Bitter-cold days are the bane of the stay-at-home-dad. It didn’t get above freezing today. It was one of those days where you don’t even want to get into a car to go somewhere else even if your destination is in a warm building. You have to get all those extra clothes on and there’s the hunching of the shoulders against the cold wind. Then the car is cold until you’re almost to where you’re going. And you’ll have a cold walk from the parking lot. And then on the way home the car will be cold again. All of that is at least doubled with a 2-year-old. Especially if she insists on sitting in the driver’s seat and jacking with the steering wheel and pushing the radio buttons for five minutes while you stand in cold.

The best bet is to stay inside. It turns out that little kids don’t really care about the cold, but they care about being bored. Even if they don’t understand that boredom is what they are feeling. Not even Abby can watch Dora the Explorer all day without getting tired of it. So I busted out the finger paints in the hopes that I could keep her entertained for about 15 minutes or so. I also thought I could get some good pictures of her covered in paint.