Snow through a Childs Eyes

One of the things I love most about being a mother is the opportunity to vicariously see life through the eyes of a child all over again.  What a perfect plan...just when we are getting older and more cynical, when our sense of life has become jaded...when we have lost the sense of wonder intrinsic to childhood, along come our children to remind us what life can be about. Their lives are filled with new experiences, the awe of seeing things for the first time...when we see snow as just cold and messy...our children come along to re-ignite our enthusiasm about the little things and remind us that snow is wonderful, magical and exciting.

Yesterday morning we had our first snowfall in Buffalo. Ava was SO excited. We went to sleep on Monday night to dry ground and woke up to a completely snow covered neighborhood. Ava woke up around 7:45, I went up to her room and this is how things went:

Me: Ava, guess what, it snowed last night. Do you want to see?

(I pull open her blinds and lift her out of her crib to look outside)

Ava: I WANT TO GO BUILD A SNOWMAN!!!!! I WANT TO GO OUTSIDE! LET'S GO PLAY IN THE SNOW!

Truly, I wasn't super pumped about the snow, but her little voice and her wide eyes put a huge smile on my face. We walked downstairs and she was adamant about going out.

Ava: Where are my snowpants? Let's go outside. (Jumping up and down- mind you it's now even 8 a.m.).

Me: Ava, sweetie, I can't go out with you, I need to feed your sister and make breakfast.

Ava: I got out by myself.

Me: Sure.

We put all of her clothes on. Two pairs of socks, leggings, long sleeve shirt, sweater, snowpants, jacket, hat, gloves and her rain boots because I have yet to buy her a new pair of snow boots this year! The picture below pretty much sums it up. She played outside for a good 20 minutes. Packing, walking, sliding down her slide into the snow while Ella and I watched from the kitchen and then she came in for breakfast and asked about a snowman. The snow is melting from yesterday, but more is due this weekend-- we are due to make a snowman and she cannot stop asking to watch the Little Bear episode where he makes one. 

Thank God for children who remind us that there is joy in the little things. And the wet things, and the cold things, and the furry things...