Snow Day!

Mother nature dropped about 8 inches of snow in an awesome snow storm yesterday for us and I have absolutely loved it!

I know I’m one of those weirdos that love snow. I was raised to love it. My parents took me sledding and skiing growing up and I have always enjoyed the cold weather while we played in it.

The neighborhood kids and I would always be sled riding down the hill that ran us right into jagger bushes (Pittsburghese showing in my slang here) so you would have to bail just before the bottom.

I was the kid with the glasses growing up who walked into the house and had them fog up like a total dork when we were going to get some hot chocolate and soup. But we did all the snow things every chance we got, over, and over again!

Here’s one of my favorite things right now. My mom, who pitches lots of things, actually saved my sled from 30+ years ago so we can now use it for my son. Below are photos of me on a snow day with my parents and my sled.

I personally love the fact that I had to mimic my dad and kneel like he did next to the snowman. HA!

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Now that I have a son to enjoy this with, I get to be a kid again with him. Yesterday was our first chance at it and he is now starting to realize he can love it since last year he was only a baby potato.

He is only in daycare but they had reached out yesterday to close early and I deemed it a snow day for him.

We took the time to dress him like a marshmallow and threw his boots on and he toddled outside, slowly, to watch the snow fall on him. We drug him around the snow-covered street, and he may have tipped over a couple of times, but we enjoyed that the snow plow drivers didn’t come down our street right away.

We did a few rides down our tiny hill in the front yard, when he finally showed a smile with his squished chubby cheeks. And he even took his sled down the street to find his dad helping a neighbor and met our neighbors’ dog who loved the snow as much as him.

The day was a true snow day for him.

In our state, we even saw a few schools on the news state they were cancelling the school day so children could have a true snow day to go play. They didn’t have to do that because almost all schools have figured out how to teach remotely, but the principals realized this year has been so abnormal that some normalcy was due to the kids to let loose. Maybe even the teachers and parents were in mind when that decision was made.

I say that because though my son enjoyed yesterday as a child, I know I enjoyed it as much, if not more than he did, while I sweat in my coat and hat running down our street. It made us laugh. We saw neighbors out who we got to chat with who we haven’t seen in a while. They smiled seeing him enjoy the snow. And then we came inside and made hot chocolate and had cookies.

The point of this blog is to not only let your kids have a snow day, you should too! Don’t be so uptight to only bundle them up and ship them outside.

Get yourself ready and join them as well. Wave to the plow truck drivers as they come by. Say “Hi” to your neighbors while shoveling, since we haven’t been able to. Make hot chocolate. Bake cookies. HAVE FUN! We hope wherever you are, you can enjoy the season, even if you don’t love the snow as much as I do!

30+ year difference in these photos. I can’t quit smiling looking at it.

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Communication

Lately our son has been saying more words. It’s quite fun to have him attempt to repeat us and see how fast he picks up on a word… or doesn’t. His little mouth tries so very hard to pronounce the words we say to him.

Our favorite right now is “cookie.” I’ve been baking and he helps me, well, makes a mess while I make them. He has been asking for them since he sees them cooling and now my husband and I know a new language, toddler. He says “ckck-ckk” or something of the sort. It makes smile and laugh every time he says it but he continues to try again and again.

Since he has been growing and understanding things we have always tried to ask him to tell us what he wants when he begins his toddler jibberish. We ask him to show us and we will follow since obviously he isn’t fully aware of words or how to say them correctly.

When we ask him to show us or tell us it helps our communication. While we both may not know exactly what it is, he knows we are trying to help him rather than allow the tantrums to progress.

Truly, he understands quite a bit that we say and ask of him. He loves a task and having something to complete on his own. He will put his clothes in the hamper, sometimes confused with trash. Whoops. But he likes to throw things away too. He also really LOVES to cook meals and have us try them in his play kitchen. One of my personal favorites.

We know communicating with children isn’t the easiest for anyone but we do what we can as their parents. The best thing we ever did was teach him baby sign language when he was teeny tiny. I really didn’t have high expectations for it because well, I am a first time mom and only heard about it. How did i know it would be so beneficial to us? We worked at it and kept at it consistently. It has paid off for us all!

He says quite a few that really helps eliminate frustration among all of us and to help him get what he wants easier without as many tantrums. He can sign milk, water, more, all done, please, and thank you.

While that did help us and still does, we are enjoying the new stage of him learning his words vocally. I may regret that statement later on. 😉

My favorite part of communication with my son is laughter. He has the very best belly laugh that makes my entire world stop. He loves when we laugh at him and he begins to laugh more.

No one needs to know what you’re saying when you’re all laughing.

And right now, that’s the best thing we can do.