Wow. It's gorgeous today
Feb. 21st, 2003 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sierciaDecided this morning that since I had no lunch date (*sniff*) that I'd flip our usual Friday routine around a bit - it was lovely outside, and I didn't want Widget's nap (or lack ofnap, as the case may be) schedule to prevent her from getting outside to play, even though the snow is still taller than she can walk through in a lot of spots.
We headed out about 11:30, and it was lovely - sunny and WARM. Like, high 50s warm. Poor Miss Widget in her snowsuit and boots, because I wanted to keep her dry, was sweating up a storm when we came in. We walked down to the park, with Widgete insisting all the way we were going to the swings. I kept telling her no, (knowing the playground wasn't cleared), hoping the wall of snow between us and the swings would make her realize. Ha. She started yelling "swing swing SWING!" and clambered right through the snowbank, and started climbing through the snow ruts on the other side. I followed (and this snow was better than knee deep on me, mind), until we could see that the playground was entirely uncleared, and the swings were still actually bottomed out in the snow. Plucked Widget up, through her howls of disappointment, trudged back through the snow and heading back towards the house, amid much tears and sadness.
On our way to the park, Widget had made the wonderous discovery of puddle stomping. I swear, she would have gone in puddles up to her knees if I had let her! SO, I tried to use new and exciting puddles as a way to entice her back to the house, and it worked, kind of. She also loves to carry snowballs around with her when there's snow on the grund, and she kept dropping her snowballs in the puddles and getting very mad when I wouldn't let her pick up the slush balls. She get oddly attached to the snowballs, and doesn't seem to get that she can just ask for (or make) a new snowball. So there was much crying over that. And she insisted on picking up this grotty road stick and carrying it home with her. Which she kept dropping because mittens are a great detriment to fine motor control. And yeah, much crying over that as well. Sensing a trend here?
Once we got back to the house, I told her I would build her a snowman, which I did, while she busied herself playing her own game with the snow. I haven't built a snowman since I was a little kid! It was fun, but more difficult than I remembered (or perhaps I hold myself to a higher standard now). Widget's ability to busy herself without my having to watch her constantly, or demanding my attention constantly gives me great hope for my gardening time this summer, especially if we can find the money to fence in the backyard. It's not like she can play outside by herself yet, obviously - she was never more than about 6 feet from me, but she listened and stayed close to me and didn't try to break for the street once. Yay! And now we have a cute but kind of sad little snowman in our yard, and we had a great hour and a half outside in the gorgeous day. I wish it would keep up, spring can't come soon enough for me.
And, of course, the bonus of the tiring outside excursion is that she was tired at naptime, and is actually taking a nap today. Woo!
We headed out about 11:30, and it was lovely - sunny and WARM. Like, high 50s warm. Poor Miss Widget in her snowsuit and boots, because I wanted to keep her dry, was sweating up a storm when we came in. We walked down to the park, with Widgete insisting all the way we were going to the swings. I kept telling her no, (knowing the playground wasn't cleared), hoping the wall of snow between us and the swings would make her realize. Ha. She started yelling "swing swing SWING!" and clambered right through the snowbank, and started climbing through the snow ruts on the other side. I followed (and this snow was better than knee deep on me, mind), until we could see that the playground was entirely uncleared, and the swings were still actually bottomed out in the snow. Plucked Widget up, through her howls of disappointment, trudged back through the snow and heading back towards the house, amid much tears and sadness.
On our way to the park, Widget had made the wonderous discovery of puddle stomping. I swear, she would have gone in puddles up to her knees if I had let her! SO, I tried to use new and exciting puddles as a way to entice her back to the house, and it worked, kind of. She also loves to carry snowballs around with her when there's snow on the grund, and she kept dropping her snowballs in the puddles and getting very mad when I wouldn't let her pick up the slush balls. She get oddly attached to the snowballs, and doesn't seem to get that she can just ask for (or make) a new snowball. So there was much crying over that. And she insisted on picking up this grotty road stick and carrying it home with her. Which she kept dropping because mittens are a great detriment to fine motor control. And yeah, much crying over that as well. Sensing a trend here?
Once we got back to the house, I told her I would build her a snowman, which I did, while she busied herself playing her own game with the snow. I haven't built a snowman since I was a little kid! It was fun, but more difficult than I remembered (or perhaps I hold myself to a higher standard now). Widget's ability to busy herself without my having to watch her constantly, or demanding my attention constantly gives me great hope for my gardening time this summer, especially if we can find the money to fence in the backyard. It's not like she can play outside by herself yet, obviously - she was never more than about 6 feet from me, but she listened and stayed close to me and didn't try to break for the street once. Yay! And now we have a cute but kind of sad little snowman in our yard, and we had a great hour and a half outside in the gorgeous day. I wish it would keep up, spring can't come soon enough for me.
And, of course, the bonus of the tiring outside excursion is that she was tired at naptime, and is actually taking a nap today. Woo!