Little Girl and Snow

The picture above is of Little Girl with Soccer Dad. Little Girl was 17 1/2 months old. It was Christmas afternoon of 2002, and we were standing in my grandmother's yard. I'd gone off to get batteries for my camera when it started to snow, and by the time I got back, Big Girl was still romping in the snow, but Little Girl had gone in the house.

"What happened to Little Girl?"

"Oh," Soccer Dad answered, "she fell down and didn't like the snow, so she's inside."

Now, good mother that I am, I wanted to forever remember the girls' first snow. How could I do that without a picture of Little Girl outside??? "Go and get her coat and hat on. I want a picture of her in the snow."

Yes, that's right. I insisted that she be dressed back in her outdoor clothes and be dragged outside into the ice and snow. Mind you, the poor child had only been walking about three months and that was the first time she'd seen ice and snow in her short life.

Soccer Dad obediently went back in the house, shaking his head at his nutso wife, and got Little Girl dressed again. She was whimpering when he led her back outside on the porch. A couple of steps and whoops! Little Girl fell again. Soccer Dad picked her up and I took the above picture. Go on, look again. I'll wait.

Back again? Good.

If you look at the picture, you can see her tears starting already. Soccer Dad was caught in the middle of saying something like, "How long are you going to torture the poor kid? Hurry up and take a picture!"

I'm not really that mean. She got to go back inside once I snapped that picture. I don't think she even remembers it. (I just read the above to her. She has no recollection of the incident. See? No emotional scarring - at least not from her first snow.)

Of course, these days, you'd never know she had such an aversion to snow.

She was quite disappointed that the snow today was light, short-lived, and melted long before lunchtime.

But we've still got hope! There is snow in the forecast later this week, and the temperatures seem to be staying low enough to keep a little on the ground. Maybe we'll take out those toboggans yet!