Winter Weather

Today, Finley and I woke up to a serious winter wonderland. I'm not talking about a dusting of snow, but several inches and copious amounts of flakes continuing to fall well into the late morning. Now usually, I enjoy the first snow of the season...but I didn't see this situation as "snow" but rather as a hurdle to getting out into the real world. You see, we have a slanted driveway since our house is up a small hill. It is a non-issue three-quarters of the year but once winter comes, we can sled on our own property---but getting up and down the driveway on foot or in a car becomes a major problem. The arrival of our new fridge/freezer yesterday seriously depleted our food stash and Finley's growth spurt means I feel like I am always starving...literally. I knew I had to go out, but I thought I'd wait out the storm.

The snow turned to rain and our driveway turned to slush. Alas, we had to leave the house and we had to leave NOW. I bundled up Finley and put him into the car and started the heat flowing. I grabbed a shovel and tried to shovel two tracks for the car tires on the driveway. Sounded like an easy enough job...until I tried to lift one shovel-full of soaking wet snow to toss and I nearly fell over. Seriously, I almost fell to the ground (and then would have slid down to the street). Pregnancy and child birth really do a number on the body...I won't get into specifics here.

I persevered and pushed enough slush out of the way and then successfully exited the driveway. Little did I know that was the easy part! By the time I drove the three miles to our local supermarket, it was raining sideways quite heavily. Thankfully, the "Customer with Infant" spot was open near the entrance (sort of) and I parked. Then, I sat there for a while hoping that there would be a pause in the storm...10 minutes or so of NPR and I decided I had to make a run for it. I grabbed the umbrella and tried to keep Finley as dry as possible...but I couldn't even run to the overhang (see above regarding pregnancy and child birth pains) so we power walked. I plopped Fin and his car seat into the shopping cart...which then allowed no room for actual groceries. Darn it.

I put one reusable grocery bag over my shoulder and the other in the child seat. I loaded them up while we went up and down the aisles. My baby brain was surely in full effect since I couldn't remember most of the "must-get" items that I had braved the rainy, slushy, freezing world to buy.

Going back outside wasn't a picnic, but I'll let your imaginations run wild on the scene that occured (which was basically a repeat of the entrance saga but with two huge bags of groceries).

The rest of the afternoon was more restful. Finley slept well in his pack n' play (we are training him to be happy sleeping flat on his back and not in close proximity to one of his warm-bodied parents) and Dan's dad, Finley's grandpa, arrived around 5.

Dan was out late with a work dinner so I was very excited for the company (and relief!). Grandpa walked around with Finley, swung him to sleep, and tried to help him get over his latest case of the full-bodied hiccups :) What a champ! Let's hope Grandpa is as accommodating in the wee hours of the morning!