This past Thursday a power failure in Brooklyn forced Dave and I to go to his parent's house in Connecticut. While lovely, their house can feel a bit isolated in the wintertime. Fearing that we might lose our minds staying inside the whole weekend, we went looking for a baby-friendly outdoor activity that would let us take advantage of all of the snow that we have been having lately. We decided to try snowshoeing with Ben.
We were surprised how fun and baby-friendly the outing was! Snowshoeing is great because it requires minimal skill (the ability to walk), minimal gear (snowshoes, which are quite small nowadays - we rented ours at a local hiking shop), and a snowy trail. We went to Bull's Bridge, CT and had the whole path to ourselves. Next time it snows we are going to try going in Prospect Park!
A couple of lessons we learned from snowshoeing with a five 5 week old:
1. Just because it's warm in the parking lot, doesn't mean its warm on the trail. Bundle the baby up, especially if your carrier is outside of your jacket. About 20 minutes into the hike Ben woke up in hysterics, presumably cold. We had unwisely left his blanket in the car - we resolved this by stuffing as much of his carrier into my jacket and covering him with a folded swaddle.
2. Carry a bottle in your breast pocket. Both of these are important - the bottle because breastfeeding outside in the middle of winter is less than ideal, and the breast pocket is to keep the milk warm. When we tried to feed cold Ben (see above) with a cold bottle, he was understandably having none of it. After just 10 minutes of snowshoeing with the bottle in Dave's jacket, the milk was warm enough for him to take it.
PPS: We tried this delicious Salmon recipe, and this Eggplant Steak au Poivre and you should too!
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