With a little magic from photoshop, you can make your child look like you have chained them to a bench.
Jokes aside, our local groundhog announced an early spring, but it hasn't arrived yet. I know it's the end of the season, but I'm going to do a post on how I dress my kids for the cold weather. These photos were taken today, it was a balmy minus two degrees Celcius (28 F).
A few things have made all the difference this year. First, all the kids have fantastic mittens. They're water repellent, and they have a gauntlet that covers their wrists, keeping the snow out of that space between their mittens and coats. Mittens are also warmer than gloves. After I got these mittens my kids were happy to stay outside in very cold weather for a few hours, their only complaints were about being tired.
They also have water repellent snowpants. They're fairly thin, which lets them move around easily. These ones happen to come over top of their boots, keeping the snow out.
Lastly, they all have a good set of long underwear. Cookie has an infant's long underwear set, I especially want her to be extra warm since she is not active when we are out. I put her in a one piece fleece sleeper to keep the heat in as well. Her mittens are on top of the stroller, she's drinking hot chocolate out of her sippy cup.
Cookie has been in the jogging stroller all winter. It has large tires and can handle snow that is a few inches thick. When the snow was too deep I used my frame pack, although I'm finding she is getting rather heavy. I should have tried putting her in a small sled. She's young enough that I really needed something I could strap her into so she didn't crawl out when I wasn't looking. She seemed very comfortable in the jogging stroller so I stayed with it, although it limited our explorations at times.
Sunglasses for the kids would have made today's trip more enjoyable. The sun on the snow was very bright. We used to have 4 pairs and now we only have one.
My friend Woman North, living north of the arctic circle, has highly recommended wool to me. She says it's even better than fleece. Next year I hope to knit some wool sweaters, and maybe socks, for the kids.
I have a very warm and soft sweater from New Zealand that was knit using possum wool. Apparently there is a possum epidemic in NZ, and making sweaters out of them is good population control.
These pictures were taken using my digital point and shoot, a Canon Powershot G7, which I got mostly so I could take small videos of the kids, something I couldn't do with my digital SLR. It also fits in my pocket, something else I can't do with my SLR.
2 comments:
Oh, I'd LOVE to have a possum wool sweater! Is it really wooly or more hairy like mohair? The possums I've encountered in Canada have seemed more hairy than wooly..
What does it smell like? (I happen to like the smell of sheep wool but can't imagine what a New Zealand possum might smell like!)
Since you mentioned my wool recommendation in your post, I feel that I should add that just because something is made out of wool doesn't inherently make it better as any wool garment's insulative qualities have a LOT to do with the tightness of the knit and therefore the thickness of the end material. I've some thin and loosely knit wool sweaters that I use as one of many necessary multiple layers and others that barely need anything under them, even in -30C conditions, as they've been knitted so tightly with thick yarn and then shrunk a bit to boot, almost as though they were felted.
It is a very fine, soft knit, I believe it is combined with sheep wool as a blend. It is a little fuzzy. It has no smell. It is one of my favorite sweaters.
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