Awesome Snow Day

Finally today we woke up to a few inches of the white stuff on the ground. I was excited because I had hopes of Zoey getting up, having breakfast and playing for a little while before laying back down for a mid-morning nap.

Shoveling

While Zoey slept I took this opportunity to have one more cup of coffee and listened to a couple more TED talks I've been wanting to catch up on for weeks. While I did that Cicely played her game, the one she has been playing for well over a year now called 'Cupcake Manua, Candy Manua and Jewel Mani for a few rounds each. It's wild really, she plays these three games so much and refuses to pay a cent for extra lives.

Instead she is making it a sort of a game within a game by only playing as she is given additional rounds, all based on time away from the game. I'm not sure with this game how far apart the games are although my guess would be that you get another life every 15 minutes, up to four total in an hours time. Playing three separate games is helpful to keep her playing longer and for free!

My point is that while all of this was going on I was able to go outside and shovel the driveway, walkway to the door, sidewalk in front of the house and side yard where the shed is at. I didn't have to do the patio in the back today. The sun was kind enough to take care of that for me, giving me a little bit of a break. Great news for me, one less opportunity for me to do something stupid, on accident, and reek my back for a few weeks again.

She's Awake, Let's Play In The Snow!

One Zoey was up from her nap I immediately had Cicely start getting herself and Zoey dressed, ready to go outside. Cicely dressed Zoey in the most comfortable warm pants, long socks and closest thing to waterproof shoes we had. On top it was a warm long sleeve shirt and her waterproof puffy pink coat.

I met them both in the garage where we grabbed the brand-new sled that I have been unable to use since I purchased it many months ago, even before Christmas. I think I actually purchased it the week of or the week before Thanksgiving if you can believe that and have never been able to use it.

Not today, today there was just enough snow on the ground for us to go out and have a good time. That is exactly what we did. I put Zoe into the sled and made laps around the yard building our own racetrack of sorts. Once the snow was packed down it was even easier for us to go faster. Well for me to pull her faster that is without her acting like a snowplow in the soft, wet snow.

Of course just doing laps or doing laps really fast is not enough for me. I decided it would be fun if we had a few bumps that were a bit of a jump of course and see how she likes that. It was a success, she had a really good time going over the bumps and catching a little air at times as well.I was a little concerned that if we went over something too fast she might bite her tongue or she may hurt her little neck a little bit.

Thankfully none of that happened or was that big of a concern honestly. Not only because I am a dad and want my little girl to be safe but also because of me being me I will have a blast, take fun just to the edge at times while always making sure to error on the safe side with everything.

We still managed to have an absolute blast, well Cicely and I did and I think Zoey did as well. No problems what so ever or crying on Zoey's part from being cold, bored or worse hurt. I did manage to tip her over one time and she face planted into the snow but that was while we were going really slow over a bump that we made earlier to be one of our little jumps on the race track.

Next Zoey grabbed a snowball from me that I packed for her only to realize that it was too big and I needed to make a smaller one that fit in her hand better. So that is exactly what I did, I grabbed a smaller amount of snow off of the top so I was sure it did not add pesticide or anything in it from the lawn and made her a nice small snowball.

Rather than throw it she absolutely loved it and sucked on it for a minute until it would hurt her teeth she would squid her eyes and make a funny face and then make it a few more times it was very cute. I think she was having a really good time with that as well.

Last but not least it was time for us to build Zoey's first snow woman . While Zoey and I did a few more laps in the snow then walked around in the snow a little, which she did not care for as much because it was cold I'm sure and she did not have proper snow boots on. Cicely started building the bottom of the snow woman, then middle so by the time we were done sledding she was finishing up the top and Zoey and I were able to help Cicely put the rocks in for eyes and a nose. We did not have any carrots or anything to make it more traditional.

All-in-all we had a really good time playing in the snow today and it was a success. We are going to do more of this right around Thanksgiving or Christmas when we usually get a lot of snow but this year because we did not get any we want able to until now and that's okay it was a lot of fun.

Naps For Everyone

Once we were done playing in the snow we came inside and all of us dried off and managed to get into some warm clean clothes and have a small snack. Zoe was getting tired and we could tell by her rubbing her eyes and getting a little bit fussy. This was our signal that she needed to take a quick nap.

While Zoey was testing we planned on going and getting some food. Cicely had not eaten all day and I had not eaten much of anything either, although still more than Cicely had. After a little while of the usual back and forth of where we should go to eat we were both too tired to even think about eating so we went and laid down thinking we would just close our eyes for a few minutes.

Oggy loves an afternoon nap and is not going to miss out on one that includes both Cicely and I. As expected he came in right after us and we all snuggled together and ended up falling asleep for over two hours!

Once we woke up we had to make sure that Zoey was still asleep and not in there fussing or waiting patiently for us, she was not up, she was still sound asleep. We could not believe that she took a nap for that long. I must have worn her out much more than I though I did by simply tugging her around. Makes me really happy because these are the things that I've always wanted to be able to do if and when I had a kiddo.

Outback

Once we were all up Cicely changed Zoey's diaper while I got ready and we all headed out to get dinner and Cicely's favorite bread at Outback Steakhouse. Again a great way to end a successful day playing in the snow and hanging out together doing the family thing.

Photo: Zoey getting pulled over a sweet jump by papa in her new sled after the first real snowfall of the season.