Sledding Fun

Though it has been an incredibly mild winter so far, we do at last have some snow, so Ethan and I decided to take the girls on a sledding adventure today. We drove down to the golf club in our town, since its main use during the winter is a sledding and cross-country skiing hub for kids and adults alike. In the past few years, we have merely walked down the street to the park near our house to sled down what amounts to no more than a mere lip on the side of a soccer field, leading to the walking path above. Even that was more than Julia could handle in the past; terrified by even the slight downhill we would sled on, she frequently wound up simply playing in the snow, refusing to try a second (or third, or fourth, etc) run down on the sled. Today marked major progress for her, in that she not only had a blast riding over the big bumpy hills at the golf course, but even tried sitting alone in the sled. She was hesitant at first, but quickly discovered she liked riding solo. Or, as she put it, "Mom! That...was...AWESOME!"

As you probably know, Madeleine is the more fearless of the two children, and there is rarely a feat she is hesitant to attempt. We started out pulling her gently along down the golf course hills in a toddler sled, into which she was very carefully buckled:



Not only did she absolutely love the experience, but she proved she didn't need to be handled with such delicate care once it was my turn to tote her down the hill. "As long as you don't go too fast, you'll be fine," Ethan cautioned me as I was about to start the ride. I brushed him off, confidently asserting that I had no intention of going fast.

Except... when you're pulling a 30-lb child along in a sled down a steep hill, it's hard to actually prevent the sled from going fast. I pulled her along, and suddenly realized that the sled was moving faster than I was. It quickly caught up to me and was about to overtake me, but for the fact that I was smack in the middle of its path. I tried to get out of the way but I simply didn't have time, and instead I would up tripping over the sled, falling over directly onto Madeleine's head, then all the way over the other end of the sled into the snow, leaving her to fly down the remainder of the hill without anyone holding the tow rope. Standing up as fast as I could, I dashed over to check if she was okay, horror stories of kids who were badly injured in sledding accidents rushing through my head, and expecting to find her sobbing.

Nope. This is Madeleine, after all. Instead, I came upon her giggling hysterically, like I had just pulled the funniest stunt on earth. She could barely contain her glee as I pulled her up back up the hill, dissolving into even harder giggles once I wiped out trying to tow her up and had to pull on the rope as I was splayed on my stomach mid-uphill. Thanks to her complete dismissal of the collision she and I had had, she was not at all deterred from continuing her sledding runs. In fact, she was even brave enough to try sledding down in the big sled with Julia, trusting that her big sister would keep her as safe as either of her parents would:


The girls reach the bottom of the hill

After witnessing Julia lay on her stomach in the sled and ride down the hill, Madeleine was determined to try a similar pose. After the girls' final sledding run, Ethan towed Madeleine back up the hill in the big sled, in which Madeleine stretched onto her belly. She loved the experience so greatly that she was utterly heartbroken when it was time to get out of the sled and into the car. "I want to go on my TUMMY!" she wailed during the entire drive home. Even once we were in the house and out of our snow clothes, she just couldn't get over her misery. As I put her on the potty before nap time, she sobbed to me, "I want to go sledding, Mommy! I want to go on my TUUUUUUMMYYYYY!!!" I suggested she try going on her stomach in her crib, but she just didn't think it was an equal exchange.

At any rate, two great milestones were reached today: Julia's bravery on the hill, sledding down all by herself, and, even more amazing, the fact that Ethan and I were able to, without anxiety, let our two daughters sled together down the hill without an adult. They grow up so fast...