Raising Devils

Winter’s Tales

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 | Connecting the Dots | Comments Off

Winter has started, in ernest, with the onset of our local ski programs. Other places have recreational t-ball, I know, and maybe year-round soccer…we have skiing. Volunteer, parent-run (which up here often means former Olympian parent-run) nordic and alpine skiing, and who wouldn’t want that? So Sam has two days a week of nordic and one of alpine (and that makes us a non-downhill family, by local standards, the kids in the racing program do 4-5 days a week at  8), and Lily has one of each, and we’re pretty much out of the playdate circuit for the forseeable future–but then, so are most of their friends. I don’t really think of it as an organized activity, but more like mandatory outdoor play–because it’s always tempting when it gets cold to just throw another log on the proverbial fire and hole up, and we can’t do that (I volunteer in both programs). So on the one hand, too much on the schedule, and on the other–we’re never inside for more than a day or two in a row.

Sam’s been a happy participant in these for three years now, but it’s Lily’s first year of organized either. Yesterday was the beginning of nordic, and it was chilly, and windy, and getting Sam over to his team and me to my coaching spot meant pretty much helping her get her skis on and wishing her luck. I worried the whole hour, but I shouldn’t have, because here’s her description: Me and Molly and Jessie were the fastest, so we got to go around the track a WHOLE EXTRA TIME! and Molly’s Dad was the coach, and there was one girl I didn’t know, and she was Greta, and her dad was the other coach, and do you know what? (What?) In the middle we got to ski to Suzi and we got THREE COOKIES!”

So, that seems to have gone well. I love Nordic, she said, several times today. I love it. Downhill was also a success, but that’s a little more of a sure thing than shuffling yourself around the Dartmouth rugby field in the cold. So far, we’ve had real luck with this stuff–I know plenty of families whose kids just put their foot down and refuse. I’ve yet to have a kid turn down an activity, although we’ve had some pretty unenthusiastic (as in, sobbing and howling) days of soccer and even skiing from Wyatt, so we’ll see if it takes for him. Three’s too young to tell, and two years away from either of these programs. Which means that by the time he’s in kindergarden rec nordic or downhill, he’ll have been doing both for three years already. Rory will have two under her belt, and she was born for any sport you can name. I’m hoping we’ll be in this program for a long time to come!

Tags: nordic skiing

Ski-Ding

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 | Connecting the Dots | Comments Off

Ski-Ding

Originally uploaded by kjda

Who would have ever thought I could take all three littles ice skating
(indoors) and then Nordic sanity and then retain enough sanity to blog
about it–no, wait, to have actually enjoyed it?To have had a blast,
even.

I have dreaded, dreaded this winter. The thought of all the boots and
mittens and hats and this and that and the other…oof. And who knew
how Rory would take it? I do not and never have faced uncertainty with
grace.

But something has changed. With them, they’re just more portable. They
walk. They do not constantly remove their mittens or boots. They do
not require backpacks or sleds or other special acoutrements. And I
have found a new reservoir of patience somewhere, for which I am
nothing but grateful. If I have to spend an hour loading skis and half
an hour putting on ski pants and lacing boots and zipping coats and
distributing skis in order for us to spend 20 minutes skiing…so be
it. We did it. We got out. We didn’t rush and we didn’t freak and
everyone ended up with a smile (it probably helps that I learned long
ago that even serious Nordic skiing families always bring candy. Even
the ones who normally bake all their own bread and such. Candy is key.)

Wyatt had fallen asleep in the car as we dropped Sam off for his J-5 level ski practice, so not surprisingly, he was not particularly game. And when we got there, the wind was whipping, whipping into the car off the parking lot, and he did not want to go. I bundled him anyway, got his boots on, left his mittens in the seat and told him to open the door and call me when he changed his mind. (We were parked right in front of the course.) He changed it, he wanted to come out but not ski. He changed it again, he wanted to ski but only if I pulled him with a pole. He changed it again–he wanted to ski, but only without HIS poles, and he did. We made it all the way around the shortest loop with no hills once, and I’m calling that a major accomplishment.

I may be speaking too soon, but one thing that’s consistently made everything easier is that all of our kids are game for anything, and that includes Rory. So far, we haven’t had the kid who cries at hockey or ballet, or throws herself down and refuses to ski. Wyatt came closest–he never did want to play soccer, but I’ve only just remembered that. Maybe because we just didn’t make him play. But by and large, they get places, they gear up and they give it a go. I hope they stay that way.

KJ Dell’Antonia
sent from my iPhone

Tags: nordic skiing