1. Decide it’s OK to play in the snow, even though your toddler has been a cranky nightmare.
Never a good idea.
2. Don’t check the back door before you suit up, to make sure the door isn’t iced shut.
Yeah, it might have been smart this morning to check the door first. Turns out, it had a small snow drift up against it, with a layer of ice over that, making the door impossible to open. I pushed it, I kicked it, I put my whole body weight into the door, but nothing would open it. Of course, Cordy was at the door the entire time, anxious to go outside.
I tried to tell her that we needed to go to the front door, but this two year old can’t comprehend changes in plans like that, and the tantrum began. She wanted the door open – right now. And my inability to open the storm door was translated to her as I got her all dressed up only to dash her dreams of playing in the snow. This was the result:
Change is hard.
3. Carry crying toddler to the front door, then force her outside.
She screamed and cried until I dumped her down on the ground outside. Then, realizing she was out in the snow, she suddenly was very, very happy.
Wow, mommy, those are some big footprints.
4. Tell toddler we’ll go into the backyard via the gate, only to find gate latch iced shut as well.
Foiled again.
5. Promise toddler snow, when actually a half inch of freezing rain fell after the snow, forming a hard shell on top of five inches of snow.
There’s nothing fun about playing on hard ice. And Cordy didn’t weigh enough to break through most of it. I barely broke through it with each step.
Today – walking on snow. Tomorrow – walking on water?
6. Allow toddler to play outside without mittens, resulting in very cold hands.
She fought me several times over the issue of mittens, so I gave up and let her out without mittens. Our time outside lasted less than 10 minutes before she came up to me, holding her hands out, and started crying and saying, “Hands! Hands!”
I picked her up, brought her inside, and stripped off the outer layer of clothing (she had on two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, etc.). Grabbing a fleece blanket off the couch, I wrapped her up, held her on my lap, and helped her warm up. Soon she was happy again.
But despite the happy ending, this is not the way to play in the snow.
Yeah, this sucks. 
Ugh. I know about the mitten problems! I’m thinking that next time, I will grab long and skinny socks to put on her hands first, and then the thinner mittens. MAybe they’ll stay on longer????
Sorry she didn’t have much fun…she sure does make a cute snowbunny though!
Aww, the photos are cute even though she didnt have much fun. My boys dont want me to go back in when it snows and I’m the one left freezing.
When we lived in Cleveland, we had a chain link fence around our back yard. In the winter it was pretty much impossible to open-drifted snow and not a lot of surface to push on. Mom’s solution? She’d just boost me and Ethan right over the gate. ^_^
Some of those memories brought me back to MY childhood *LOL*
The “walking on water” caption made me laugh out loud!
Enjoy the snow…
So sorry you got caught in a toddler tantrum. However, you recapped it very well!
‘Change is hard’ = heartbreaking.
Sorry she had such a tough snow day…sometimes things just don’t go the way we want them too, and the wee ones just don’t understand.
Ha ha ha, my little guy would do the same. He wishes for snow tho, it doesn’t do that here!
I’m so glad you explained about the mittens…my first thought, where are her mittens! Cute pictures.
We had the same ice-over-snow issue during our last storm. I fell countless times because I couldn’t even break the ice to get to where I could get some traction. Definitely not good snow to play in.