Let it snow, Mommy, and let me play in it!

Yes, we got snow….here….in Georgia. When they were forecasting it, I was the epitome of “skeptical.” They forecast it every year, but usually we see nothing. Nada. Zip. We haven’t had snow here since 2002. I wasn’t going to get excited about the possibility until I saw snowflakes. (Other folks, apparently, were more willing to believe the forecasts. When Leah and I went to WalMart for our normal shopping trip, the place was a madhouse. People had their shopping carts heaped with “essentials,” apparently in case they were snowed in. Yes, it has happened here before, but no, that’s not my first thought when the word “snow” is mentioned on the news. I digress.) At about 2:30 on Friday, though…..snow flurries. As we watched, it started picking up…more and more…and even began accumulating. Even I was starting to get excited. I got Leah bundled up, and out we went.

She seemed to like it, from the very start. I kept marveling at how it seems to be instinctive – she has never seen snow before, but took to it like a fish to water. As Scott said later, “I’ve never known a kid who didn’t like snow.” Leah has never liked being even the least bit cold, though, so I didn’t know how she’d like cold, wet stuff floating in her face. She loved it, though, and walked around and around making her little excited noises and waving her hands. I was laughing and laughing, too, because – in typical Leah style – she was as fascinated by the leaves and pinestraw on the ground as she was by the snow. She was having a great time, though – she got mad when I noticed her hands were cold and took her inside.

I got her gloves from her room, though, and after her hands thawed out a little, we headed back out. It was coming down more at that point, and she was even leaving a little trail behind her in the snow that stuck to the ground. (I realize this is the definition of “no big deal” to those of you from the northern regions of the world, but here, I assure you this is a very big deal.)

Leah was shrieking and laughing as the flakes hit her in the face, and she even tried to catch some on her tongue. I wasn’t doing that, but she – again, instinctively – seemed to know she was supposed to.

I was feeling so bad that Scott was at work and was missing Leah’s first experience with snow, so we were thrilled when he sent me a message and told me he was on his way home, an hour earlier than normal. By the time he got here, at about 5:45, it was really coming down. His car was covered when he pulled into the driveway, and I barely let him put his keys down before we went outside again.

Leah was still so fascinated by it! She would look all around, and look down at her feet, and look at her hands (which were practically incapacitated by her big mittens)….she just seemed amazed by it all. She didn’t reach down and play in it, and didn’t want to taste it when Scott held some up to her, but just loved walking in it (as best as she could) and looking at it.

This, I think, is my favorite picture of the whole day. That’s saying a lot, since I took *ahem* about 300 that day. I love the blob of snow on her hood:

She was having the best time, and I was just so excited that she was getting to experience it, and that she liked it. You just never know how they’ll take to something new, and I was thrilled that she was having a good time.

Once it started getting really hard for her to walk and it was really, really coming down, we headed back inside for cuddles on the couch. It was such a special evening – all evening we kept peering outside and seeing neighbors playing outside and more and more snow…..it was magical. It’s just not something we get to experience every day.