I am a winter guy. I love the snow. I prefer the cold to the warm. I get annoyed by people who live in Canada, and complain that it’s too cold.

FYI: that photo above is of the Pelican Baby Sled Deluxe, which we got at Costco for $49.99. It is pretty awesome, although unfortunately this winter has been more about the cold weather and less about the snow.

That said, since having a baby, my thoughts on winter are starting to change. With winter fully setting into Toronto, and being my first January with a baby, I am starting to see a lot of disadvantages to winter over summer.

No longer can I quickly throw our little one into the stroller and run out to the local Starbucks. No longer can I quickly take our little one to the park for some play. No longer can I take our little one on an extended stroll through the Beltline.

As our little one is only 11 months old, she is just too little for extended periods outside, especially when it is -30 degrees. But, she is active enough that she just wants to run around, and not be couped up in our basement. Sure, when she was one zero to two months in the winter of 2017 it wasn’t bad – we were nesting!

Getting ready to leave the house is no small feat anymore – with the socks, the shoes, the sweater, the jacket, and all those layers. Then add to that, she is still mainly on two naps a day, which means going on a fun outting to the museum, art gallery, or Science Centre just takes too long.

So, what do we do?? We spend a lot of time in our local mall Yorkdale, wandering the halls and buying too much “stuff”.

Or, we are constantly changing our basement set up, with new games to play with.

Or, we head to someone else’s house with a nice warm basement and other kids to play with.

I love the winter, but my love for the winter with a baby is a changing. Life in hot weather is just so much easier. Maybe it’s time to move to Florida?