to a friend's house for a party, but obviously that's not happening. So, Cory's taping the game (and, of course, the commercials) and we're going to watch it after he gets home. I don't particularly care about either team, but if I had to choose I'd go with the Giants. Tom Brady really annoys me. I don't understand his appeal at all.

What I'd really like to do right now is curl up in the recliner and watch An American in Paris. That's not going to happen, though, so I guess I should pick up some stuff.