And that's why I like snow.

Our adventure today begins with Xyla, tired of watching movies, grabbing my hand and leading me over to the front door.  She says "open door."  I knew this moment was coming.  We didn't have anything else to do, or be responsible for.  She was dressed in the sweatshirt her Aunt Brandy embroidered for her and her tangerine capri pants.  I wondered if she would try to walk out there with no shoes on so I opened the door.  

She got right up next to the door jamb, then turned to me and wanted me to pick her up.  She insisted but I told her that if she was going to go outside that she was going to have to walk out there on her own.  (I wasn't wearing any shoes either and I knew this wasn't going to be a two minute deal.)  She looked out the door and thought about it for a minute.  She said, "I need shoes."

I said, "very good, now where are they?"  She pointed to her pink and white tennis shoes and I closed the door, picked up some socks and her shoes and started putting them on her.  I grabbed my own pair of shoes, knowing this was going to go further than the driveway.  

We walked out the door and around the front of the car parked in the driveway.  She is very nervous about ice and there was quite a bit of it on the other side of the car.  I modeled a penguin walk and she followed.  Now before you say anything about the penguin walk let me ask you, have you ever seen a penguin fall on the ice?  So it works.  Stop laughing.

Once she got to the other side of the ice patch she said, "there no more."  I told her no there wasn't anymore ice.  So we walked down the driveway.  At the bottom of the driveway there is a river of slush.  I didn't even check to see what the temperature was, I didn't have to.  If the snow was melting this quickly then it was over 40 which is good enough for me.  The sun was warm on our shoulders. 

We started to walk down the street.  We made it to the mail boxes.  I am glad someone had the kind heart to shovel out a path for the mailman, if they can't get to the box - they don't deliver the mail.  That is a bad policy when 20 houses in the subdivision get their mail from the same cluster of boxes.  

We wandered around the cement pad where the mail boxes sit.  I had to explain to Xyla that we didn't have our key so we couldn't check our mail unless we went back to the house to get said key.  She wasn't having any of that.  She found a key on the ground.  It was the key to one of the large parcel boxes at the end of the row.  Of course it was the box with the number that was hard to reach because the plow (that came through at 9:30 at night) managed to pile it all, right there.  I reached over there an put the key in the box.  That is how the mail man gets the keys back.  I really should have checked to see if there was anything in the box since now it was open, but then what would I do with whatever was inside.  (I hope they get their mail.)

We continued down the street and came to the place where the subdivision turns into a field.  We turned around and started down the other cul-de-sac street.  We got to the bottom of the turnabout and she discovered slush.  After a few minutes of stomping around in it she stopped.  Set her foot down.  Thought about.  Lifted her foot up.  Thought about it.  Then said, "it making water."  I told her, "yes, when ice melts it turns into water."  Ironically, the same snow turns to water theme that was on The Magic School Bus today.  

We made our way through the "squishy slushy" back to our yard.  It was a bit of a struggle because she was just sure I was going to make her go inside.  I got her convinced that once we got back to the house we could make a snowman.  Then there was a little less talk and a lot more walk.  

I didn't even go in the house when we first got back to the yard.  I made a snow ball and plopped it in the snow.  I started to roll it.  She was intrigued.  I told her we had to roll it in other snow to make a ball.  When the snow is that slushy, it doesn't roll as well.  I decided that the snowman would be no bigger than her.  Mainly because it doesn't take a whole lot of height to impress an almost three year old and I didn't want to have to heft the dreaded second ball on top of the first.  It only took two swipes of her hands in the snow for her to decide it was too cold to put her hands in.  She was torn because she really wanted to make a snowman but she really didn't like her hands to be cold.  I asked her if she might like to go inside to get some gloves.  She shook her head yes.  

We went inside, I left the front door open so she would know that I intended to take her right back outside as soon as she was properly adorned.  

She shot out of the house, very excited that we were going to make this snowman.  (Going inside was an excellent opportunity for me to grab the camera too. )  Let me back up.  Just before Christmas we got an e-Christmas card from a relative that was a little bit of a game.  Woodland and domestic animals making a snowman.  She played that nearly nonstop and mentioned it at least 15 times every time I even looked sideways at the computer.  Add to that the snowmen at the stores and on her shirt and and everywhere else she looked . . . well you get that she knew about the snowman, right?  And why she was so excited to make one.  You know since the first snow was mid January and it didn't stick.  this was the first real snow that was snowman worthy.

The rolling of the first ball wasn't going so well.  It wasn't so much a ball as a lopsided lump.  I set it and started filling out the ball by taking handfuls of snow and patting them on to shape the ball.  It didn't take her long to pick up what I was up to.

The top ball was hardest to shape properly.  I find with smaller snowman size, judgement on ball size is a bit skewed.  In this case, lumpy and slightly off kilter.  It was too late though we were on a roll.  I tried out two leaves for eyes but shortly learned that Oklahoma, being the windy place that it is, was not going to let this be a 'natural' snowman.

The sucker she had when we started this adventure was abandoned in the first slush stop.  She handed it to me and never thought about it again.  I ate the rest of it.  I make no excuses, sometimes you have to take one for the team.  Consequently, the stick made a decent mouth.

Xyla was very serious about making sure her snowman had all the parts a person is supposed to have.  (Don't worry, she isn't aware of the major anatomical difference between boys and girls yet.)

Sn-yo-gee Bear?

She was very careful about the details.  We added arms and ears and snow eyes (after the leaves blew away) and twig eyebrows.  Look at this girl crafting the snow.  She was so serious too.  There was one place in the yard where it was apparent that someone in the neighborhood thought the drift in front of the house (3 feet) was steep enough to serve as a sledding hill.  Of course you can also tell that in order to sled, you should actually have a sled.  Sledding on your butt won't get you far unless the snow is firmly packed and this snow was very much not.  What I am trying to say is there are random foot prints and then butt prints that scoot about 4 feet. There are only two tracks.

However, there was still one spot in the yard that was broad and white and clean and just hollering for snow angels.  I asked Xyla if she wanted to make a snow angel and she said no.  I decided that I would show her what a snow angel is.  Then she just had to make one too.  (This is where my camera battery died.)  

Then it was back to the snow man.   She knocked off his arms.  Popped off his eyes.  Ooops-ed his ears and he was back to the generic three ball shape.  She got this look on her face.  She put her arms up for me to pick her up so I did.  I asked her if she was done for today and she shook her head yes.  I trapsed through the snow packing my baby girl and headed in the house.  I set her down for just a minute and she started crying saying, "snowman . . . SNOman . . . SNOWMAN."  I told her that we would go out and play with the snowman again tomorrow.  

She was really upset.  I haven't seen her really emotionally hurt and crying very many times.  I asked her if she missed the snowman.  She nodded her teary head yes.  I told her we would go out and see the snowman first thing in the morning.  Then I held her for a long time.  I set her down on the couch with a pillow and her blanket and a cup of milk.  In less than three minutes, she was fast asleep.  I hope she dreams of dancing with her snowman.  Good night, snow angel.