Growing up as an army brat, we lived about equally in the north and south, however alot of my earlier years were spent above the mason dixon line, which meant alot of snow. I dont ever recall feeling inconvienced by the snow...school off or delayed, sledding, hot chocolate, snow men. Strangely enough, I dont ever recall being cold either. Looking back, I now see that I loved the snow and winter because I was under the age of 12. No driving in snow, no shoveling snow, no dressing children for snow...
Fast forward 20years later. "Winter Storm" Charlotte 2011. The boys arise to see a beautiful blanket of white covering everything. It is gorgeous. They are ready to start playing around 707am. We take our time (knowing how long the day will be), relax, read some books, and begin to get dressed...this is where I realize that I have turned into a Southerner true and true. Digging through all the drawers and boxes of completely unorganzied and unlabeled clothes, I come up w three pair of pants for Keller, 4 shirts, my good ski gloves/mittens, my wool socks. Coleman has lucked out- a hand me down snowsuit (think the kid in Christmas Story), my wool socks which literally came up to his thighs and the dumbest pair of gloves ever made...wait, actually Porter had on the dumbest pair of gloves ever made...Colemans came in second only bc they actually covered his hands. Porter, poor Porter, had on two pair of pants, two pair of cotton socks, three sweaters. He put on an easy 5 lbs when I was done dressing him. He was so stuffed he could hardly do anything but stand there. Which luckily did not impact his ability to use his lungs and vocal cords for crying which was his activity most of the morning.
Sarah was solo w her three boys for the day, so we decided to spend the time together. She "drove" over here in her sporty-not-functional-for-snow-in-the-least BMW, sliding most of the way. We manage to somehow (w Jeremys help), get all the boys to the park to sled down the hill. Of course, (Southern ways) we have no sled, but use airmattresses for camping. Porter has been crying the full 45 minutes it took us to get .13 miles to the park, the older boys are ready to go,get down on their "sleds" and....nothing, no movement, not even a little ground covered. The snow was powder and the "sled" was sticking to it. They immediately are ok and start trying to solve the problem by themselves...now reverese that and see the reality. Upset older boys, upset Porter. After awhile a nice friend loans them an actual sled made out of plastic. I walk home w Porter...who is not easy to carry, both because of the meltdown and layers of clothes.
The boys come home, we have hot chocolate, movie, Sarah made "snow cream," Porter was asleep and all was good.
Day two:
getting dressed:
same scenerio except i brought out my go to...duct tape. i duct taped their
non waterproof gloves to their jackets (think duct taped bangles on the
wrist) this helped porter immensely until he slipped his hand out of his
glove still attached to his jacket...his hand was lost somewhere in the
jacket sleeve...he is bawling and just plain done
coleman lasted shorter than the amount of time it took him to get dressed. i
told him he had to stay outside since this was it, which he responded by
just standing there for 5 minutes..doing nothing, just standing w this
glazed look. obdience with no fun.
another question: is it me, or do my childrens fingers mysteriously amputate
when trying to put on their gloves...seriously, i find myself counting their
fingers looking for the missing ring or pointer somewhere in the debts of
the fingers of the gloves...
thank you jesus i do not live in indiana. 2-4 snow days a year is just fine
w me.
