Snowbaby

I have to say that we were a bit nervous when we heard that there was a significant nor'easter headed our way this week, hot on the heels of Hurricane Sandy. They were predicting high winds, lots of precipitation and even more storm surge with possible flooding. My heart went out to the people they showed on the news, the people far less fortunate than us, people who were still living in homes destroyed by Sandy, with no heat or hot water, who were declining to evacuate for this new impending storm because they didn't want to leave behind what belongings they had left for fear of looting. I think we were all just holding our breath and hoping this storm would not be too bad.

Although I heard some parts of New Jersey did briefly lose power, for the most part, this storm seems to have passed relatively uneventfully. We spent Wednesday hunkered down in our apartment once again (although this time with lights and heat, halleluia), listening to the wind howling outside and watching the snow swirl. By Thursday morning all was quiet and Hoboken was sporting a couple of inches of accumulated snow.

As the snow fell on Wednesday, I made sure to hold Ellie up to the window so she could get a good look. She stared and stared at the flakes circling around the window. Given that we will be moving to Florida in less than a month, we were all too aware that this may not only be her first snowfall, but the last she sees for some time. When things settled on Thursday, we bundled her up and took her out to Pier A Park for her first encounter with the stuff.

On the left, a very bundled baby. On the right, trying to force the stroller through a couple of inches of snow! We needed snow tires on that bad boy.

And oh man, was she cute.

Ellie in the snow!

In her white hat and little ivory hooded snowsuit, she really reminded me of one of those Snowbaby figurines:

Snowbabies!

Naturally, we couldn't help but snap a picture or two.

On the left, playing in the snow with her mama. On the right, she's clearly about to make a snow angel.

Sweet snowy baby

Getting a closer look

We had a lot of fun playing with our sweet baby in the snow.

Ellie and her daddy 

Eating the strings on Daddy's sweatshirt is a favorite activity these days. 

Kisses from Mommy 

A look at the difference in how parents play with the baby: check out the height difference when tossing the baby in the air for Mommy (left) vs. Daddy (right). I'm going to pretend the picture on the right is Photoshopped and didn't really happen. 

I have to admit, I found this snow much easier to stomach than usual, because I know it is not merely the first of many this winter. In fact, it may very well be our only one. But while I was spared that sense of dread that usually comes with an early snowfall, it did make me a little sad. I'm excited to live in Florida again, but growing up in a snowy climate (Cleveland) was such a part of my childhood: snow days, sledding, building forts, snowmen with carrot noses, white Christmases, bundling up until you can't even move before going outside and then stripping off all your wet layers and huddling under blankets to get warm when you come back in. Even the not-so-fun parts, like the days when it was too cold to even go outside, or having to wear winter clothes over your Halloween costume and/or your Easter dress - all that stuff makes up my memories of my childhood years. It makes me a little sad that Ellie won't have those same growing-up memories that I did. Of course, we do still have ties to Cleveland and we will always encourage travel and new experiences, so I know this is far from the last snowfall Ellie will ever see. And just because her childhood memories will be different from mine does not mean that they won't be wonderful. Raising a child in such a warm climate is just uncharted territory for me, but I know regardless of the weather, we'll always do our very best to make every season special for Ellie.

And for now, she sure is one cute little snowbaby.