Muriel's Snowman
by tannim
December 08, 2012

	Muriel pushed on the snowball with her bare right foot, then hopped forward on the other.  Snow still fell around her in large wet flakes.  Her feet were cold from playing in it, but she wasn't about to go in until her snow sculpture was done.

	Oscar and Milan watched their daughter work.  They helped only when the balls of snow grew too big for the eight year old to move, which took a while both because she could only use one foot to move it and move quickly or both feet to move and move very slowly.  Muriel was getting a good workout no matter which method she choose.

	As the ball grew to more than a foot in size, she had no choice but to sit down for each movement.  It was just too heavy for her to move with one leg or the other.  She plopped down firmly into the newly exposed grass and pressed against it with both feet at once. 

	Snow groaned as it was compacted tight.  The young squirrel groaned as her legs strained against the weight.  It took her three more sitting double foot rolls before she had to move from simply pushing it further to rocking it back and forth for each new roll until at last it had enough momentum to tip the way she wanted.

	Oscar crouched next to her when she was panting after one more rocking pushed. "I think it's time we joined in.  Where would you like, it Muriel?"

	"Next to the other three, please.  Can you roll it around a bit more, too?  It needs to be bigger than the others."

	"Yes, I think we can do that.  You just sit there and catch your breath a bit and tell us when to roll it to the others, alright?"

	Muriel's breath steamed in the cold air while she did just that.  Her parents rolled the ball together, getting it to two feet, then, struggling themselves, to three.  Their daughter called out to roll it near the other two and they looked relieved.  Big ones were hard to handle even for adults.

	"How many more do we need, Dear?" Milan crouched and pulled Muriel's foot to her hip to feel how cold it was.  Cold, but not too cold. "You should go in a while to warm up soon or I'll have to insist you put boots on."

	"Two more snowballs each!" The little girl sounded sure of herself.  Tugging her foot away from her mom she dug her feet into the nearby snow and carefully crafted another ball between them with her toes and arches smoothing and rounding it. "Smaller than the others, though.  I don't need to go in yet, I'm not cold!"

	Oscar nodded. "Remember what it was like to be that young? You were never cold even when you were freezing.  So what are they going to be?"

	Their daughter didn't look up as she rolled the little snowball around with her feet without standing. "It's a surprise!"

	Bit by bit the snowball grew.  As with the others, she leaned and worked her legs under herself to stand, before working the snowball bigger again.  The new one was a bit more than half the size of the formerly smallest ball.  Muriel rolled it over to that one and even managed to lift it up bit sitting and using both feet to put it on top by herself.  Her parents were proud of that success.

	She had to ask for help for the next one, which was also a bit more than half the middle sized one it topped.  It wasn't huge, but the wet snow still weighed too much for her young leg muscles to lift safely.  When the third followed, they didn't wait for her to ask and simply heaved it on up.  Muriel looked relieved to have them up there, too.

	Milan had a fair idea of what they were given the sizes and arrangement.  With the biggest in the middle and the other two on either side of it, it seemed obvious.  She still pretended to have no idea, though, even when her daughter asked them to help find some sticks.

	Muriel was picky about them, taking only the sturdier ones in her foot and giving two of her snowmen arms.  Lifting the sticks high enough was a problem, which was solved by Oscar lifting her up with her holding one stick with each foot.  Her dexterous toes let her grip each stick well enough to push it in deep into the top of the lower snowball.

	She was pickier still about the three after that.  Choosing the ones with a lot of smaller twigs stuck to them to stick into the rear of each snowman.  They didn't look much like squirrel tails, but nobody minded, it was the idea that mattered.

	Unlike many other kits, Muriel also gave each snowman stick legs.  They were short, to fit on the two ball snowmen, but the fact that they were there at all was unusual.  She seemed particularly happy about that as it was the only other feature to the smallest snowman representing herself.

	"Lift me up in front of them, please, Daddy."

	She laughed when he heaved her up again and drew a smile on each of the top balls with her inner right toe.  Both left and right inner toes were used to poke the eyes into each ball before she scratched in their squirrelish buck teeth.  Muriel looked up at her dad a moment, then scratched over his snowman's head's ball with her toe claws to give it a rough beard-like fuzz that brought a stifled laugh from her mom.

	Muriel's tail flicked about in excitement even before she was set down. "All done!"

	"They're lovely, honey."

	"What are they?"

	"Daddy! They're us!"

	"OH.  That little one there is me, right?"

	He laughed and ran while the little armless squirrel buffeted him with her tail.  Milan hurried into the house to fetch her camera.  It was another wonderful first snow day of winter.
