F@#king snow pants

I've always hated the winter season...cold, dangerous, etc. This year I have a new reason for my contempt of this time of year: snow pants. Oh yeah, and lets add boots to this list too.

4 out of 5 of the mornings that Katie gets ready for school she throws a fit when she gets her snow pants and boots on. This fit usually lasts only a few minutes, but it's long enough that we are hurrying and yelling at each other because the bus is a-comin' on down the road, and it seems to spiral out of control. I add gas to the fire, she explodes. She pushes my buttons, I yell. And we both have a rotten start to our day, which should be spent enjoying time with each other.

Here's her issue (and I really can't blame her because I think I would feel the same way. Probably the reason why I chose to NEVER wear snow pants to school.) Once she gets her snow pants on...she's still fine. I pull her pant legs down on the inside so they aren't scrunched up inside. She's doing ok. Then we move onto the boots. Here's where things get hairy. As she steps into the boots, they push up her jeans inside her snow pants. There goes hell, breaking loose.

I've tried to pull her pant legs down and tuck them into her boots, but then her boots won't close.
I've tried pulling her pant legs down OVER her boots, but her pant legs are too small for that.

I've tried rolling up her jeans before we put on the snow pants, but that just makes getting the snow pants on impossible. And the school requests that she wear snowpants to school because they spend the first 15 minutes of school playing outside.

My solution? Start getting her ready 10 minutes early so she has time to throw her fits. Just work them into our morning routine. Oh yeah, and add brandy to my coffee.

The bus comes at about 8:10. I like to be out there by 8:08. We start getting ready at 8:00. Nope, not going to work anymore. So today I had her start getting ready at 7:50. I thought, well now she's going to be mad because we're going to be standing around and she's going to get hot. No way. She was a perfect angel getting ready this morning. Everything went ok...she still complained that her pants didn't feel good, but she used a calm voice and explained the problem, which we decided we couldn't fix. We headed out the door at 8:07 and the bus came right on time.

Do you know what this means!??? Yes, Deb, you've found a solution to your problem.

No - silly readers. It means tomorrow morning is going to be hell.

One afternoon a few weeks ago, Katie decided she wanted to play outside. She got all dressed, threw a MAJOR tantrum (which I walked away from) only to find her 15 minutes later...asleep....on the floor...in all her gear.