Week 19

One word.  

SNOW!!

And lots of it.  On Monday morning, we had a tiny glimpse of how beautiful London looks covered in a layer of snow.  While we walked to school, I started having grandiose illusions of charming winter wonderland images littering my blog this week, but by the time I picked Liam up from school, it may as well have been raining.  The snow was falling, but melted by the time it hit anything.  We were soaked when we arrived home.  And disappointed.  I tried to be positive, “Isn’t this so cool Liam?”  “No,” was his simple, bordering on defiant, reply.  His attitude bothered me and then I realized, my child was born in California.  He is, for all intents and purposes, a California boy, floppy hair and all, and therefore, I can only guess he is predisposed to surfing over skiing.  In other words, snow does not fit his sensibility at all.  Besides, the one time we actually did go up to Tahoe for some sledding (or shall I say sledging from now on per British pronunciation), the sun was so intense, it burned his eyes and he couldn’t open them for 24 hours so you can see how snow might not excite my very particular four year old.  I, on the other hand, grew up in Ohio, so while the last nine years in California have made me incredibly soft, I still feel like a giddy child waiting for school to be cancelled when I see snow.  I’ve heard mixed reviews of snow in London, so when we didn’t see any further flurryious developments over the next few days, I had all but given up, thinking that might be all we were going to get for the remainder of the winter season.  I was wrong.  Friday morning was the opposite of Monday morning.  When it was time to collect Liam, the snow was unleashing on the city streets and my neighbor offered to drive.  Up to this point, I have refused, not wanting Liam to think we could go in someone else’s car every day, but when I looked out at the whiteness growing exponentially and then back down at my boots designed for some light puddle jumping, I didn’t hesitate accepting her good will this time.  She also said something about homemade soup, cappuccinos, and the boys playing in the snow at her place afterwards.  This day was just getting better and better.  And to my very pleasant surprise, after an afternoon of snowball throwing, angel making, snow shovelling, and jumping on a snow covered trampoline (oh, we pulled out all the stops), Liam’s outlook on this foreign concept of trudging through piles of cold fluff changed completely.  I will make a skier out of this boy yet.  The inclement weather coincided with our planned trip to Bath and we spent the rest of the weekend touring an already magical place, made more spectacular by the icicles and snow.  What is it about snow that is so completely fantastical and peaceful?  If there seem to be a ton of photographs of Liam walking through the snow, well, that’s basically what we did for 2 days straight.  And not one single grumble from him.  This, after his initial luke warm response.  We couldn’t get over it.  Throw some long underwear on that kid (and some snowballs at Mommy, I might add) and give him some mountains of snow to conquer, and suddenly we have a little world traveller on our hands.  AND...my grandiose illusions were realized after all!  Cheers.

Train Ride:

It actually didn't snow at all in Bath while we were there, but when we returned home to London, it was coming down like crazy!!  Made for some good sledging Monday afternoon :)