Shoveling: Through Little Man's Eyes

It snowed yesterday - quite a bit.  Enough that we needed to go out and shovel and that it would go faster if we were both outside.  So this meant getting Xander dressed and ready for outdoors. 

Xander wasn't having the best day ever.  His regular nap time wasn't working for him and although he took a lengthy afternoon nap (as did Mom), his mood hadn't improved much when he woke up.  He was not going to make getting him dressed easy.  From the time we put on the snowpants, all the way down to the hat and boots he complained.  (Let me just add he wanted nothing to do with his snow boots, so instead he wore his newer brown boots.  He was a little happier after this.)  We got him all dressed up, got his hat on (which stayed on the entire time - hooray!), and tried to put the mittens on.  Because it's cold outside, you know.  He was NOT having it.  Every time we got close to him with mittens he had a meltdown.  I was tempted to just stay inside with him but I'd promised Justin I'd help him shovel if he would wait until after naptime. 

So out we trudged, and amazingly enough - from that point on, Xander's attitude increased dramatically.  He had so much fun being outside.  I guess he was going a little stir-crazy in the house.  He had a lot of fun shoveling the snow (with a garden shovel) and watching Justin & I shovel the sidewalks and driveway.  

Initially, he wouldn't step past the shoveled bits. He'd only walk in the snow if we were holding his hand.  Once he got brave enough to step onto the fluffy white stuff, he was good to go. 

Daddy even showed him that it was sorta fun to eat snow (only the white stuff, of course!).  

Again, mittens would have been nice, and he even let me put them on twice, but they quickly came off again. His hands were freezing when we came back inside.  Any suggestions on how to get him to keep them on? 

We have a huge pile of snow on each side of our driveway.  Our front lawn isn't very big so there are only so many places the snow can go when we shovel.  These piles just get higher and higher as winter presses on.  They're the perfect place to have a seat though!  With all his snow gear on, Xander didn't notice the cold one bit and was content to just sit and look around.  Go figure!