First day of snow

Aaron loves everything about snow.  I think what he loves the most about the powder is watching it do different things.  He loves to throw it against the fence, kick it around, pee in it (while his cousins were over--awesome), and eat it (hopefully not in that order).  When his trampoline is set up he loves jumping on it and making the snow bounce.  I enjoy watching him play in the snow (from inside...with a hot cup of creamer with some coffee in it).  So when we woke up this morning with the first snow of the season, Aaron went out for some fun.  Oh, and our idea of "snow" is about an inch that melts by the end of the day...that counts though, right? Now let's look at the bright side first.  He put on appropriate clothes (yay for firsts!).  He actually had long pants, a sweatshirt AND shoes on--this is a big deal for us!  Now for the "Aaron part" of snow.  I'm all for kids playing in the snow; HOWEVER, we have two dogs, and just because there is snow on the ground doesn't mean that what is under the snow goes away (if you know what I mean).  So when Aaron decided to do this, I may have thrown up in my mouth a little:

In addition to a fun-filled day of snow, I am trying to paint some of the rooms of our house.  Today my project was the hallway and the kitchen.  It's great fun to paint for a second, get off the ladder, walk downstairs to make sure Aaron is still in the house, go back up the stairs, get on the ladder and paint for a couple of more seconds, only to do it again.  One of the times I went out to check on him I found this:

Nice!  Everyone wants to lay out on the back patio IN THE SNOW with their blanket and a LAPTOP!  Awesome.  I didn't let that stop my painting though!  :)  I probably should have listened to my better judgement!

He gave me a moment of panic when I couldn't find him because he was hiding in my room playing on a computer in my bed (eating goldfish crackers and chips--I'll be sleeping in crumbs tonight).  I assumed I was safe though because the hot-wire fence was on.  NEVER assume...you know what happens.  I went downstairs and saw the puppy in the backyard walking toward the gate--she didn't come back.  She didn't come when I called her.  I had a sneaking suspicion that Aaron was in the backyard (my detective skills of seeing the sliding glass door open clued me in), but it was too quiet.  I did a sweep of the house--no Aaron.  I ran outside and saw dog prints and Aaron prints in the snow.  Crap.  I ran back in to get my phone and tell oldest son to get some shoes on.  I figured I could follow the prints to find the escapees.  The only problem was there were a whole bunch of prints!  As I started running down the street calling for the puppy, Aaron and puppy emerged from the garage of the house next door.  (Note: this house is still under construction--so at least no one lived there!)  This is where my predicament got tricky.  I tell Aaron to get in the house, but the puppy goes running in the opposite direction (stupid dog), and Aaron's not coming.  I'm trying to corral both of them, but am failing miserably!  Finally psycho (the puppy) comes running toward the house, and Aaron decides he's going to mosey on over, so I've got both of them!  Whew!  Come to find out that the side gate had been disconnected from the rest of the hot-wire fence (I'm not sure how) and the back gate hadn't been re-coded, so out he went!  I took care of the problem, and then spent the rest of the day keeping one eye on my painting project, and one eye on the backyard.  He kept creeping over to the gate but every time I would call his name with my "Mom tone" he would get this surprised look (like "who, me?") on his face and walk back in the house.  Stinker.   The snow is almost all melted, so we'll see what happens tomorrow!  Did I mention I'm currently enjoying a nice glass of red wine?