The Ninetieth Day of Winter

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Three weeks. That’s how long it has been since I arrived back from California. And that’s how long it has been that someone in our family has been sick. Today seems to be the first day when we’re not dealing with fevers, unusual crankiness, extra loads of laundry and more than usual crummy sleep. 

I’m one of the last ones to pull into the drop off line at school. I’m happy to see that I’m not the last one… not because it makes me look less bad, but because it’s one of my friends. Since we’re the last ones, there is no rush to drive away, and so we linger, catching up. 

Soon it becomes abundantly evident that we could both use an excuse to not go home so she suggests we go visit over warm drinks at a café known as the neighborhood living room. Our little kids play with the provided toys, while we commiserate about being cooped up inside for days on end. She confesses that she realized that week that she hadn’t left her house for three days. That makes me feel abundantly better. She's a born and bread Wisconsinite. I haven't been cooped up in the house just because I don't know how to do winter in Wisconsin.

Once we wrap up, I can’t bare to head back to the house quite yet. It is a sunshiny day, even if it is only twenty-three degrees.

To the zoo we go. Only I hadn’t really planned to take the kids outside today, so I’m obliged to carry BabyMyBoy around in his covered carseat to keep him from freezing.

I also didn’t double layer SmilesBabyGirl’s pants, so seeing the red panda playing in the snow is not enough to overcome her desire to go home and get out of the cold wind. There seems to be only one other visitor to the zoo, and they are on their way out, too. Poor lonely (frozen) zoo.




But the half hour we spend outside has been good. We got fresh air and sunshine. We can go back to the house again.

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