Truly want to be warm at those winter playdates? I am so bringing back cloaks

It was freezing here the other week at park day. The kids were running around without gloves on–impervious, what gives?–but the moms were standing around freezing. As I got blankets out of my minivan (which doubles as a closet) I wished I had brought my cloak. Sure, I would look like the total geek I am and then so, but OMGOSH THEY ARE WARM AND SURPRISINGLY PRACTICAL.

And then I found this little gem on my computer I forgot I wrote on 12/31/2014. Hahaha! Enjoy.

​Winter Coat? Bah. I've Got Something Even Better.

OMgosh I have just discovered the most amazing thing to wear in cold weather if you have a baby or toddler EVER. Before I tell you what it is I must warn you. It's not conventional. (No mall purchase here.) If you wear it you are going to have to get your fun-face on. And people are going to want to talk to you and ask you about it. But honestly, once you try it on in the biting wind you are never going back.
Are you ready?

Really, really ready?

Super-duper - OK OK!

It's a cloak.

That's right. A full-on, button around your neck, flowing down to your ankles, got-a-hood-on-it fantasy fiction cloak.

I wore mine today in the biting wind with my 13 month old baby boy. I felt like a super-hero. I was impervious to cold because my legs were warm, my butt was covered when I sat down on the metal benches, and my arms were still near my body where I generated heat. Plus, I could throw it over my shoulder and pose.

(A must in any park-day situation.)

But enough about me. When I picked up my 13 month old I could prop him on one hip, wrap one half of the cloak around him and then cover him up in the front with the other half. This kept his dangling legs and little hands out of the cold. (Can you keep mittens on a baby? If you can, tell me how!) Why don't I use a blanket? I have tried blankets but they never stay on. (Can you keep a blanket on a baby you are carrying? If you can, tell me how!) The cloak, since it was buttoned around my neck and flowing so magnificently over my stoic shoulders in an iconic display of awesomeness, stayed on both of us, even while I tossed that 20 lb. bag of rice for distance.

(I did. Woot!)

Nursing? Bottle feeding? Time for a little snuggle? No problem! When you sit down you have a lot of fabric to wrap around the baby and you. Fabric that does not fall off onto the dirty, muddy ground or cursed wood chips that cling.

I tell you the list of pluses is endless including - but not limited to - your friend saying in an awed whisper, "I feel like I'm walking behind a Jedi".

Yes, yes, you are.

"Where can I get my cloak?" you ask?

I got mine from a year-round costume store but you can get a cloak on Amazon. It doesn't even have to be fancy - mine is just a thin polyester brown. Cloaks come in all sorts of fabrics. Velvet and wool and cotton and more. Get a faux-fur-lined one. Sing "Let It Go" in the snow. Go crazy. But above all, be warm. You're welcome.

P.S. Sorry for anyone who has that song stuck in their head now. Parents know.