Sienna: Loving the Cold

The last great New York freeze was the year Sienna was born. A massive snowstorm descended on New York on December 26, 2010. You may note that is a very specific date to recall. Well Danielle and I went to the WWE at Madison Square Garden that night, returning via the F train to find...that the F train was no longer running all the way to our apartment. We walked a mile through the raging blizzard, leaping into snowbanks when the oncoming lights headed toward us.

Oh, Danielle was also six months pregnant at the time. Gotta love a wife who exhibits such behavior.
The snow and cold continued to be miserable for the next month - at least according to my memory - culminating with a second massive snow storm, which effectively buried our car the morning we were leaving for a trip to Virginia in the last week of January.

Undettered - and with an assist from a friendly neighbor - I managed to get the car out of the spot and we made our way to Virignia where...everything was frozen solid. Roads were closed, icicles hanged from every conceivable surface, and my seven month pregnant wife and I curled up under some warm blankets. It was a nice vacation.

Two weeks later Sienna showed up (six weeks early) and our life began as currently is.
Today it was minus 1 degree out. Even from Massachusetts I find this type of weather unbearable. Hell, it is why I refuse to live back in Massachusetts again. Hell, I admit this having been someone who used to walk around in shorts during the winter.*

Sienna on the other hand...let me take us back to this Monday when it was a relatively balmy 20 degrees out when Danielle and I picked Sienna up from daycare. Sienna was fine riding in the stroller, disgarding her gloves second before instructing us to take her to the park. She had the park mostly to herself as she proceeded to play for half an hour on ice cold equipment, including swings and a slide. The only hinderance for her was touching her bare hands to icy metal. A sensation she was not pleased about.

I can relate. I spent my entire life in houses with the thermostat set to 66-68 degrees. Danielle and I freeze whenever we visit my Massachusetts friends and relatives. Conversely I am fine with Sienna walking around naked in our apartment when it is cold since I once saw a documentary where inuit children were waking around naked in igloos.**

Today I should not have been surprised that she wanted to WALK to daycare. I encourage her to walk everywhere. I stuffed her in a stroller. She didn't want to wear her gloves. I made her wear her gloves. She didn't want the wind shield on the stroller. I put it into place.

This does not make me a great parent. Or a wise parent. Only a parent who did not want to turn his child into a popsicle.

Given all of the above I should not have been surprised that Sienna complained the entire way that she wanted to walk, including pushing her hand through the windshield, and including giving me a dirty look when we got to daycare. Won't be the first or last dirty look, though I am pleased she honors her New England heritage, or at least Danielle wandering through cold, snowy places during her pregnancy.

Wayne
* I was in amazing shape in High School where I could do stuff like walk around in freezing weather and not get sick. If I tried that now I would freeze, get sick, and most likely cry the entire time.
** My wife likes to point out that we a) do not live in an igloo, and b) we are not inuit.