The Snowman

Having never played in the snow until this winter, it stands to reason that Max had also never made a snowman. After enthusiastically reading "The Snowman" over the holidays, I figured it was time Max and I made a "so'man" for ourselves. This weekend offered up the perfect mix of warmer temperatures and fantastic packing snow. So, when Molly went down for a nap and Max refused to follow suit, I decided to get him back up and take him outside for a snowman building adventure.

After about ten minutes worth of wrestling Max (and myself) into snow gear, we were ready to go. Unfortunately, the only thing missing from his winter attire was the all-important pair of boots. I hadn't realized that, in order to acquire a pair of child-sized snow boots, one must buy them in the middle of summer. When we had our first snow, I ran out to several stores to look for some boots, only to find that there were NO boots to be had in Max's size. Since it appears that nobody plans to restock their boots until next summer, we've been improvising – I put a couple of pairs of socks on him, squeeze on his tennis shoes, wrap his feet in plastic grocery bags, and secure them around the ankles with rubber bands. His feet stay warm and dry long enough for a little play time in the back yard (although I suspect that might put us in the running for some white trash award or other ;).

Max loves playing in the back yard and it's even more fun with snow. We ran around and made (and threw) some snowballs before we got down to business. Max was pretty intrigued by the snowballs, but a little disappointed when his efforts to catch them resulted in their prompt and total disintegration. I started rolling the giant snowballs to build the snowman's body, which Max thought was pretty interesting. I did have to keep him from knocking down the half-built snowman before I had finished. Once we had the body together, Max and I collected some appropriately twiggy sticks to serve as arms, a small piece of grass for a mouth, a couple of cranberries for eyes, and the traditional carrot nose. Max got a little over enthusiastic about the sticks, so the snowman had a few random twig appendages shoved into his back side. ;)

Max loved his snowman. He talked to him, gave him hugs, and was genuinely impressed with our creation. After it started to get darker and colder (and Molly started waking up), we went back inside, got on some dry clothes, and made ourselves some hot cocoa (with extra marshmallows). What a fun way to spend a winter afternoon!

Max proceeded to look out the window to check on his snowman every few minutes. Unfortunately, it rained overnight and by this morning, the snowman had lost his eyes and nose and was starting to look a little sorry. Max looked out the window and exclaimed, "So'man! What happened? Where did his nose go? Where is it?" Like the snowman in the story that Max loves, I fear he'll wake up tomorrow to find that his snowy friend wasn't able to outlast this January thaw