She Says… Snowpacolypse 2013

The way the meteorologists talked up last Friday’s snowstorm, you would have thought they were predicting the end of the world. “Stay inside your homes!” “Stock up on supplies!” “Expect the worse!”.

Though their drama was probably unnecessary, the weather maps along were enough to tell me that a biiiiig snowstorm was on the way, it was probably going to take more than a day or two to get everyone shoveled out and back to normal, and there was a high likelihood of power outages due to heavy snow on branches and power lines.

The storm was crazy. And by crazy, I mean crazy fun. I absolutely loved watching the snow fall so hard and fast that I could barely see out the window. The accumulation grew inch by inch until we measured nearly 30″ in our backyard! It was so gorgeous to see the whole neighborhood white and silent.

Shoveling out was another story (read: NOT as fun!), but I still loved how the snowstorm dictated that everyone hunker down at home. There was literally nothing you could do except sit and wait and watch. It was lovely.

And then when the snow stopped? We spent just about every waking moment playing outside in it. The snow was nearly as tall as Owen, so just taking a walk was a hilarious adventure.

Here we are 3 days later and the roads are still a mess. I can’t say that I mind. It’s been so much fun! (And, we’ve had power the whole time. If I were dealing with this storm sans electricity I would have a VERY different mindset.).

Hope everyone stayed safe and warm!

She Says… Snow Day!

This, friends. THIS is why I love living in New England.

Last winter we barely got any of this fluffy white stuff. This year looks like it may be similar, except that we got a nice 6+” dump last Saturday night. Owen was as thrilled as I was to go play in it.

We grabbed our sled from last year (which he is almost growing out of now) and headed out for a walk. The streets had already been plowed by Sunday morning, so we had to search out snow so I could drag the sled.

We quickly realized that we live a very short block away from one of the best little kid sledding hills in our town.

Well, I really have no idea if it’s really the best, but it certainly was crowded (and convenient), so it worked for us.

As soon as Owen watched “the big boys” sliding down the hill, he wanted to try it. The little daredevil didn’t blink an eye at being pushed down a HUGE hill without much direction.

In fact, he LOVED it. He loved it so much that once he got to the bottom, he bailed out of the sled face first, grabbed his sled (just like “the big boys”) and hiked his tiny little legs back up the hill shouting, “I WANNA DO IT ‘GAIN!”.

He could have done it all day.

It was AWESOME. I didn’t get to go down the hill myself this time (I figured even though it’s a relatively small hill, sledding probably isn’t the safest activity while pregnant), but watching the joy in Owen’s face as the wind turned his little cheeks pink was enough for me.

I was so proud to watch him, so tiny, holding his own on the sledding hill with kids much older than him. He even stopped at the bottom and chatted with some of the other kids before pulling his sled back up. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the idea of him stopping to have a conversation with another kid just cracks me up.

Watch him in action!

She Says… Bundled

Last night we FINALLY got some snow around here. (Umm, yeah, not counting that strange pre-Halloween snow that we got in October). I didn’t even know it was supposed to snow, and (rather embarrassingly) went to bed before it started last night, so I was shocked to see the ground covered in white when I woke up this morning! It was a decent “first snow”, too. Usually the first snow gets me all excited and then ends up being a lame dusting that turns to ice. But this was a few good inches of nice, fluffy stuff. The perfect amount — all of the ground was covered but the shoveling was easy, and there was no ice.

I opened the door to let the dog out this morning and squealed to Owen, “Snowwwwwww!”. He promptly said, “BUH bye” and tried to close the door. Ha! But once we got him bundled and ready to go to school he was shouting “Noooooo” right along with me.

Prior to the snow, though, this weekend was BITTER. That kind of biting, harsh cold where the wind seems to cut through all of your clothes and pierce your skin. When just being outside stings and any exposed skin is swollen and cracked.

We’re struggling with bundling up. Well, let me rephrase that. OWEN is struggling with bundling up.

He still adores going outside. He will stand at the back door to our deck, face plastered on the window, and whine, “Ayyoh! Ayyoh!” (Note: I have no idea why he still says some words totally incorrectly, even though he says nearly 200 words relatively clearly. Outside is one of them.). We need to walk Schnitzel anyway, so we’re outside at least once a day for a good stretch.

But then he refuses to wear his “Nyeh nyeh” (mittens).

Which is fine for a little while. But then when his skin gets all red and puffy, he holds his hands up and cries. And won’t put on mittens and won’t tuck his sad hands under the blanket and won’t let me hold them or blow on them to warm them up. Then our walk is over. And if we’re not home yet? He whines and sniffles and whimpers the rest of the way. So I end up stressed, power walking and dragging the dog the rest of the way.

You’d think he’d learn just to keep his darn mittens on!

We’ve been doing his regular clothes + fleece onesie (see above) + winter coat + boots + mittens + hat + blanket over him in the stroller. I have a set of bib overalls for when we play in the snow, but usually that seems like overkill. I use the cover on the stroller when we go for walks when the air is painfully cold (like this past weekend). I call it “the bubble” and made him think it’s a super fun treat to get to “ride in the bubble”, so he’s cool with being zipped in. For now. We’ll see how long THAT lasts.

The mittens thing is beginning to make me a little crazy. We’ve been using just cotton mittens, but unfortunately he can easily bite those off (even with mitten clips). I’m thinking I need some heavy duty ski mittens that go halfway up his arms so he can’t take them off. Anyone ever seen anything like that?

Do your kids wear tolerate mittens? Even a hat is a struggle with Owen, so I’m still squeezing his growing head into a small, 9-month old hat we have with a velcro chin strap. What can I say? The kid has a small head. So far he hasn’t figured out how to tear that off. At least not when he’s wearing his mittens.

He Says… Snow Day

We had our first snowfall in Boston the other day, so we took Owen outside to see his first flakes.  We only got a light dusting, but it was still very pretty.  Of course, we had to document the occasion.