Welcome, Snow

As much as I would like to feign indifference to a "storm" (light dusting by the New England standards with which I was raised), out here it snows relatively infrequently, sticks even less often, and I am not above squealing at the mere thought of a snow flake coming my direction. (I never have been.) I was at work last night when it began snowing in earnest, giant fluffy flakes swirling in from every which way. I grabbed my nearest giddy coworker and we went out and frolicked in it. And there is only one thing that will get me out of my warm cozy bed to head outside in my bare feet at dawn after having gone to sleep at 2am.



Last time it snowed, it was Bella's birthday. Birth day. Hmmm, I guess there are TWO things that will get me out of my warm cozy bed at dawn, though I did not go outside in my bare feet when my water broke. I probably would have, if it had already started to snow. The excitement of my labor trumped the snow glow I normally feel, but looking back on that day the fact that it snowed was by far my favorite detail. (It almost makes up for the fact that the storm tripped the hot water heater and foiled my plans for a water birth...)

I distinctly remember my mom exclaiming that it had started to snow as she whipped open the blinds. And despite my love for snow and my underlying desire to head out and catch snowflakes on my tongue rather than labor in bed, I was not myself. The scene of snow swirling about the windswept lake would have been beautiful, but the light made me want to vomit and the fact that I wanted to vomit rather than see snow made me want to cry, so I screamed at her to close the blinds. Labor can bring you to the highest highs and the lowest lows and I barely knew myself.

Still, it snowed. I proudly proclaim, It snowed on Bella's birthday. In April. It was amazing.

She's not awake yet for this snow (being the reason I was up until 2, not 12:30 when I actually hopped in bed), but I hope this winter will offer us many more snow opportunities. I hope she'll get to experience the peaceful silence brought by snow, a quiet so strong that each individual snowflake can be heard bouncing lightly off branches and dead leaves and rooftops as it makes its way to earth. My fondest memories of winter are of hiking by moonlight in the muffled quiet of glowing snow, sledding down hills, making snow thrones and igloos and snowmen so tall we have to get the ladder out to finish the head. I wither at the thought that Bella will grow up with a dusting as her concept of TONS OF SNOW! but we have time. Maybe some day we'll live where it snows more, or maybe a dusting will be plenty. Either way, I can't imagine that a girl born on The Day it Snowed in April will manage not to catch my enthusiasm for all things snow.