It's Snow Fun

I love Colorado weather. Yes, I know the cliche: "If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes." But every state I've ever lived in has made that claim.

Cold weather is my favorite, especially the snow. I grew up in the tropics of south Texas. I spent the first 20-plus years of my life being hot. So to this day, snow is exciting to me. Even though this will be my third winter here, I consider a snow day cause for celebration. The rule is Riley and I stay in our PJs all day and I do as little work as possible.

I did pretty well with that today. Judging from the buildup on various spots around the house, we must've gotten at least 3 inches. To add to the slumber party/grrrrrl power atmosphere, my husband is out of town all week, and both our cat and puppy are female.

Speaking of the puppy, Bailey was less than pleased to spend most of her day in the nice, warm house. She went nuts in the snow as it built up in the yard. She dug her nose down in it, then ran zig zags all over the place in doggy wheelbarrow fashion. She was less than pleased when I brought her in. (Notice her poignant pathetic look in the photo following her bath below.)


She was downright surly that she had to go straight to the tub. Before I brought her in she'd managed enough quality time in the unfinished bottom of the yard to cover her semi-shaggy coat in mud. So she had to have a bath. Riley enjoyed this much more than Bailey did. Bailey really worked the pathetic angle. When she started whining, Riley voiced her sympathy with echoing "oooooowooooowooooo"s.

Riley did plenty of whining herself. She loves to go outside. She times her requests for hitting the great outdoors with crying episodes, usually ones brought on by minor injuries. She starts wailing, then looks me straight in the eyes and howls "ow-ti-eeeee!" (outside)

Today I heard this refrain over and over again. I tried to explain to her that it was cold, there was snow everywhere and we just couldn't go out. None of these was acceptable. Even when she woke up tonight crying from a bad dream, she demanded to go out.

In my efforts to convince her she was asking the impossible, I opened the door and stood there with the wind blowing snow on our faces. I respect my daughter's intelligence enough to let her reason things out, you see. It was all part of my brilliant plan to enable her to come to the logical conclusion I wanted her to reach all on her own. It's a tactic commonly used on husbands.

So we stood in the door in our pjs for a few brief seconds, snow sticking to our eyelashes and blurring our vision. Then Riley started squirming and pointing across the street.

"Gooooo-walk!" ("Walk," as in "I want to walk down the street.")

Hmmm...it appears my husband-reasoning tactics are just as efficient with her as with John. She must get that from her daddy.