Let Them Eat Snow

first snowfall
Originally uploaded by redamy.

Ethan’s perpetually runny nose and croupy cough have morphed into a serious case of the “sickies”. He’s running a fever of 101, which we are dosing with Tylenol. He refused to eat anything yesterday, which for Ethan is a sign of the end-times. Almost as disturbing, he came to me at 10:30am yesterday clutching his blanket and said “Mommy I need to go take a nap. Come sing me a song.”

He had two long fever-naps yesterday. During the second nap the snow started falling. When he woke up and trudged downstairs he realized it was snowing. Suddenly the little invalid boy was a bundle of barely contained momentum.

“I want to go sledding! I want to throw snowballs!”

I had to explain to him that sledding wasn’t going to be possible on what was then ½ inch of snow. Then I pointed out that he was going to get awfully cold playing in the snow with no pants on. That slowed him down a bit.

We compromised, finally. He could go outside and throw a few snowballs to Katya, but not until he had eaten lunch, drunk an entire glass of lemonade, and Daddy got up from his nap. (Daddy’s been working STUPID long hours and then had to fight his way home through the snowstorm of idiot drivers.)

I asked Ethan what he wanted for lunch. Hotdog? no. Bologna and cheese? no. Pizza? also no.

Then his little face lit up. “I know! I know!” He jumped up and down and clapped his hands together once like a samurai chef. “We can eat…” he paused for dramatic effect. “SNOW!”


(In the end Ethan ate an apple but Daddy didn’t wake up until after dark. Ethan’s fever returned soon after that and he was snuggled in bed ( without eating dinner) by 7:30pm. Ian was fascinated watching his first snowfall, which in the end amounted to about 2 inches plus a bit of ice.)