Want to play in our backyard?

Posted January 24th, 2007 by Mom |

The temperature is in the 30’s here. This morning after breakfast (homemade Bisquick pancakes) C wanted to know how cold it was before he opened the back door. I told him it was really cold. He is still grasping degrees of cold, chilly, warm, hot, etc. I then looked out the window with him and showed him the ice that had formed on the water in his turtle wading pool that he and J like to float various items in. J ran over to us from where he was playing with the legos spread out on the floor and said “wanna see ice.”

The kids got dressed warm and and went to play outside in the backyard. A little while later, J came back inside yelling “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. There’s a snake out dere” (”there” for the toddler-talk challenged). C had already come back inside to get warm on the couch watching Monsters, Inc.

I thought a few minutes before I went out to look. You see, snakes are supposed to be hibernating in the winter, but I read an article recently that bears and other animals are waking up early since it has been a relatively mild winter for us. We have a fence in our back yard, but last summer we still had a 3 foot snake out back. (I have pictures of it. Quite a day…) Plus I didn’t want to have to dispose of a snake. Not my specialty as a mom. Spiders, no problem. Bugs, no problem. Snakes, where’s Daddy?

Finally, I went out to see it. Barefoot, in a t-shirt and sweatpants. Not good in 30ish degree weather. (It’s really cold out there!) C started to go with me, but turned around as J started talking about the snake again and that it was “gonna bite me.”

As it turns out, J had been digging in the dirt and found a worm, not a snake. Big relief for me, and disappointment for J, however he started talking about playing with the worm and I told him it was fine to play with the worm. Got to love having sons. I am learning so much more that I ever wanted to know about nature.