The Creation of the Swoman

There was a new blanket of snow covering a small town in Pennsylvania after a night of heavy snow fall. In one small crowded trailer, a toddler, who was barely over two, came stumbling outside, her grandfather at her side.

The old man picked the girl off her feet and carried her down the stairs into the snow. His feet were barely covered with the help of snow boots.

He walked farther in the yard until they stopped at the empty garden and snow-covered tractor.

After the elder gently put the girl back on the ground, he found her mittens on his shoulder. Once he pit the mittens back on her tiny hands, she giggled before running around, kicking at the snow and falling backwards and moving her arms and legs to make a snow angel.

The man smiled and picked her back up, brushing the snow off her hair before putting her jacket hood over her head.

"Let's make a swoman!" The toddler yelled before she picked up a small pile of snow and started to roll it up the best she could. Her grandfather chuckled before picking up his own pile of snow.

"Not like that," He said. "Watch." The girl did watch, very carefully in fact, as the man rolled the snow into a perfect round snowball.

The girl looked at the pile of snow in her mittens and then picked up more snow and rolled it into a snowball.

"Now what?" She asked looking at her achievement.

The elder nodded before he picked up more snow and wrapped it around the already-made snowball. The girl followed. He then placed it on the ground, rolling it up until it was three times its original size.

The toddler started to copy him, but her snowball crumbled to the ground. Her grin turned into a frown in an instant.

"It bwoke." She said softly, eying the crumbing pile of snow.

The grandfather frowned before crouching down to pick her head up.

"Are we going to finish our snowman?" He asked. The girl looked at where her snowball crumbled before she smiled and nodded.

"Great," He said standing up. "I'll finish the bottom, you start the middle."

Before long, a small, round, snowball that was about half the girls height was built. As soon as the bottom was made, the man helped his granddaughter repair the middle, which she couldn't make stay together. The head didn't take long to construct and was placed on the middle, completing the snowman.

Stepping away from it, they saw a short snowman barely taller than the girl.

"It not done." She said. Her grandfather looked at her curiously right before she ran away from him to stumble back up the steps inside.

Once inside the warm trailer, she ran into the living room and saw her mother and aunt watching television.

"Buttons!" She yelled to get their attention. "Our swoman need buttons and hat."

Her mother went back to watching TV while her aunt got up and walked to a desk to open a drawer and take out a bag.

"Don't lose any." She said grabbing a hat off the nearby chair.

The girl smiled, ran to the kitchen, and saw her grandmother making dinner.

"Our swoman need a carrot." The toddler said putting the hat on her head and the bag of buttons in her coat pocket.

The grandmother nodded toward the refrigerator. "Check the fridge."

Opening the bottom drawer of the refrigerator, she saw a new bag of carrots. She ripped it open with her teeth, took out a carrot, and ran back outside to find her grandpa now standing on the porch.

"Where'd ya go?" He asked as the toddler handed him the carrot and buttons. He took them, and the hat on her head.

Back at the snowman, the buttons were used for its smile, two more were used as eyes, the hat was placed on its small head, and to finish it off, a carrot was used as the nose.

In the eyes of someone who always built snowmen, it was nothing. But to the little girl, it was the greatest thing she ever saw.

"It pwerfect!" The toddler smiled before being picked up and taken inside where she would drink some hot cocoa before taking a short nap before dinner.