And here I am, two and a half years later, calling 40 degrees "warm." More importantly, I stood on the balcony in a short-sleeved shirt this evening watching Ninna draw with chalk on the wet, 40 degree driveway without mittens. If any of the Montreal grandmas who walk around with their watchful eyes would have seen this, I would have, at best, gotten the evil eye, and at worst, gotten a lecture.
But the Montreal grandmas don't realize that somehow, this child was made for winter. She spent her summer talking about how she couldn't wait for snow. While I'm rushing the chicks outside after nap to take advantage of one of the last "warm" days, pre-snow, Ninna is fantasizing about building snowmen and climbing six-foot snowbanks.
Little Bojey, somewhat less of a cold weather girl, watches from afar, undergoing those two-year old internal battles--the desire to both be downstairs with the big girls and be upstairs with mama at the same time, the desire to simultaneously be drawing on a wet driveway and cuddling up in a warm house.
And me? Well, I'm having no internal battles. I know I will fear the snow, and I'll freeze for the first few days, but once the Christmas lights start glittering through the flurries and the rosy cheeked chicks start begging to play in the snow, I'll start making the hot chocolate and bundling us up, remembering again how vibrant the cold weather can make us feel.
4 comments:
I NEED to learn to love the cold! Snow at least is beautiful =)
Oh, these California bones definitely suffer up here in the North Pole. I was thinking today, though, anticipating yet another polar winter, that my winters here without a child were just painful and I avoided the outdoors as much as possible. But with children you're forced to go out and play in the elements. So winter is not just about escaping the cold for hot baths and books books books galore, but about connecting with the pure joy of (frozen) play. And it's the full circle of life that our children get to experience here: the full dramatic death of autumn, the really bare empty deadness of winter, the astonishing green of spring, and the abundance of summer. I just can't imagine raising my boy in California anymore, he would miss ALL of this. Now perhaps a little farther south would be more appealing, but I have come to love the seasons, including winter. E.
Born here, lived here my entire life and I will NEVER get used to the cold and snow that this wonderful city brings to us every year. But - I like the idea of hot chocolate and christmas lights... maybe, if we get enough lights up, the snow will melt from the heat they emit??? Ok, soooo not environmentally friendly!
Ooh, that's a good attitude. Me? I just cringe whenever anyone says about these rainy November days, "I wish it was snow." And I too have at least two winter-loving kiddos (which will make that move to Costa Rica more complicated).
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