Between last week and this week, we’ve been caught in something that feels a little bit like The Day After Tomorrow, even if it’s hardly living up to that kind of cinematic hype.

Despite the snow, the Monster didn’t get a chance really to go play in it.  On Friday, it was entirely too cold for the kids to get out into it – it was bone-chillingly cold, and they don’t really tend to like to be too bundled up… or at least to wear gloves.

Course, the weather’s not really been conducive to go out side either.  Today, when I took R to nursery school, my car was registering 3 degrees… which dropped to zero by the time I got out to the J.  It’s the kind of cold that has them putting out warnings that it’s unsafe to be outside for more than a few minutes at a time… which again, means no play time outside for the kids.  Of course, the snow’s nearly all melted now after the mild warm-up on Sunday afternoon and the rain we got then, but it’s still hard to be stuck inside all the time.

We haven’t figured out yet how to explain to the Monster that it’s just not safe to go outside to play.  Trying to explain to him that it’s too cold is a little difficult to convey.  While he does understand the concepts of “cold” and “hot”, he’s not really shown an awareness of the meaning of “too cold”, or other warnings about his environment to keep him safe.  It’s a little frustrating to see that he’s not quite grasping why we’re telling him he can’t have what he wants, and then we’re having to find ways to divert him from it until he stops asking for ‘playground time’.

Soon enough, we’ll either have a warm-up or spring will come and it’ll stay warm enough for the kids to go out to play again.  Or, on the other hand, he’ll learn what ‘too cold’ means…