It has been snowing, a very wet, slushy snow, at our house this week.  I spent most of Monday stacking a load of firewood my father-in-law has dropped off to my house, thankfully I got it all stacked before the snow started.  I can’t say the same about getting the leaves off my lawn.  Henley and I have been raking away at them for a few days now, one wheelbarrow-full at a time.  Tuesday morning when I woke up to a snow-covered yard my heart sank a tiny bit.  I still had so many leaves to rake!  We finally made it out again to our soggy yard this morning and it was COLD!

As you can see, we bundled ourselves up pretty well from the cold, full-body fleece suit for Henley and a winter coat for me.  Henley’s suit covers her hands so that she can’t pick up dirt like usual.  The resourceful little tot figured out how to lay or crouch down to munch the mud hands-free.

She also gave me my marching orders for the day.  As she got tired of raking and hauling leaves she started pointing to me then back towards the wheelbarrow with increasing speed.  I asked her if I needed to hurry and she said “oh yeah.”  I asked her if she wanted to rake for me and she said “no.”  She kept pointing to the wheelbarrow so I asked her if she wanted to put leaves in and she said “oh yeah.”  She helped me load the wheelbarrow one last time before we headed inside for a snack and a nap.

It definitely takes longer to do yard work with a toddler around especially a bossy one!  But she adds a fun dimension of conversation and  play to the work.