It's sad that it's taken three years to get snow that he could really play in.
The winter he was born, we had tons of snow.
It snowed just two days after he came home from the hospital, on the morning of his first doctor's visit.
In addition to being in a lot of pain, running late, trying to dress a baby for the cold, trying to figure out how to buckle him in his carseat (my first time doing that) and getting to the doctor's office, I was stressed out to the max. Then it started snowing as we left the office and I was nervous driving home. It snowed enough that my parents ended up staying a few extra days to avoid the snowy drive home.
It snowed several more times that winter. I finally bundled Sawyer up and took him outside for a few pictures in the snow. He was less than 2 months old.
Shortly after he turned 1, it snowed on Christmas Day. I was thrilled to have a white Christmas, but Sawyer had no clue what was going on. Again, I bundled him up in snow gear and too-big boots and plopped him in the snow. He couldn't walk yet, so there wasn't much to do besides flopping around in the snow like a fish and getting all wet.
After a wardrobe change, I let him crawl around on our neighbor's porch ... it had just enough snow blown on it for a 1-year-old to experience on his belly.
The next winter, I had a whole snowsuit and boots ready. We got one measly snow, and it was mostly melted by the time Sawyer and I got outside the next morning. We scraped enough snow off the car windshields to make a couple snowballs and built the world's smallest snowman on our porch.
This year, I decided, was going to be different. If it didn't snow at home, we were going to find some snow in the mountains.
Thankfully, it snowed at home! The snow started about dinnertime on a Thursday night, my night off from work. I kept checking out the window; about 8 p.m., the whole backyard was covered in snow.
I told Ray that I really wanted to run to the store. Mr. New England is always up for a drive in the snow, so we bundled up and ran out for bread, milk and cookies.
Sawyer was in heaven. He wanted to play snowball fight, so we threw a few at him and I helped him throw some at Daddy.
Since we hadn't been planning to stay out playing, I hadn't put him in waterproof clothes. His pants and gloves were soaked after rolling around in the snow, so I made him come inside. You would've though I killed his favorite pet. He boo-hooed and was inconsolable.
Ray let him go back out for a few minutes. And he had a blast. I'm sure he would've stayed out as long as we let him.
I was happy that he got to play, but I hoped the snow would stick around long enough to sled and run around in the morning.
There was plenty of snow the next morning. We put on his real snow gear and headed out to play in the empty schoolyard. He mostly wanted to make snowballs, even though he couldn't figure out how to pack them tightly. And he refused to keep gloves on, so I'm sure his little hands were hurting.
He tried to make a snow angel, but the snow had thawed and frozen over enough that it was too crunchy for angels. He was pretty impressed by all his footprints though.
I pulled out the sled, one Ray and I bought in Connecticut and never used. I didn't think we had enough snow or a good hill to use my wooden Flexible Flyer, my prized childhood sled. I don't figure Sawyer would've stayed on it anyhow.
We found the biggest hill nearby ... behind the baseball field at the school ... and I pulled him down it a few times. He was unimpressed with sledding.
It is super hard to catch a smile when I also had to pull him down the hill. I need go-go gadget arms sometimes to get the picture I want.
So I gave up trying to convince him to sled and just let him run around until we were tired.
The snow lasted several days, so we pretty much couldn't leave the house without a request for a snowball fight.
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