My family loves to be outside. Actually, that sentence only tells part of the story, I should have said, my children love to be outside, even when it’s cold. I, on the other hand, do not really care for going outside with them when it’s cloudy and below fifty degrees. The words, “do not really care,” aren’t 100% accurate either. What I really meant was, I truly dislike (bordering on hate) going outside with them when it’s cloudy and below fifty degrees.
At school, Carson had made a construction paper kite that he was dying to fly. All day I’d felt chilled, despite continuously adding layers and rubbing my hands together and announcing, “BRR! It’s COLD!” The outside thermometer read forty-four degrees, it was cloudy and windy, and my internal good parenting meter was running low on two (out of ten.) I mustered up my resolve and finally agreed to go outside, but only after I tried and tried to convince Carson that it was too cold and that watching TV under a warm and cozy blanket would be way more fun than flying a kite. Since I’m telling the whole story, I only agreed to go outside because it was an excuse to take a few shots for my 365 project. Had I already taken THE shot of the day, I would have adamantly refused to face the cold weather and commenced a Nick Jr. marathon.
As soon as we went outside, the wind hit us in the face like a sucker punch. Both Carson and I gasped, then held our breath as we battled our way to the yard. “See Mommy? It’s not that cold,” he managed to say through chattering teeth. He began to run, his construction paper kite pretending to fly behind him. I snapped a few shots, but hadn’t even had a chance to decide on the proper exposure when Carson stopped running. His shoulders were hunched in an attempt to form into a tightly wound ball of warmth.
“Why don’t you run, Carson? You’ll get warm if you run,” I suggested.
“Uh, Mom? I think I need to go to the bathroom.”
We made our way back into the house. “Carson,” I said, “when you finish, we can go back outside.” (Who AM I??)
“We’ll see,” he said, repeating my go-to phrase that really means, “no we won’t.”
