Expanding his Boundaries

One of the first posts I made as a stay-at-home dad mentioned the Boy's first snow. But today was snow.

I think we got 8 inches. (I heard New York got 27!) That's enough to totally change the way the world looks, especially with a clear sky and bright sun to turn up the albedo. For you or me, we shrug it off and say, "it snowed."

But not for the boy. While we were walking back from brunch at neighbor A.'s house, I stopped to let the Boy reach from the front carrier into a shrub heavy with wet snow. He pawed a collection of snow. (It must have felt cold.) Then he pawed a bigger clump, and squeezed it into a ball. (It must have felt wet and hard.) Then I bumped the bush with my shoulder and made a big avalanche right before his eyes. (!!!)

We made it home, but the Boy and I turned right around to head out. The Monkey Mama stayed home to nurse her cold, but our west coast visitor K. was game for a walk in the snow. (The dog loves the snow unconditionally.)

We ended up staying out almost another hour. We saw a really cool snowman sculpture -- the arts are thriving in Petworth! (Picture later, maybe.) We didn't get very far, and the cemetary was unexpectedly locked. We met up with neighbor A. and his escorts. It got a little colder. The Boy saw the dogs bounding through the snow after sticks. At some point, the Boy started howling so we called the Monkey Mama for a ride. We went for a little drive to see some pretty sights, and the Boy was content by the end.

So not only did the Boy experience snow at a much more advanced stage of development (8 months old, not 6 months) but he got a chance at prolonged exposure to the cold and staying outside his comfort zone for a long while.

Later, he took a long nap. I wonder what he dreamed?