It’s been raining pretty steadily this week in NYC. Call me crazy, but I’m not really into going outside in inclement weather. Back when I was pregnant with Milo, I had this little fantasy going of what our bad weather days would look like—lots of cuddling on the couch, reading books together, maybe a little coloring, a special snack, maybe watch a movie sometimes. Fast forward to the reality of my life these days and it turns out that Milo does not share my vision of rainy day bliss. It turns out that Milo has really drunk the Waldorf kool-aid and taken the precepts of his Waldorf class/playgroup to heart, i.e. that there are no bad weather days, just inappropriately dressed people (or something like that). I see rain and I think, let’s read a book on the couch in our sweatpants. Milo sees rain and thinks, let us don our rain gear and frolic in nature.

It was raining most of the day on Tuesday. Milo spent the morning outside at Forest School with his dad, while I stayed home with the baby. When Milo woke up from his nap later that afternoon, it was raining pretty steadily. He played with his trains for a while. We read some books. He rode his scooter up and down our little hallway. He went over to the window and looked out longingly. “We go outside?” he asked. I told him no, that it was raining, it wasn’t good weather to go outside. “We’ll get all wet!” I said. “Let’s stay inside and watch a movie!” I said.  He looked at me and shook his head. “No, mama. Put on wain boots. Put on wain coat. We go outside. Miyo ride ‘cooyer (scooter) on sidewalk.”

I looked outside at the rain. I weighed my options. Sure, I’d get wet. But I could put Zach in the stroller under the rain cover, and he’d probably take a nap. Milo would run out some of that energy. If we stayed inside, I’d have to reckon with that energy in a very small enclosed space. Come on, I told him with a sigh, let’s get dressed.

Sure enough, Zachary, tucked cozily into the stroller with a blanket over him and the rain cover on, fell asleep within two minutes of getting outside. Milo, dressed in pajama pants, Thomas the Tank Engine rain boots and his little blue raincoat, dragged his scooter down the front steps, positioned it on the sidewalk and hopped on. As he zipped down the sidewalk, I could hear him belting out “siiingin in da wain, jus’ singin in da wain….what a g’oryous feelin i am haaapy agin…i yaffin at da cwouds la lalaaa lalala.” (Another example of Milo’s well-documented love of show tunes, what can I say.)

Guess I might as well invest in some good all-weather gear because it looks like I’m going to be going outside a lot this winter.