Bundling Up

The weather is trending colder again. Today the sliding door to the backyard was frozen shut, and I had to let Brownie out through the garage.

Yesterday, Bow stayed in almost all day. We looked at pictures, read books, and tried to keep ourselves occupied indoors. Bow especially likes looking at children and babies. When he heard me exclaim that So-and-so's little boy was so cute -- as I was going through my Facebook feed -- Bow insisted that I show him, and he looked for a long time with great interest at the picture. "You remember so-and-so," I said. "You knew her when she was a school girl, and now she is all grown up and has a little boy." Bow nodded.

We also looked at other pictures, the kind we have hard copies of. Here is a shot of Bow looking at the big picture of himself and Lawrence that he got for his birthday.

The green blanket got full usage yesterday, sometimes as rug to lie or sit on, sometimes as a blanket to cover Bow up as he napped, and at times it served Bow as a robe.

Bow refuses to wear clothing. He is very stubborn about that, even outside in the snow. But he sometimes seems to reinvent the idea of clothing, in the way he uses his blanket. In the summer he will sometimes tie a blanket round his waist. In the winter, he looks like a robed sage.

Then, just to show he does not take himself all that seriously, Bow will stick out his tongue.

Or he will pout.

But for long periods of time, he looks like a wise patriarch who has all the answers.

Toward the end of the day, Bow asked to go outside. I let him out, and he made a brief but impassioned display. The sound of his voice echoed through the woods behind our house. Then he rushed back inside.

Sometimes you just have to let it all out, express what you need to express, then hurry back to where it is safe and warm and snug.