Winter Fun

We had planned a little family time in the new year and so I asked to not babysit the little boy I have a couple of days a week for the first full week of January (6-12). Brad took the week off as well (although there has been a last minute change and he has been off from the 1st and will go back on the 11th) and we have some household projects planned for the week plus an ultrasound and a haircut! Perhaps a trip to the city as well, although that is not a for sure at this point.

But since today is the last day I have Mason for a while, I thought what fun it would be to take Ryan and Mason out sledding. Mother Nature is cooperating and the weather is mild and sunny outside. (This morning there was some freezing rain/snow/sleet that kept us from going to our usual playgroup.) So as soon as naps were over and lunch was had, we ventured outside. There is a nice sledding hill just behind the houses across the street.


At first I sat both boys in the sled to take them over (Ryan sat in Mason’s lap) and then we found a nice “little” hill for them. We sent them down the hill in the sled together the first time and that was ok. Then we took them back up, we sent Mason down in the sled and Brad got on the blue saucer with Ryan. Then we switched and put Ryan in the sled and Mason on the blue saucer alone. I wish I had been able to capture the smile on their faces that time. We tried it again but Ryan’s sled tipped at the end and he fell over into the snow. Mason didn’t want to ride anymore after that, even after a short ride with me on the blue slide, he didn’t want anything to do with the sleds and insisted on walking home. Despite his tumble in the sled, Ryan was content to sit in it and be pulled. Of course I have taken him for walks in this before and it is usually a very pleasant experience.




When we got back to our house, Brad shoveled the light dusting of snow we got over night and I let the boys just play around in the driveway. I put each of them up in the snow bank but neither seemed too interested in playing in the snow, they just wanted to be down walking around the cars in the driveway and garage. We spent just over an hour outside and sadly the sun was already beginning to set as we headed upstairs after taking off all our winter gear.




While I am sure Ryan will love having Daddy home to play over the next week, I suspect he will miss his buddy Mason.










*****

If you notice Ryan’s snowsuit, it is all one piece with a hood (that doesn’t have a drawstring to make it tight), detachable booties and detachable mittens with no thumbs. It is the only snowsuit we have that fits Ryan this year but it is great. I do however, put a toque on him always since the hood doesn’t have a drawstring and is quite loose on his head, plus his toque has ear flaps and ties under his chin so he can’t pull it off. I also put other mittens on him under his attached mittens because again they are a little loose. I also put either his robeez booties or his hiking boots on under the attached booties to help keep his feet warm and dry incase snow gets down there.

Just before Christmas at the end of a bitterly cold windy weather streak and I was in Walmart with Ryan. We had been out running errands all day and I knew before we left that it was cold, that the mall and Walmart would be swamped and we would have to park far away so I bundled him up in his snowsuit. We had just finished paying at Walmart and I pushed my cart over by the customer service counter so I could redress Ryan (I had taken off his hat, mittens and unzipped his suit to get his arms out) when a lady came over and told me that was some suit Ryan was wearing. She went on to say she was glad to see some parents still know how to appropriately dress their children for winter weather.