First Snowfall

This morning I awoke to see the first snowflakes of the season. After a few quiet minutes with a hot cup of coffee, I heard Erin's "good morning" babbles coming from her room. I went in and greeted her as usual, and laughed while she jumped around like a monkey in her crib. Then, I pulled up the shade and watched her stop short and stare out the window, frozen in place. Her little hand reached up, finger extended, as she pointed out the strange phenomen outside her window. Of course she can't remember last winter, so this was a whole new world for her. I picked her up and we sat by the window, cozy and warm, gazing at the transformation taking place in our yard.

After a bit, I heard Amy and Beth waking up in their room. Erin and I ran in, and again I pulled up the shade. Beth jumped out of bed with a shout, "It's snowing! It's snowing!" Her memories are filled with snow angels, sledding, snowballs and all sorts of winter fun. Amy was a little more hesitant.

"I remember snow", she told me. But she stared doubtfully out the window at the falling flakes, and then slowly backed away.

Throughout breakfast, Amy watched the snow with a concerned look. "It's getting on my swings", she worried. "It's on the deck, it's on the grass...how will we get it off the fence? How will we ever clean this up?" I reassured her as best I could, but she continued to feel somewhat anxious.

But when we put on our coats, hats and mittens and headed outside to play for a bit, she finally relaxed. She ran and jumped, and made snowballs and snow angels. She even tried to make a snowman, but with less than an inch of accumulation that proved to be somewhat difficult. We finished up our morning with cups of hot chocolate at the kitchen table, and Amy again looked out the window.

"This is the best day ever", she told me. "I love snow. NOW I remember that snow is really, really, really fun. This is much better than swimming, in the summertime".

Let's see if she's still saying that in late March...