Sugar, Snow and Sunshine

     For weeks Ivory has been begging for marshmallows. But, every time we have made the trip to the grocery store we somehow managed to forget to buy marshmallows. There was no ulterior I -am-going-to-save-my-child-from-excessive-amounts-of-sugar motive. I just forget. As we pull back into our drive way Ivory will pipe up in the back seat: “Mama, you didn't buy any marshmallows.” I sigh: “Oh, Ivory, why didn't you remind me at the store?”

     And then I remembered that Adam had heard a story on NPR in which they made marshmallows from scratch. It is really simple and to my amazement I had all the ingredients except for gelatin. So a quick run to the grocery store later, I finally manged to whisk together all the ingredients into the fluffy white cream, spread it on the cookie tray and tuck it away for a the short wait until the next morning we can finally sample them.

     The next morning I pulled the cookie sheet from it's hiding place and cut the fluffy mass into squares. Ivory snatched a few bites before I could make coffee much less get breakfast on the table.

     I have been dying to get into thewoods for about as long as Ivory has been begging for those marshmallows and today we are going to do something about that as well. A few hours later, after a battle with tiny snow boots, getting lost driving, and arriving half an hour late to our play date, we finally piled out of the car into the bright sunshine.

     Sylvan gingerly took step after step down the snowy path, with the biggest smile on his face. The 20 minute battle with the snow boots was worth every minute to see his delight at being able to finally walk in the snow. I never imagined I would take Sylvan on his first “hike” before his first birthday.

     Ivory ran ahead, finding her friends and a little shyly standing by as the boys pummeled each other in the snow. Even after we waved our friends goodbye she trudged on, making me read all of the signs along the path, eating hand full after hand full of snow (I finally quit arguing with her about the snow eating... it was spoiling my good mood) and, of course, we had a marshmallow snack break along the way.

     Back at the car, I peel the layers of warm clothes off of Sylvan, change his diaper and as we sit in the car nursing I realize that the clock says 1:30. We just walked a mile and spent three hours in the snow and sunshine with very minor complaints. Ivory's legs didn't start to hurt until we were in sight of the car and Sylvan's little belly held up just as long. What have I been afraid of all this time?

I hand Ivory the last marshmallow and we drive home. 

 Lets do this again next Friday.