"THERE'S SNOW ON ME!!!!!"

Rory, my little sweet boy, does not like to be dirty. He will hold his pointer up with a tiny crumb on it and insist on it being removed. He also is going through a phase where when anything even brushes by him he has to say "Ow". We're working on an "I'm Tough!" campaign, consisting of trying to get him to shake some things off by showing his muscles (I have to get a picture of that to post), making a scrunched up face, and yelling "I'M TOUGH" instead of whining and crying. It's actually working pretty well. Anyway, I digress. So, in addition to not liking to be dirty, he's not into snow at all. Which sucks for him b/c we live in NEW ENGLAND.

Yesterday, after realizing that I've been terrible about getting the kids outside this winter, I made the executive decision that he was getting his snow stuff on and we were going out while it was still snowing. No amount of monumental tantruming would stop me. Despite shrieking, writhing on the floor, kicking, and boogers running out of the nose, I forced his snow suit and boots on and even his mittens (no small feat) and plopped him down in a mountain of snow. Shelagh loves it and was playing and having fun trying to get him to do it too to no avail. I figured I didn't handle the transition of forcing him to want to play in the snow well so I stood him up at the edge of the garage and driveway. He stood there and watched Shelagh and I make angels and throw snowballs, but at least he stopped crying. Step 2...I let him knock snowballs off my hand to get used to it. I realized at this point that when you can't move (imagine the bundled up little brother from A Christmas Story), you can't use your hands (b/c getting the thumb into the mitten was too much to ask), your snow boots are probably a good size+ too small (why would I buy him new ones), and you look like a girl (Shelaghs hand-me-downs), you might be hesitant to get involved. But, he did! And, he woke up this morning and the first thing he said was "I like playin in the snow".