Wednesday, November 28, 2007

"Wish I had a river - that I could skate away on"

Pic of Calgary traffic yesterday - the first real snowy day of the season. 17 F/-8C. Actually, it wasn't too cold, just really snowy. Buck insisted on shoveling the driveway. He is totally his father's son. And he was moderately helpful as well. Too bad his gloves don't fit very well. I am currently trying to shrink the only pair he likes to wear (red Elmo gloves from Grandma Duchess).

None of the weather woes (woahs?) are helped by the fact that I live across the street from Bressie the know-it-all nanny. It's bad enough that I have to compete with other first time moms, but nannies too? After a marathon drive to the grocery store through the snow and traffic (imperative, or I wouldn't have gone), I was putting the groceries away and letting Buck "shovel" the driveway. Enter Bressie and Brent - her 3 year old charge. They were creating a "snow mountain" in their front yard while their yellow lab searched for the ball they were hiding from him in the snow. Laughter - frivolity - a good time was being had by all.

So, of course, Bressie yells over - "Hello, Daniel! Do you want to come and play?"

Now, at this point, I don't remember Bressie or the boy's names. Buck and I are wearing regular jeans and thick jackets, but not snow clothes. And Buck sorely wants to "go say hi to the doggy." Since I am "nominal-mommy" (neither good nor bad) I ignore my melting ice cream and walk Buck across the street.

I long ago got over the taboo against asking people their names if I couldn't remember - particularly people I see only twice a month. So, I asked Bressie (she remembered our names of course) and complimented her on remembering Buck and my names. Her response, " Yeah, I think it's the most important thing we can do for people is to remember their names." Uhhh...I'm not totally sure I agree with that statement, but I still saw the truth of the importance of knowing people's names, so I immediately countered with dead air and began talking about the fun they were having.

Now, I love to ski and snowboard. I own the gear, I enjoy the cold weather when it's accompanied by fun, but Bessie has taken this to a new level. She went on to explain to me that she snowboards every weekend and that she is going to start taking Bret (Brent - I'll never be able to remember the most important piece of info for them) skiing as more snow comes. Bressie observes: "So many nannies don't even own snowpants! Even one of the moms who comes over to play doesn't own snowpants. I ask her how she is going to play in the snow with her children? They own snowpants, but she doesn't." At this point, I am imagining that the frozen lasagna I bought (to poison my husband and child, I'm sure) is turning into a gooey, meaty mess in my mudroom, so I use the "no snow pants" monologue as an out.

"Yeah, I really wish we had snow pants." I lie - and then pull Buck away from the dog.

Buck didn't even want to play in the snow - he just wanted to pet that freekin' dog.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home