How am I going to keep Alex warm? The winter of 2008/09 was a cold one. We had many days when the temperature reached a high of just -15C or -10C, before wind chill. Snow covered the ground from late November and remained until March.
Alex spent most of the winter, tucked under my big heavy coat, inside a Wilkinet sling. I could feel his breath on my throat, know he was just as warm as me and could keep him away from the snow and slush, high above my winter boots. Inside a store, I'd take off my jacket and his blue woollen toque to let Alex continue sleeping, undisturbed, in the sling. After one heavy snowstorm, I carried Alex under my coat and pulled Nate, in his snowsuit, on a sled through the snow to the doctor's office for Alex's weigh-in.
In between the warm car and even warmer destinations, I would dress Alex's car seat in a snow proof cover. I would plunk the detached seat into any of the large snow banks that line winter streets in Ottawa and then get Nate out. If it was snowing hard, I'd need to brush a layer of snow off the cover, before pulling open the collars that protected Alex's face from the dangerous cold.
We won't even talk about driving to pre-school, on very little sleep, through the snow, to the cacophony of a crying baby and chatty 3 year old. I never went over 30k/hr.
