Four Year Old in the Snow

I tried to put myself into Eric's mind this morning as we walked to school. But I was running late thanks to a pair of snowpants that somehow had walked out of the hall coat closet and into my car in the night. Because that's the only way they could have gotten there when I was so sure I had hung them up earlier in the week. But they decided to go out joyriding in the night. That's why my gas tank was half empty.

So, I was running much later than I wanted to and had little patience for Eric's propensity to throw himself into the continuous snowbanks that lined the sidewalks. For one thing it's disrespectful to let your kid move snow into recently cleared paths. But it also makes it take forever to walk a few blocks. The walk to Eric's school takes about 7 minutes sans kids. With him walking, it usually takes about twice that. But in a new world full of snow, it took nearly a half hour. I was late, a little stressed and cranky. Poor Eric. It was probably the first time he could remember seeing the world look like that. Last year, we had very little snow. So, this was for all intents and purposes his first real snow storm. And I was shrieking at him to hurry up whilst he meandered through waist high powder. I'm sure my neighbors thought I sounded like an angry shrew in Merell boots stomping down the street: "Hurry UP, Eric. GET OUT OF THAT SNOW BANK RIGHT NOW! One.... Two... Oh, OK, you're moving again, good."

Sigh. It's hard to be the mommy. I'm such a bitch sometimes.