Soaking up Winter

After a beautiful summer and fall, I was a little nervous to enter into what used to be my second favorite season before having a baby.  Getting out and about in the winter with a child whose hands tend to get really cold really fast is not easy.  So I was wondering how we would pass this winter now that she's too big to ride in the front pack, wrapped up in my jacket.  Surprisingly, it has turned out better than expected.  Time is doing its proverbial fly-by and I'm a little sad it's already the middle of January. 

One day last week when the temperature was nearly 40, Clare, Molly, and I spent part of the late afternoon at the Maasto trails.  We have gotten much use out of Clare's $8 Menards baby sled.  It pulls very easily and she loves to ride in it. 

 

We took a walk down the snowmobile trail near our house on Friday, but it was 15 degrees that day and Clare started crying when we still had about one block to go.  I think her hands got to that point of being tingly with cold and she wouldn't stop crying even after we got into the house.  Things like that tend to discourage me from taking her outside for too long at a time or in too cold of weather.

I did notice on these photos that her hat is getting way too small.  I made her another one but unfortunately the pattern, which was supposed to be for a 2-3 year old, was too small for my little pumpkin's head.  It fits about as well as this one does.  So I'll have to enlarge my pattern and make another.