Winter Wonderland or Wicked Winter?

I love the snow.... let me clarify, I love the look of snow. I love a white Christmas and sledding. I hate driving in it, and I hate how bitter cold it gets.

This year Maddox was so excited to go outside and play in the snow. So the second day we got snow my Mom, Maddox and I went outside to shovel the driveway. It was still coming down, but not as furiously as it had been. I may be overestimating, but my Mom and I thought it looked like a good 8 inches of snow that had fallen over night and through the morning. Maddox was having a blast! He loves the snow. He fell down a few times and giggled. I really enjoyed watching him try to keep up with Grandma and the snow blower. He'd run when he needed to and and just enjoyed playing in the snow for the first time this year.
After a while I told Maddox it was time to go inside because it was so cold, but he insisted on staying outside. He was dressed in his snowsuit, boots, coat, gloves and two beanies. I figured a little longer would be fine. Finally he said he was cold and wanted to come inside. We had been outside a good hour. We went into the garage to take his cloths off. I noticed that his shirt sleeves were packed with snow so I quickly took his shirt off. His fore arms to finger tips were bright red and freezing cold. He had fallen down so much that the snow had gotten up his coat and shirt and sat on his little arms. I got him undressed and into the house with a blanket. He was toasty warm everywhere except his arms and face.
Not 3 minutes later I brought him hot chocolate to find his face looking like this.




















It is a little hard to tell from the picture, but his cheeks plumped out like a chipmunks and looked like this. I didn't know what had happened, with worry I quickly called my Dad. He told me he had frostbite and that he needed to stay in for a few days so it could heal up. I had never seen frostbite in person before (other than in books where it's completely black). I am so grateful that we weren't out longer than we were. Maddox's poor cheeks healed quickly enough that you couldn't see much by lunch time, however his left cheek was still swollen when he went to bed that night. So now on my list of things to buy is a ski mask. At least it will help cover his exposed skin.
So as much as we love the snow, I had decided, at least for the day, that winter is wicked and I hated what it did to Maddox. Though I covered and prepared Maddox the best I could with snow gear, I still feel bad that it happened. Poor kid.