Sledding

Josh and I went sledding, real sledding, for the first time together. In the past years, Josh has had a hard time walking through the snow. Inclines are hard enough before you add slippery, uneven, thick snow to the mix. We used the sled in our yard to go down our small hills. The few times I tried larger hills we were both tuckered out just getting to the place and going down the hill was traumatic (last time we went the snow was too powdery and next thing we knew the sled had taken us UNDER the snow not on top). But this last weekend Sherri and Brooklyn invited us and so we went.

The hills were at least 6 times higher than any hill we had ever tried and more than 10 times higher than the ones in our yard. When we got to the top Josh actually laughed like I was joking when I said we were going down. When he realized I was not, he looked at me like I was crazy and shook his head no. So we watched Brooklyn go. He laughed and clapped and "woo-hoo"ed but would he go down? No.

So after we watched Brooklyn a couple of times I insisted that he go with me down the hill. He was upset and made it quite clear he didn't want to but we did anyway. He did not enjoy it. He wasn't crying though so I took that as a good sign. I agreed that we could go down some of the smaller hills (they were only about 1/3 of the height or less). We did this for quite some time and Josh actually began wanting to go down by himself. What a work out. He couldn't even make it up the small hill, especially with the sled so each time I had to walk down and then help him keep his balance as he got up the hill.

Next thing I know, instead of walking up the small hill, he steered us toward the big hill. I kept asking him if he wanted to go down it but even as we began trudging our way up he refused to commit to that. The big hill, oh the big hill. It would have been hard anyway but halfway up he would completely lose his footing and try to take us both down the hill. So here I am with the sled in one hand and my son in the other, losing my own footing and slipping as I try to heave his little flailing, laughing body up the 60 degree incline. It was almost more of a heave child, take a step, heave child, take a step move. When we got to the top he tried to tell me that the point of this was not to actually go down on the sled but to have a better vantage point to watch other people. "No way. I did not drag your little butt up the hill for nothing." I am actually pretty sure those were my exact words.

So I let him pick where we would go down and despite the whining and shaking of his head I loaded him on. I don't know how, but he managed to pick the part of the hill that didn't have any sort of a flat top so I have my boots digging in as well as I can and we were still slowly sliding down as I try to get him situated in front of me. I only had to pick up one foot and the traction of my other boot had was worthless, we were flying down the hill. I have to admit, when we were halfway down I was having visions of little broken bodies myself and probably looked as terrified as he did. When we came to a stop I didn't know if he was laughing or crying until I turned him around to face me. Luckily, he seemed to be doing terrified laughing so we were okay.

He did go down a handful of times from the big hill, a couple times even all by himself! We did go back to doing the little hills because he discovered he could do those almost totally on his own which was a relief to me because I was really tired of lugging him up the hills. Josh screamed and "woo-hoo"ed his approval, jumping up and down and throwing rock hands into the air for anyone who went down the hill every time they went. I love his unabashed enthusiasm for life. It was a great day.