Finally, there was snow!
And now it’s melted. Sigh.
We’ve only had little bits of snow this winter, and it’s UNSATISFYING. Not very much fun for my little guy – who is so ready with his red snowpants/coat/hat combo.
I should probably admit two things:
1) On a visceral level, I do still love snow. It still gives me a thrill when I see it falling, and I love the way it looks and smells and feels, and the way it makes everything quiet and brilliant.
2) Don’t get me wrong – I am known to be grouchy sometimes when cleaning off the car or trying to dislodge the “tire poops” – and little kids getting dressed for winter is no picnic. (Or even just one little kid – especially when you have to get to the babysitter on time.) But still.
3) NOT having snow in the winter… makes me worried. It makes me think we have really effed up this planet, just like they said we were doing, and we’re all goners. Still hoping not.
{Update: apparently that’s three things. And apparently Dilovely cannot count as well as her 2-year-old.)
So my net reaction this season has been “WHEN IS THE SNOW COMING?” (Mini-Di was obsessive about this. Just ask my family. I did snow dances, complete with original prayers, to be chanted at every window in the house.)
For a couple days this week, and maybe one or two last week, it finally seemed like winter. The snow fully covered the grass (and that’s the minimum we’d normally have), and it was cold enough to keep.
On days like that, the kindergartners came in from recess and just brushed the snow off instead of becoming soggy little heaps. They finally had decent snowbanks to play on – it had made me want to cry watching them swarming all over the tiny, filthy lumps of snow they’d had so far. Especially since I can remember, in recent years, majestic hills of snow in the kindergarten yard – perfect for sliding, and so tall that the kids can almost touch the fir tree branches that are normally beyond the realm of possibility. Finally, this week, they’ve had some decent snow to play with, to build with, to warrant the snowsuits they spend so long putting on and taking off multiple times a day.
One of my boy kindergartners in particular makes my heart happy whenever he wears his magenta snowsuit. It rocks. Also, the other day I overheard him talking about the number of snow crystals they were going to collect, and he was transported by the potential of the project: “We’re going to get a thousand! A million! Two hundred!!”
Of course, I must also talk about my own little snowy boy. On Sunday evening, I had been working on report cards and we’d been doing housework and it was time to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE. E and I went into the backyard. He felt the poetry of the snowy twilight: “Look at all the kinds of things… all covered in winter.”
We were hoping to make a snowman in the last of the daylight, but to my shock, it was cold enough that the snow wouldn’t pack. So when Auntie Em joined us, we decided to take a walk/sled ride with the sled Auntie Beth gave him for Christmas.
He wanted to go to the school a few blocks away, because there’s a big hill there. (I confused him by talking about “blocks” – I said we were going to go around the block, and he was like, “But where are the blocks??”) He calls the school “the voting place”, because he remembers how we went there back in October when it was our local polling station in the election. (Of course, at the time, he thought there would be boating.)
We slogged our way there, and he got out of the sled to make some snow angels. Then he decided he wanted to go up the big hill – and it is a BIG hill. Looked daunting even to me, especially in the snow, but he was nonchalantly intrepid. I kept thinking he would get tired, but he just kept at it, all the way to the top. It was pretty inspiring, actually. I could take a lesson from that kid.
The next day he had another afternoon sled-ride with Daddy, and fell asleep on the way home. (Outgrowing the nap is a tricky business.)
Next post: snow snacks!
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[subscribe2]
1) Aw, that’s a cute pic 🙂
2) I am home now! Snow picnic coming right up!!
3) The snow angels were a big hit. He was all like “I wanna make lots and lots of angels!”
4) Are you testing us? There were THREE things you admitted!
YES! I’m testing you! Haha. No. It just seems I can’t count. 😛
5) i <3 <3 <3 Lawren Harris Snowy Sunrise.
(Those are hearts, in case you needed to know that.)
I remember the snow obsession we shared when we were little. In fact, the best words to hear first thing in the morning (especially because you had the top bunk and could look out the window a leetle bit better) were: “it’s snowing!” followed closely by “it snowed!” Ahhhhh. I still feel that way, only I’m usually *more* surprised by it when I look out the window and see flakes in the air, since I don’t spend the winter checking at the windows every five minutes, as in times gone by.
TOTALLY. More thrilling than you can express.
I remember being bored in class at Dundana or AHVS and suddenly noticing (out of one of the clear panes in those large fiberglass window-walls) that there were floating flakes outside!! Snowing!! Makes 5 period soooo much easier to get through.
Yeah, we used to run to the window as if we’d never seen snow… just like kindergartners.