A Mommy Story

1. Decide it’s OK to play in the snow, even though your toddler has been a cranky nightmare.

Never a good idea.

2. Don’t check the back door before you suit up, to make sure the door isn’t iced shut.

Yeah, it might have been smart this morning to check the door first. Turns out, it had a small snow drift up against it, with a layer of ice over that, making the door impossible to open. I pushed it, I kicked it, I put my whole body weight into the door, but nothing would open it. Of course, Cordy was at the door the entire time, anxious to go outside.

I tried to tell her that we needed to go to the front door, but this two year old can’t comprehend changes in plans like that, and the tantrum began. She wanted the door open – right now. And my inability to open the storm door was translated to her as I got her all dressed up only to dash her dreams of playing in the snow. This was the result:

3. Carry crying toddler to the front door, then force her outside.

She screamed and cried until I dumped her down on the ground outside. Then, realizing she was out in the snow, she suddenly was very, very happy.

4. Tell toddler we’ll go into the backyard via the gate, only to find gate latch iced shut as well.

5. Promise toddler snow, when actually a half inch of freezing rain fell after the snow, forming a hard shell on top of five inches of snow.

There’s nothing fun about playing on hard ice. And Cordy didn’t weigh enough to break through most of it. I barely broke through it with each step.

6. Allow toddler to play outside without mittens, resulting in very cold hands.

She fought me several times over the issue of mittens, so I gave up and let her out without mittens. Our time outside lasted less than 10 minutes before she came up to me, holding her hands out, and started crying and saying, “Hands! Hands!”

I picked her up, brought her inside, and stripped off the outer layer of clothing (she had on two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, etc.). Grabbing a fleece blanket off the couch, I wrapped her up, held her on my lap, and helped her warm up. Soon she was happy again.

But despite the happy ending, this is not the way to play in the snow.