Snow day

Since we've spent the late afternoon watching the Bears try to win the NFC Championship for Chicago (as Margaret tries to get into all sorts of trouble - she seems to have a radar that directs her towards forbidden items - "No, don't crumple up those tax forms" or "Don't put the dog's toys, or the remote control, in your mouth," that sort of thing), it's fitting that today is the first day with snow this winter in DC. And, since this is the first snow of the season, it's also Margaret's first encounter with snow.

We've got a pretty good system for keeping Margaret warm in her stroller, not that we've needed it too much this winter since it has been so warm. We put her in a sweater and coat, pull on her mittens, strap on her silly pink hat (the sequence of the last two steps is important to keep her from trying to pull off her hat), and plop her in her BundleMe thing that covers her legs in the stroller. In the end, she looks pretty warm, and she seems very content to lie back and watch the world (or, better yet, the dogs in the neighborhood) from the resulting cocoon.

As the snow fell down around and on her, Margaret seemed to know that something unusual was happening, but there wasn't any monumental sense of recognition. She was just having a grand time grinning at us while watching Maddie chase the ball.One current subject of speculation is whether Margaret will inherit Abby's "bad circulation" or my tendency towards "running hot." Abby's hands invariably get cold regardless of how warm her gloves are, while I kick off the covers in the middle of the night no matter how cold it is. Since Margaret can't really communicate her comfort level at this point except in very primitive terms that could relate to anything, that's something that we'll have to sort out later.

In any case, we (at least those of us who could verbalize our opinion) eventually ended up getting pretty cold and headed in to watch the Bears game. And at this point, it looks like the Bears will pull it out. Go Bears! (Hope I don't jinx it.)