Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow!

Louis loves snow. He doesn't remember the piles we had last winter, and he still thinks shoveling is fantastically fun. And he never seems to notice how cold it is--though that could be the fabulous hand-me-down snowsuit he got from his friend Charlie.

Whatever it is, when we woke up yesterday morning to see snow outside the window, he ran to show his stuffed dog.

Then out we went with two goals in mind: to help Baba clean off the sidewalks...



...and to build a snowman named Ned.

The snow wasn't ideal for snowman construction. For one thing, there wasn't that much of it on the ground.

 Louis didn't seem to care that we were scraping snow off of the grass.

 He was on a mission. And, in the end, with a few raisins, a baby carrot, some tree branches, gloves, and sunglasses--which were entirely our son's idea--we managed to scrape together a small snowman.

He wasn't large. I was afraid Louis wouldn't be satisfied since he kept talking about making a snowman "way up to the sky!"


But it was cold. And freezing rain or snain or some form of unpleasant frozen precipitation was still falling out of the sky.

So I managed to entice our son inside.

A steaming mug of hot chocolate? Well, no.



I offered him the rest of the raisins.



And--since I had the day off due to the weather--I suggested we call his cousins Mary and Paul. We introduced them to Happy the Hare and told them our plans to celebrate the Chinese New Year.



Louis told them it will be the Year of the Hippopotamus.

Hmm.

Then we talked about how Ned might melt or get buried under more snow, which came roaring in with a thunderstorm last night. I was a bit concerned when Louis's first questions this morning were about Ned, who was a sad lump just barely visible in the new snow.

Luckily, though, by the time we went outside Baba had piled up some snow for a new snowman.

It also helped that the snow was deep and there was plenty of work to do.

Louis loves work. Clearing the dinner table still makes him laugh. He can't put the napkins out before dinner quickly enough. And a few weeks ago he announced we were going to clean the living room and assigned us each tasks of which toys to put away.

He trudged through the snow, lost a boot almost immediately, and poured his energy into shoveling and building a new Ned.

He never noticed the cold.

By the time we finished with Ned II, Louis was satisfied.

He doesn't go up to the sky, but he's as tall as Louis is, and maybe a bit taller.

He has five arms--Louis was responsible for the extras--and the same sunglasses Ned the First wore until Baba rescued them yesterday.

With the snowman project complete, Louis and Baba set to work bumping into each other on the sidewalk in a Zax-like move.

I'm not sure how much it helped with the actual shoveling, but they had a great time.

Then we brought out the laundry basket.

Yes, we could probably scrape together the money for a sled, but a laundry basket is so versatile.


And it's also very safe and easy for Louis to hang onto.


 Louis didn't care what he was riding.



He was sledding like the characters in "Snow," and like Frog and Toad, as he happily reminded us.

Just as we were getting ready to head inside, Baba offered Louis a ride on the shovel.

Louis had never seen this done, but he is often up for new experiences, especially when they're Baba's ideas. He climbed aboard and held on tight.

Did they dash through the snow?

Not quite. They were both pretty tired at this point, but especially the one who had been doing 98 percent of the shoveling and 100 percent of the reshoveling.

But their spirits were bright (especially since it was a snow day for our whole household today)...

 and Louis, at least, was laughing all the way.

Oh, what fun.