Kira and the Snow

We're having, you guessed it, another snowstorm. Another day of no school (why always on Monday? I've canceled four or five therapy appointments this winter so far). Up to 15 inches of snow expected by the end of the storm tonight.

Kira is having a blast. As soon as the first flakes started coming down this morning, she was outside. We'd had some rain and warm weather the last week or so, and most of the huge snowfall we'd accumulated had gone, to her great disappointment. She was delighted to hear that we were getting more snow.

So she's been out many times already today. Not always for a long time, sometimes just for a few minutes, once without even remembering to put on her snow pants. She was just running out for a minute to put away her sled that she had left in the driveway, before it got run over or something. Naturally, once outside she got distracted and ended up playing for a while, came in soaked through and had to put on her second outfit of the day. (She's up to four now, I think. Another change of outfit was needed when she smeared candy cane on her new white top [sigh], and another outfit was just because.)

She's just so darn cheerful while she's out there. She found a jumprope and tied it to her new sled (I swear that girl has a streak of dominatrix somewhere...she just LOVES tying things up) and has been dragging it around.

I went to the sliding glass doors and was watching her just trudging around the yard, chattering away to herself in her fuschia jacket and the totally clashing white-and-red hat from her dad's house that she's been wearing, while the bright-blue sled tied with the purple jumprope skids along behind her. She's a flashy rainbow in the snowstorm, where the world is a blur behind the thick white flakes.

Kids are so great about snow. They don't care how cold it is, or if it's currently blizzarding or not. They just want to be out there, creating worlds and adventures for themselves.

So while I was watching and enjoying the snowfall and my contemplations, my gaze wandered over to the corner of the deck where I store the shovels and snow scoop. There are two full-size shovels out there, a Kira-size shovel, and the scoop.

My shovel was missing.

I opened the door an inch or two against the heavy snow swirling at me and yelled out for Kira. After a minute she popped back into view and came up on the deck. She had her hat pulled down so it almost covered her eyes, so had to do that adorable backbend-so-she-can-see-me thing. I pointed out the missing shovel. She replied that she thought she had put it back. I countered by telling her it wasn't there. She waddled over, stared for a minute, and said:

"Huh."

My response: "Find. It."

So she walked out to a random spot on the side yard, got down on her knees, and started tunneling like a dog.

This was not a good sign.

After a few hunts that appeared to me to be entirely haphazard, she successfully located it on the front porch and returned it to its home.

This in no way deterred her from her snow-cheer. In fact, moments later, she popped the door open long enough to yell up to her brother, who is teenage-pouting in his room:

"Mark! You can come pull me on my sled if you want! If you do, thank you!"

And off she went again, completely oblivious that her brother would not find this wonderful offer at all appealing. Gotta love it. mk