It’s hard to know what to wear in the city at this time of year. 

For starters, the day-to-day is so unpredictable. But, even 30 degrees with 14 windchill feels different on one day than it does on another. Depending on where you’re walking, some buildings can protect you from the wind and some are a complete wind tunnel. 

And, being on the 18th floor, I can’t just pop my head out real quick to get a sense of the weather. 

So, sometimes we’re real ill-prepared for our walks.

Now, if we had our stroller with us, I can throw everything in the basket underneath, making me feel like Mary Poppins with all the things I can pull out on demand.

But this kid does NOT want the stroller. UNLESS he’s pushing it. And Mama does NOT want him to push it because, well, he rams into all the things cause he’s a fraction of the size of the massive thing. 

So we leave it behind.

All this to say, we left for our walk yesterday morning with the clothes we were wearing. Which was FINE, I suppose. But mittens were left behind.

At one point, he lifted his cold hands up to me and said, “Mama, put hand socks please.”

I ALWAYS throw an extra pair of socks in the stroller (along with his actual mittens), but, again, no stroller.

We were quite a bit away from home. So I looked down at him and tried to show him how to put his hands in his pockets. 

No dice. 

He’d do it but then pull them out again and then start crying. 

I looked around, debating my options. Do I turn back around to go home with him? (It wasn’t a HUGE walk if it were just me. But it felt like it’d be a 20 minute ordeal with Ishu). Do I find a pharmacy around us to see if I could buy some mittens? Should I duck into a Starbucks or somewhere to warm us up for a little bit? Should I pick him up and run toward the sun so at least we’d have that relief? 

So many things to consider. Yes, at that moment. But ALWAYS.

Eventually, my mom brain landed on, “Well, why not take his socks off and use them as mittens?” 

And so that is exactly what we did.

We made it to the playground. 

The wind was still blowing pretty hard, but with socks on his hands, he was a content little guy. 

It makes me laugh. All the split decisions you gotta make when being the primary caregiver. It’s no wonder why I’m so exhausted at the end of the day. My body AND brain do quite the workout!