Winter remains in full force, but the days are getting longer and have been very sunny, so we bundle up and and head out as often as possible. Our momentum is inching towards spring, but the bitter cold has not budged. There has been a sad lack of snow, which only means the ice is clear and perfect, so off we headed for skating at Westchester Lagoon on a bright Saturday morning.

Meeting up with Maggie and Casey created a fun group of toddlers and parents that ended up with the entire lagoon to themselves. Henry once again happily tolerated ice skating for about 30 minutes and even moved his feet a bit while I propped him up and steered him around. That positive attitude in the face of a windy 9 degree day is confirmation of a winning event. As long as we keep getting reps in, one of these days he'll be able to stand on the ice skates alone. Predictably, his favorite moments were staring at the cell phone tower and digging around in the wood sheds near the fire barrels. Everyone had a great time (ie. no crying by anyone) and I even worked up a sweat skating around. Add in a hockey puck discovered in the snow bank and the day was a winner.



Maggie's birthday was the following day and the skating toddler trio reformed there. Henry's defining moment was clutching mommy and holding back tears as he watched the presents being opened because "it's not my birthday." He joined in the fun soon after it was explained that after the snow melts his birthday will come. "My turn will come after the snow goes away." We were impressed that he made an effort to restrain his emotions and didn't just let them gush. I say impressed, but I might just mean relieved because the volume behind that sadness was going to be impressive.

This morning we awoke to an inch of fresh powder and the only marks in the fresh snow were moose tracks looping around our front door and stoop -- all for the delicious salt spilled on the walkway.