Brrrr!

        Here it is February. Brrrrr! I always think of February as the coldest month of the year. I don't know why, because it isn't. If it was we would say "as cold as molasses in February", but we don't. Maybe the cold bleakness of January, with the holidays in the past and nothing to look forward to except Groundhog Day, wears me down and convinces my subconscious that winter will never end. Maybe the fact that Punxsutawney Phil, with his promise of spring, prognosticates right at the beginning of February, makes me long for the warm sunshine that is still months away. Whatever the reason, I hate February and thank God it is the shortest month of the year. In fact, I am not real fond of winter in general, the only positives of that season being Christmas, fires in the fireplace, hot chocolate, warm slippers, and snow. Especially snow.

       We got some snow the other week. The whole Northeast got smacked with a blizzard that turned out to be not nearly as blizzardy as predicted, and my area, being just south of that region, was merely grazed by the storm. Good! I like snow, but only the scenic kind of snow, the kind where you sit at the window with a cup of hot chocolate and watch the flakes quietly falling as they cover the world with sparkling lace. You can keep the other kind of snow, the kind with deep piles, treacherous roads, downed power lines, and howling winds that shake the house and blow ice against the windows. In my area we get that kind too often. Storms come up from the south bringing warm moisture with them. They hit the Atlantic Ocean, pick up more moisture, freeze, swing around, and come barreling back down from the Northeast with high winds, burying us in ice and snow in what is affectionately known as a "Nor'easter". These are fine as long as you don't have anywhere to go, the power doesn't go out, your vinyl siding doesn't blow off, and you have all the essentials you will need for the next few days. Being retired from the work-a-day world I can just sit at home and enjoy the feeling of quiet isolation, but my husband can't do that. He is a shift supervisor for a chemical manufacturing plant that requires supervision at all times for the safety of the plant and the surrounding community. No matter how deep the snow is he has to go to work. Even when a state of emergency has been declared and people are being arrested for being on the roads, he has to sally forth. (They gave him a special waiver from the state that he can show the cops if they pull him over. Thanks for nothing!) So when we get a bad snowstorm it's stress, aggravation, and danger for him, and stress, aggravation, and worry for me. But, in this latest storm, the foot of snow predicted turned into only a couple of inches, and we could both relax. Even better than that, I got to take Kiley out in the snow. Hooray!

As soon as it became apparent that the snowstorm wasn't going to be something we had to worry about, I became excited about taking Kiley out in it. Showing them new things about the world is one of the great joys of having children in your life, and snow is enough of a rarity that even for older kids it's a great treat. The snowmen, the snowballs, cancelled school, the snow-forts, frozen creeks, sledding, the possibilities are endless!

This one looks even more dangerous than the sleds I rode as a kid...

        When I was a kid all of these things were fun, but sledding was at the top of the list. We lived in a neighborhood where all of the streets were hills and I mean serious hills. It was like living in the Alps or something. The parents hated it because getting the car up your street to your house when it snowed was always a dilemma, but we kids loved it for the sledding. When it snowed the streets would be full of kids and sleds, (not the plastic ones that you mostly see today, but the old wooden kind with metal runners). We would be out there all day and especially at night when the traffic had subsided and the inconvenient and possibly fatal encounters with cars abated. As teenagers we would be out until nine, or ten o'clock at night, even on school nights, sledding, and partying, and flirting with boys, and having a great time. I was kicking myself the other week when I realized I didn't have a sled to pull Kiley around in, poor planning that.

        The snow stopped early in the morning so I got Kiley ready and out we went. I didn't have her snowsuit, but it wasn't really that cold, so I just bundled her up leaving her pajamas on under her clothes for extra warmth, plus her coat, her mittens, and especially her hat. She has a pink hat with a kind of pom-pom on top of it that fastens under her chin and covers her ears and everything else except her face. She was snug as a bug and had a great time. We built a snowman, or rather I built a snowman though she did help with the eyes and nose. At just one year old she didn't really seem to grasp the concept. We named it Olaf after the snowman in the movie "Frozen". More fun for her was walking in the snow on the deck because of the crunching sound it made. She briefly became obsessed with clearing the snow off of the deck furniture and did a good job of that until she lost interest. We watched the squirrels scampering through the snow and feasting at the squirrel feeders for a while and threw snowballs at them and each other. After about forty-five minutes her cheeks were red so I figured it was time to go in. We shed our snow clothes, got some drinks, (tea for me, juice for her), and watched "Frozen" for the thousandth time.

        The day was actually quite warm and by the afternoon the snow had mostly melted. Olaf sagged and drooped more and more as the day went on until first his nose, then his arms, then his head fell off, leaving a pile of snow that was still not quite gone the next day after all of the other snow in the backyard had melted away. I realized that for real snow-fun Kiley needed a sled so I ordered one of those plastic ones on line. It arrived in the mail this morning. I can't wait for it to snow again.

Nan

Inside Out

        The munchkin and I had a short week together last week due to the holiday. I only had her Monday and Tuesday, which gave me five days off for Thanksgiving. Excellent! What with cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my family and getting caught up on some other things I needed the time off. Weather-wise, Monday and Tuesday were gorgeous days where I live, which is in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Monday was especially nice with temperatures around 70 degrees. Wow! It doesn't normally get that warm in late November around here. I seized the opportunity to get Kiley outside even though it was windy, because we won't be seeing any more days like that for a while. Winter is just about upon us and if it is anything like last year's bitter cold we won't be spending much time outside. It's time to close the shutters and hunker down until spring.

That doesn't mean we won't ever go outside during the cold months. I like to get Kiley outside as much as possible even in the winter because I am a firm believer in the axiom that fresh air is good for you. It's not just the freshness of the air outside that is beneficial, it is also the freshness of the surroundings, the change of scenery. Spending too much time trapped in the house has a bad effect on children. I can see it in Kiley after a string of rainy days. Being confined to the kitchen and family room areas of my house gets to her after a while, and she starts going stir crazy. All the toys in the world can't change that. To relieve this I'll often allow her to spend some time in the living room, which she sees as a real treat. She loves it in the living room even though there are no toys, TV or anything special to do in there. It's just the change of scenery, something different; that makes the living room desirable to her, that and the lure of the forbidden.

When she gets really antsy I let her go upstairs which is like another whole world to her. If the living room is a treat to her, the upstairs is nirvana. There is like a whole new universe up there for her to explore – four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a big hallway. I let her climb the steps herself to reach this wonderland which is an adventure in itself. She loves to climb.  We get on the king-sized bed and roughhouse. I sometimes even fill the tub with warm water and let her play in it like a pool. She brings some floaty –toys in with her. She loves the tub.

Despite the many joys that can be found inside, none of it can compare to the outside. Kiley loves to be outside. Outside is where freedom lives, even though I am with her the whole time. In the warm weather she goes out in the backyard every day and I let her run barefoot in the grass. We have a baby pool for her and a baby swing. My husband and I made a "secret garden" for her, tucked away in an isolated corner of the yard. She has to go through a gated arbor to enter it, covered with flowering vines, and there is a little bench where she can sit surrounded by flowers and little garden sculptures. She loves it in there, even though the butterflies scare her sometimes, and she likes to have the arbor gate closed behind her once she has entered. I suspect the older she gets the more appealing the "secret garden" will be; that is until she gets so old that the magic dims.

The "Secret Garden" when it was first planted. Before it became overgrown and wild!

I plan to take her outside as much as possible in the winter as well, because she likes it so much. There won't be as much to do in the cold, but the fresh air and change of scenery will do her good. When it snows she'll have a blast. You have to keep a close eye on little ones when they are outside in the winter, even more so than in the summer. In the summer a little sunscreen is all they need for protection against the elements, but the cold is much more dangerous than the sun and much harder to gauge. I'll have to keep a close eye on the weather reports this winter with a special interest in the wind and the chill factor. Fifteen or twenty minutes outside in the cold is about as much as toddlers can bear. You have to be sure to keep their fingers and ears covered and keep a close eye on their faces. When their cheeks turn red it is time to go in.

Once the holidays are over and we get into the deep winter of January and February the opportunities for outside forays become limited. You don't want to take a toddler outside when it is twelve degrees. It looks to be a long winter coming up but an eventful one. Kiley will turn one year old this winter, in January, and by the time the flowers start sprouting again she'll probably start talking. I predict one of the first words she learns will be "outside" – right after "Mommy", "Daddy" and, of course, "Nan".

Nan