A few weeks back, we decided to gather up our old coats for the annual Coats for Kids drive. We hauled out last year’s adorable blue coat… (shown here with supersized dog butt for scale)

And the super sweet brown coat

How could my babies be too big for these coats now? After drying my tears, I explained how some kids don’t have a coat to keep them warm in the winter. We looked at pictures from last year’s snow and talked about how nice it was to have a toasty warm coat. Then we bagged up our donations and headed for the drop-off site.

In the car, I hear baby girl sniffle a bit, and then launch into full-on sobs. She’s usually the last one to throw a fit about anything, so I was immediately worried. “Honey, why are you crying? What’s wrong? Did you pinch your finger in the buckle again?”

No words. Just. More. Sobbing.

I pull over to check on her, and she finally breaks through the tears to explain: “But, Mama, I want to be warm this wintertime too. I don’t want to give away my coat.”

Ah, another Mother of the Year moment. Guess I should’ve explained that we’d be getting new coats that fit. Poor thing tried to suck it up the whole time, thinking she would freeze this winter.  Oh, the guilt!

After several minutes of reassuring her that she won’t shiver all winter, we made it to the drop-off site.

This photo doesn’t capture the Epic. Meltdown. that ensued when Nolan realized we had to leave the donation site without the awesome hot wheels police car they so kindly displayed in the front of the store. Good thing the other one was exhausted from her morning of worrying about freezing to death this winter and waited patiently while I carried her kicking and screaming brother to the car. Ain’t giving grand?