bitter sweet snow

The snow has been a hit for our toddler. He is in love with snow.

The first sledding adventures--this season and thus has a memory of-- were masked in muted trepidation. For the record, the Bean does everything with trepidation.

But the follow up revealed that he had loved the thrill of zinging down the perilous hill beside our place.

The hill was truly an accident minefield as the parents had committed some acts of civil disobedience and ripped out as much of the fence themselves --notice I'm not including us in this questionable vandalism--we go out there too late. The new jungle gym and the trees and fixed poles stood stalwart, uncushioned.

Hold your breath. We have no true sledding helmet, so the Bean took a trip on the wild side.

He did some easy runs on his own. In general he was great at steering around obstacles. I tried to position myself in front of the danger areas. That idea backfired. Instead of steering away, he steered for me. Plan B.

His father then took it upon his good self to volunteer to ride with our snow Bean. That felt safer.

Several days later the hill is still a big pull when we pass it on our way back from dagis. However, we never get there within a reasonable time...Because.....

To walk 100m can take as long as 10 minutes. Every snow ball, each snow bank, all covered surfaces must be trampled, picked up, thrown or plowed through. It's painful for a mother wearing the wrong socks.

Walking home from dagis with buddy Elin should take about 20 minutes. Twice it's taken us nearly an hour. They just love the snow.

I'm enjoying the mini-melt we're experiencing now.

And still back and forth on how happy I am to have snow.