Snow days can become snow daze if they go on too long. But that doesn’t happen often enough for those of us living in the Pacific Northwest.

Zack stayed home from school for two days this week due to snow and ice. Since it was snowy over the weekend too, it felt a bit like Christmas vacation.

Creepy snow-guy

On Sunday afternoon I had a sudden urge to build a snowman. Our man-boy would have nothing of it, so Jay and I got our boots on and headed out to the front yard. He rolled up enormous balls of snow while I scooped snow off the deck and formed a snow hat.

Why does snow roll up like carpet? I should google that. It’s a strange phenomenon to me, but really cool.

We build our snow-guy on top of a table on our front porch so we could see him from the red chairs we sit in while drinking our morning coffee.

Headless snow-guy

Once the three sections of his body were in place, I put the snow hat on him and we found rocks and twigs for his eyes and nose and mouth. He looked kind of creepy, but we weren’t sure how to fix that so we just took pictures.

Then his head fell off, and we laughed.

Cute snow-guy

But when Jay stood behind him and put his face where our snow-guy’s head had been he looked much better, don’t you think?

Monday, Monday, La La

On Monday, Jay went to work and Zack and I got a tad bored, so I determined to break up the routine. I asked Zack to help me bake Black Bean Brownies and he readily agreed.

Remember what it’s like cooking with young kids? It’s the same with Zack. Okay, I have to admit to a mistake that complicated things before we even started — I filled the kitchen sink with primroses that desperately needed a drink. That messed us up because the nearest available sink was a room away. Nevertheless, we went ahead with our work.

Note to self: Next time, empty the kitchen sink so it’s usable. You’re going to need it.

Zack is learning to use a can opener, so I set him to work opening the can of black beans, pouring them into the strainer, and rinsing them. Thirty seconds later he walked toward me with the strainer in hand, can upside-down over it, and bean juice pouring down through the holes, all over the kitchen floor.

Looking through my rose-colored glasses, I saw another opportunity for skill development. I took the strainer etc. and praised Zack for his work. Then I loaded up my swiffer mop and handed it to him.

As Zack mopped, I finished mixing the other ingredients. Finishing the brownies myself was a bit of a cop-out because I could-have-should-have waited to let him help again, but I figured we had done enough for one episode of Cooking with Mom and Zack that day.

Sometimes boredom brings spontaneity and new skills: During the day, Zack came into the kitchen twice and struck a pose, dancing a bit to the music blaring on Pandora. (He never does this.) He even let me join him for a few seconds of a highly-modified waltz.

It’s my dream to actually dance with this sweet guy one day. I try to sneak it in from time to time, but he usually just walks away — his non-verbal way of groaning “Mahhhh-ahm!”

Heading outside

I asked Zack about going on a walk several times, but it wasn’t until Jay came home from work that his aversion to snow was overcome by wanting to get out of the house. Our big excursion was pushing and pulling garbage, recycling, and yard waste containers down our slick driveway.

At the first slippery part, Zack stopped and starting yelling. I kept going, confident that Jay would turn back and help him. After continuing to the end of the driveway, I looked back and sure enough, my guys were slowly making their way down with Zack holding onto his dad’s arm as they both maneuvered their bins toward the street.

It dawned on me — that’s kind of their version of a dance.