Dear Mom no snowman today

Dear Mom no snowman to day

It took some time this year to make our first snowman. We had snow, but it was the wrong kind. Claire insisted on going outside. Carnahan was chest deep in the white stuff and it was hilarious watching him jump around trying to find a high spot where he could do his business with out getting snow on his tail. He eventually managed to tramp down enough snow to give him some level of comfort.

Claire was busy trying to make a snowball. The precursor to the base of her snow man. She completely understood what she was trying to do but could not figure out what she was doing wrong.

“This is the wrong kind of snow sweetie.” I packed a snowball between my gloved hands and it pretty much just fell apart as soon as I let up pressure. “It is too powdery. If we were skiing, this would be great. But it is not so good for snowmen.”

“We just have to keep trying.” She grunted a bit as she tried to turn over a section of snow that kind of stuck together in a drift. As it flipped it shattered into the rest of the drift. There would be no snowmen today.

“If we wait till tomorrow we may be able to get it to stick together.” I tried to console her as she finally came to terms with the uncooperative snow. She now walked over to a stick and tried to wrench it from the snow that was drifted on top of it. Carnahan wanted in on this and as the stick broke free from the larger branch it was attached to buried in the snow, dog and girl feel back into a drift. She was covered in the powdery snow that bushed off easy enough but caught deep into her knit hat and slid down her sleeves past her mittens.

“You okay?” I gave the obligatory question. She grunted as she threw the stick as far as she could. Carnahan raced after it. Being half Labrador you would think he could fetch better. Not so much. However he would make an exception when playing with Claire. He did not fetch so much as play keep away from the little girl. It was very bad form and I should not encourage him to grab something and try to run away with it. But it was so funny. Him bounding up and down in the snow, staying just a couple steps ahead of Claire. Claire racing after him as fast as her little feet could plow through the nine inch deep snow. Carnahan bounced into a snowdrift. It slowed him just enough for Claire to fall on top of the stick and wrench it from his grip. The drift was well over her head and she all but disappeared for a moment while she got her bearings and stood up. Carnahan barked once. Then as if by command Claire threw the stick again. It was nice to see she enjoyed the game as much as Carnahan. He had trained her well.

This happened three more times. Each time Claire eventually caught up with Carnahan, either by shear will or perhaps because the puppy did not want to discourage her from playing again. I can’t help but think he was giving in.

Caked with snow and finally feeling the cold Claire walked over to me out of breath. “I’m cold, lets go inside.” Magical words I had been waiting for since the moment we stepped out.

We went in the door, Carnahan dutifully sat on the mat by the door waiting for me to clean off his feet as he had been trained. Claire shed her clothes in a snow covered melting mess in the entryway, not as she had been trained. Snow had filled up her boots, they were just too short for this snow, I would have to seal them up somehow or find a pair of pants that would fit over them. Or I could count on this flaw to make her feet cold enough to want to come inside before my ears froze off. I would consider both possibilities carefully.

“I need some hot chocolate pretty bad Dad.” I was shaking the snow out of her clothes and hanging them up on the coat rack. “Sounds good.” Before we went outside I had laid out some dry cloths she could put on after our adventure, she was busy putting on some dry socks as I made the hot chocolate.

As we drank our hot chocolate and stared out the back window at the falling snow she commented. “We can try again tomorrow okay?” It ended like a question maybe to test my resolve to help her get the snowman made.

“We sure can, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Love Mike