Baby Spartan's Mom

What an amazing trip this has been to Ohio. I told my parents I was expecting them to provide snow for our visit…and it hasn’t stopped since the day we arrived! Yippee!





It’s been absolutely gorgeous.





Long after I moved away, my parents settled out in the country. It's a breathtaking view with all this snow.





Of course, we haven’t been out enjoying it much because Lia was getting over a cold when we arrived, then jetlagged, immediately followed by cutting teeth, and sadly suffering through yet another cold…so we’ve spent many hours by the fire gazing at the Winter Wonderland just outside the window.





Very calming actually.



Very peaceful.



Quite a diversion from the busy street we call home in Los Angeles.



My dad has been able to play with his snow blower almost every day. Lia loves watching her Grandpa push around the big noisy machine outside that makes geysers of white billow up in the air.



He always plows a path to the bird feeders, making sure all the living things outside are fed and happy during this cold, dormant season. Such a selfless and generous man. Lia is lucky to have such great role models.







We attempted to introduce her to snow again yesterday and she wasn’t thrilled with the idea. When we held her in our arms and walked around, showing her the bird feeder in the small tree in our front yard that we look at every day, she was pretty happy.



In fact, I think she rather enjoyed feeling the snowflakes land on her face.



However, when I put her feet on the ground, she would NOT let go of Mommy…



I know I complained for many, many years about the cold, heartless winters and couldn’t WAIT to move to sunny California. Now that I’m here again with my daughter, I remember how much I loved the snow growing up. Hearing the words “SNOW DAY, SCHOOL IS CLOSED” was like winning the lottery as kids. We’d go sledding, make snow men and snow angels, come inside and warm up with some hot cocoa, run outside again and lace up skates to tackle the frozen pond pretending we were Olympic figure skaters. Well, I did anyway. I can’t speak for my brothers – they were too busy trying to crack the ice and pee their names in the snow. Ahhh…the good old days.

I hope she gets over this fear and embraces it as much as I did. I think she will. She may be a California girl, but she’s got the blood of a Midwestern gal running through her little body. In fact, she may just grow up to be the champion figure skater I dreamed of…or snowboarder…or speed skater…or ski jumper…or bobsledder…

Yes, we’re watching a lot of the Olympics these days…just planting the seeds…