All in a winter's Daddy Day

Occasionally when Sylvie's mom has some errands and other stuff to do on the weekends, Syl and I get enough concentrated together time for the day to be deemed a "Daddy Day."  Today was such a day, as Melissa headed hit the stores to start our upstairs rearranging project (more on that later).

For anyone who hasn't been watching the news: we have a lot of snow here in the Greater Boston Area.  A lot lot.  It keeps coming, storm after storm and unlike in most years there has been no warm weather in between.  It just keeps piling up.  The town has had to deploy bulldozers to get snow away from the roads - otherwise there is no place to put the next batch.  We easily have over three feet on the ground in open areas - and the snow banks are mountains.

So the first thing Sylvie and I did on this beautiful winter Saturday was head out to the driveway.  I thought I'd lift Sylvie to the top of one of the banks, but she had more ambitious ideas.  In keeping with her "all by myself" theme of late, she started at the bottom and worked her own way to the summit.  It was an impressive climb by any standard.



After the climb, Syl declared her desire to go sledding.  Brendan had told us that there is an excellent, huge hill on the grounds of the abandoned Medfield State Mental Hospital near by (sounds like the premise of a bad movie, but the grounds are quite bucolic).

Boy, was he right.  The hill puts Oak Grove to shame.  Per usual, Sylvie showed no fear whatsoever - demanding after the first run that we go again - "backwards" - and eventually deciding she was ready to go solo.  That drew an audience, with more than a few parents expressing the sort of misgivings that I suppose I should have felt. If I have learned one thing about Sylvie and sledding this winter, though, it is that the kid is TOUGH.  With the soft, deep snow, a wide open run and the inflatable sled, I figured the chances of a catastrophic crash were pretty slim.  So I didn't think all that much about shoving Sylvie off on her first solo run.

I was right, by the way - the closest Syl came to mishap involved a gaggle of oblivious teenagers.  My yelling snapped them to attention just in time to avoid a collision.

After lunch, Sylvie and I repaired to Buddabing's Diner, one of our favorite eateries, where I enjoyed breakfast for lunch and Syl had - surprise! - a grilled cheese sandwich.  She impressed her dad by ordering her whole lunch without any prompting:

Syl: "Is you got lemonade?"
Waitress:  "We do have lemonade."
Syl: "I have lemonade... please.  And is you got mac n cheese?"
Waitress: Unfortunately we don't!"
Syl, with rumpled brow: "Okay... is you got grilled cheese sammich?"
Waitress: "We do!"
Syl: "I want grilled cheese sammich.  Please."

She was pretty pleased with herself.  I was pretty pleased with her very deliberate use of "please."