Midnight Snow Walk

One of my favorite things to do in the fall/winter is to take a walk with the kids after dinner.  It's just the three of us and since it gets dark so early we bring flashlights, look for spooky things, and try and catch the moon.  It gets even better once the holiday lights start showing up.  We got a delightful cold front yesterday so tonight's walk was FREEZING.  Norah proclaimed it a Midnight Snow Walk and our best one yet (there's no snow).  She's really into constellations right now and pretends she can point some of them out (she can't).

I refuse to fight with kids about weather appropriate clothing.  My experience (especially with the tyrant) is that forcing a jacket on someone becomes a battle of the wills and totally ruins whatever adventure you are trying to have.  Plus, when it's cold, it's cold and ten seconds outside and they are going to ask for a jacket. Problem solved.  Norah was wearing mittens but Louie doesn't have any (because when in Texas would he ever need mittens?), so when he asked for his jacket ten seconds into the walk he also asked for mittens.  Because Norah is the sweetest kid who ever lived she gave him one of her mittens and then held his other bare hand in her other mittened one.  Be still my heart.

Then he sneezed and sprayed snot all over her.*  See that stain on left leg of his pants?  That's snot. Be still my heart.

*The kid is an absolute petri dish.  He JUST got over a sinus infection and now he's got some horrible congestion and hacking cough.  The nurse at school thought he had hand, foot, and mouth disease yesterday because he had some spots on his hand, but I think they are just bug bites.  At least that's what we're going with for now.