Friday, January 18, 2008

Baby's First Snowman....Well...Kid's First Snowman

Yes, we lived in Alaska. Yes, Becca was born in Alaska. And, no, we never made a snowman there. It was too cold. The snow was too powdery. Becca was an infant. Excuses, excuses.Yesterday it dumped some good, heavy, wet snow on us. We got Becca all rigged up in two pairs of sweatpants, hat, jacket, some mittens and some borrowed boots. I had her so bundled up that John was laughing at me. He kept saying, "It isn't that cold outside!" After a snowball fight (in which I got annoyed at John for throwing snowballs at me when I was holding my preciousssss camera), shoveling and snowman building fest, we walked down the street to play with some other 2-year olds. (Note the neighbor's mini-van which got stuck in their driveway!)

These 2-year olds were all decked out in color-coordinated snow pants and parkas, hats, boots and gloves. They looked like little L.L. Bean models! I made some comment about how I don't have snow pants for Becca, but it didn't seem to be bothering her. She played. We went home. We had hot chocolate (or in Becca's case, warm chocolate) and then the phone rang.


It was a second neighbor who had heard I didn't have any winter clothes for my child and would I like to borrow some? Then the phone rang again. A third neighbor said, "I heard you don't have anything for Becca for winter."
Word travels fast when the Alaskan kid on the block has no snow gear.

10 comments:

joanna said...

What fun! How nice of your neighbors - news travels as fast in your neighborhood as I think it would on base! I grew up in TN and we never had any snow gear. We always layers sweats and jeans to play in the snow. It was so nice to have "real" snow clothes in AK... but I never enjoyed wondering what size snow pants the kids would fit in the NEXT year. The other day here in Tucson it was 55 degrees and I saw a lady strolling with her baby in a buggy wearing a snow suit. It made me giggle.

Andrea and Ben said...

Fun, Fun, Fun!!! It is just like living on base somewhere - everyone knows your business and often times before you do!!! I love the pics. It must have been nice to be able to spend that day as a family - fun :0)

The Quinn Report said...

Neighbors..at times, I just don't know what to think of them!

Joel and Angela said...

My kids want to see snow SO SO BAD!!! They keep asking me when it is going snow. At least you have neighbors that care. I think I have had one neighbor call me once in the year that we have lived here. Not that I really want them to call, but what if I had an emergency!
A

MaryB said...

OMG! I am so jealous that I could practically jump through the monitor to play in the snow!!!

Anonymous said...

Does anyone else find the neighbors' behavior creepy? A little stepford-ish?

Nice, yes, but creeeeepy.

Anonymous said...

Becca is sure cute with her snowman. You lucky dog. We have frozen snow,more like cement.but we do have -20 below temps for a few nites time to plug in the truck.send some snow up here to central Minnesota!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Angie said...

We never had snow gear growing up, either. Snow pants? We put long underwear underneath our jeans. I didn't know anyone that had snow gear, though, so we weren't odd.

And, we never made a snow man in Alaska, either. I don't know that many people did.

Tracy said...

I had no idea it snowed. You see how informed my husband keeps me. My poor Madison doesn't have any snow pants either. Could you tell you neighbors that?

Anonymous said...

Come to think of it, we've been in Alaska for 6.5 years and have never made a snowman either. Isn't that weird?