grrlTravels

stuffed

The weather has been a bear here. Pleasantly warm one day, freezing the next. I never know what to wear. Not that it makes all that much difference since I wear the same things every day rain, snow, or shine. But still. I feel like my wardrobe should be varying with the conditions. I feel like I am not keeping up.

More importantly I am not quite keeping up with the children, and that's bad. I sent E. to school with a warm, but not really warm, jacket the other day and when I picked him up he told me they had gone outside to play. I hurriedly asked him if he had been cold and he said yes. As it was quite windy I was surprised they had even gone outside and I had a big old pang of mother-guilt for not sending him in appropriate clothing like they have told us over and over at preschool. I am completely incapable of guessing when they will go outdoors to play and I need to send him in the big coat just in case. The big coat is such a pain though, especially with the car seat. None of the kids wear their big coats in the car unless there's a good reason, like we are taking the interstates to Antarctica.

Even though we only had big coats in China I still wasn't keeping up. It was much colder, there were no car seats, and we wore our long johns and big coats every day. In China I made my best effort to keep my children warm. As you have probably guessed the effort I made wasn't embraced by all of the people we met. Most of them repeatedly motioned towards the children and their meaning was clear—your kids are freezing. They were freezing. Because it was below 32 F and windy. But they were dressed warmly by my standards.

When we got to Hohhot I gave in because of R. (the newest one). I knew we would gets lots of flack about him and I was tired of feeling inadequate. So on our second day our facilitator and I took a lengthy journey to search out warm blankets and fat pants. Finally, finally, finally I had the right clothes at the right time. It was a revelation. I felt so relaxed, so competent. I was finally keeping up.

What's the spring version of fat pants? There isn't one, right.

BUNDLED


the arms are hilarious


do you think there are matching mittens too?


she looked puffier than the photo shows


the fat pants are so lumpy—
I wonder what is under there!


love the entire outfit


Z. sporting her pink fat pants


my family is bundled and still COLD