I like these cold winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood.
- Bill Watterson, author of Calvin & Hobbes
As winter grows long in the North, good moods go South. The warm fuzzies are frozen and replaced with looks like FringeKid’s – The Hairy Eyeball. That’s a term, learned in Maine, to describe FringeKid’s raised eyebrow. She inherited this look from her grandma.
I shivered in my shoes, quaked in my boots, and shook in my slippers whenever my mother’s brow started to rise. It essentially meant, “Prepare For DEATH!”
Before the hairy-eyeball infiltrated each of our faces, the FringeFamily decided it was time to hit the slopes. Not the skiing kind of slopes. No, we don’t have those in Long Island.
We, instead, hit the mole hill in the park. Notice I’m dressed much warmer than my children. I’m just a bad mother that way. I hog all the warm clothing for myself. I’m wearing two pairs of gloves, two full layers under my pants and two shirts under the sweater under the coat.
I get cold easily.
My kids named this move where FringeMan appears to tearing off their limbs, the helicopter. They spin to the bottom taking out every other sledder in their path.
A woman and her little boy approached, seeking to gleam parental advice from the FringeFamily.
Oh…NO!
She picked the wrong family.
Momma and junior looked as if they’d been ripped from the cover of Urban Baby, the most fashionable parenting magazine to hit the NY markets.
Ok, I made up the Urban Baby magazine. Doesn’t it sound like a good idea though?
“Do you think my baby is too young to go down the hill?” she nervously inquired.
Looking from the mother wearing leather, healed dress boots and designer jeans, I glanced down at her little boy. He walks, he’s taller than my knees, and looks like he could scream if something breaks…
“Oh, sure!” I reassured her. “He’s plenty old enough. How old is he anyway?”
“Three.” she revealed as she looked again at my kids spinning helicopter style.
This mother and son were a sight. That’s all I’ll say.
She may have been mildly alarmed if she had known that when FringeBoy was one, I tied a sled to my dog, stuck FringeBoy in the sled, and sent the dog running. Even I panicked when the dog crossed over several acres of field and headed for the pond. Don’t worry, this was in Maine and people drive their trucks on the ponds. No thin ice in Maine.
Imagine me running wildly behind.
Eventually the dog tired and stopped short. She wasn’t the brightest bread. The sled and baby crashed into her a milli-second later.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
What a ride. It began FringeBoy’s love for amusement parks.
You may want to think twice before you ask me for parenting advice.
Don’t forget Tantrum Tuesday! Come and link. Mr. Linky will be anxiously waiting for you.
That’s parenting flying by the seat of your pants! Or his pants. Defininitely someone’s pants, and not leather ones!
(i heart yer humour)
Love the snow pics!
Even under all that winter gear it is obvious your kids are darling!
LOL the perfect cure. And the pictures totally cracked me up!
ha!! What a great story – you’re one brave mamma! Or is it your kids that are brave? I’m not sure. Either way, I’m glad you were able to get out and enjoy the cold weather before it (hopefully) goes away soon.
Brr…all that snow and sledding makes me cold! Such cute pix though.
Oh and we always got the “Evil Eye”…bad news.
“SLIDING” IS ONE OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS TO DO.
HUGS TO YOU FRIEND FROM MAINE
http://sophie4me.blogspot.com/
Looks like such a fun (and cold!) outing you guys had.
And I loathe The Hairy Eyeball almost as much as I loathe The Stink Eye…
LOVE this post!!
Hairy eyeball, LOL!
I hate cold weather. But I hate it when it rains for a month straight even worse…..bah…humbug.
I’m with you on getting cold too easily. My kids mock me and say it’s because I’m from California. Fine with me, as long as they let me wear all the warm stuff.
And I’m all for “danger parenting.” Hannah was about 4 when she was riding a pony by herself and the pony decided to run back to the barn. I gasped as the pony bolted forward, Hannah flopped backward onto its rear, then sat back up just before they disappeared into the underbrush.
We ran down the trail after her, only to find her a little breathless, still on the pony, who was waiting to get into her stall and eat. Stupid pony.
None of my friends can relax when their kids go up in my kids’ treehouse. Me, I just send them outside and maybe crack the backdoor open so I can hear the scream and thud if they fall out.
Hopefully the hairy eyeball will stay away for awhile.
Thank goodness we didn’t ever get enough snow down here for my kids to have expected me to drag them around in it. I don’t like being cold..I don’t want to be cold AND wet! Frolicking is best done on a beach. I also come from a family of eyebrows. Not all of us are fortunate to have “The Eyebrow”. Only a select few. My daughter named it “That Damned Eyebrow” because she said it could open doors and deliver cookies. She also says for me to use it only for good, never for evil. Debbie
It was in the low seventies here today. Just thought you’d want to know!
The Texas Woman
Oh, I just loved the story about the dog and the sled and the baby! And of you running wildly behind.
I wish I had thought to tie the dog to the sled….(good parenting advice, if you ask me!)
Today I somehow ended up pulling my kids around the house on the sled while they squealed “hold on” and “wheee” as we went 3 miles an hour around the yard. Thankfully they are still easy to please at 2 and 4. The pathetic thing is, I had taken them outside to “get their energy out”, but the only one tired when we got done was me!!
That looks like fun!! I so miss snow….and after your comment on my blog which was extraordinary btw I can’t wait for Tuesday’s tantrum
To me, winter is like Brylcreem. A little dab’ll do ya.
It’s short sleeve weather here and I couldn’t be happier about that. Glad to see you’re making the best of the snow, though. Great blog!
My motto has always been, dress warmer than your kids. Yes, and better too!
Looks fun, yet I am scared of tubing, sledding, anything of that nature. My son crashed when he was 21 and had to have his spleen removed. Now that would be a good blog story.
I am now writing down Spleen removed so I can remember.
Happy sledding!
Sounds like it was not a moment too soon for you to get out and get some sunshine. I noticed FringeKid’s Hairy-Eyeball was all better in the second picture.
Forget Dear Abby…Dear FringeGirl…
I can see it in print…in lights…on a wanted poster…
I should take advantage of winter like this, but I really hate being cold and wet so I never go out in it!
My eyebrow is up! These pics are fun and remind me of some I have of you and your brother on the “hill” on Lake Ave.