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Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The First Ski Lesson

Not surprisingly there's not exactly a lot of downhill skiing in Chicago or its suburbs. I didn't learn to ski until I was 14. After that, I went skiing with my youth group in Michigan once a year. Also not surprisingly there's not a lot of skiing in NYC. The Big Giraffe didn't learn how to ski until he was 27. The state of New York was offering a wonderful program called 1,2,3 Learn to Ski and we went skiing several times using it.

Also not suprisingly since New England offers many many places to ski, kids seem to learn to ski much younger here than where either one of us grew up. Because we are raising two little New Englanders, we thought that this might be a good time for our older son (OS) to learn to ski. In all honesty even at 14, I was aware of the very good possibility that I could break my arm. When you're little, you're much closer to ground when you fall and you're not as concerned about it. You also recover quicker. My younger son (YS) fell on the driveway this morning and bounced right back up to continue chasing his brother. If I fell on the driveway I would be writing this blog post from an ambulance.

We live right by a ski place that is offering relatively inexpensive ski lesson (relative being the key word since skiing itself is expensive) for kids ages 4-7. Here I thought I was starting 6 year old OS off early! We signed up OS and had him fitted for rental skis.

Yesterday was the first lesson. As soon as OS got off the bus, we headed over so we would have plenty of time. I was glad we did because the place was in a state of mass chaos. There was one person working to check people in and the line was pretty long.

All the rental equipment was well labeled with the kids' names. It was just a matter of finding where the said rental equipment was. However, there were employees standing around although oddly not at the check in, and we were able to find all of OS's items. In fact, we even had a little bit of extra time. No complaints from me on that!

When it was time for the lesson we wandered out to the ski school spot. OS was the only one who had never been skiing. He's only 6!!! I made a mental note to start YS next year since he'll be 4.5. They were broken up into groups based on ability. It was no big shocker that OS was in the group that started out by practing walking up and down a small slope in just their ski boots. Sacrasm aside, it was actually exactly what he needed and he was pleased with it. Then they had the kids put on just one ski and walk around like that.

I can't tell you how long they did that or what else they did for that matter because YS who had been pitching a fit the whole time about being there had now escalated to full fledged howls. We went into the ski lodge where I gave him the goldfish crackers and apple juice that I had brought with me. That quieted him for about a grand total of two minutes until he started up again that he wanted more goldfish crackers. My triathlon training buddy's kids had lessons in the slot before ours and was on her way out the door. She offered YS a cheese stick which he vehemently refused. I took it anyway and wouldn't you know 30 seconds later he wanted it.

A minute later he was in rare form again. I moved tables to talk with another mom I knew. OS flung himself on the floor in the path of people exiting the small snack bar line. I had to practically pry him off the floor. The tears and scowling continued for what seemed like forever. Finally he wedged himself under a table and was quiet. The other mom had left to go home at this point since her husband was out there with their son so I did want any good mommy blogger does and got on my Blackberry was giving silent thanks for the fact that YS was quiet. But why was he so quiet? Because he was eating popcorn that someone had dropped on the floor!!! I reminded myself that my kids are always doing stuff like that and neither one has missed any school this year! They appear to have immune systems of steel. Did I just jinx myself? Is there a huge case of diarrhea in the imminent future?

I dragged YS out for the end of his brother's ski lesson. Unfortunately you can't see the ski school from the lodge. We watched him ski about five feet down an incline. He was really enjoying it. YS then piped up that he had to go to the bathroom. One of the instructors said that she would take OS back to the lodge after the class. Unfortunately though she didn't and I found a teary eyed OS back outside holding a different teacher's hand who had no idea that I had taken YS to the bathroom. That was the only downer in the lesson but it was unfortunate that it happened at the end.

That was pretty much it. There was a slight incident involving a hot dog from the snack bar and some more tears and I definitely left the ski lodge feeling like I had spent an hour rolling down the hill but the important thing is that OS can't wait to go back. That and I promised myself two things 1) Bring snowpants for YS next time so that he won't be so cold outside 2) Bribe YS with popcorn! 3) Have a bottle of wine waiting for me at home.

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Kids ski lessons can be more exhausting for the parents than the kids.

Labels: Humor (at least Attempted)

posted by Alex Elliot @ 9:02 AM 5 comments

5 Comments:

At 1/06/2010 8:33 PM, Mommy to Tyler & Kendall said…

all good to know!!!
At 1/06/2010 10:25 PM, Heather said…

When my oldest had swimming lessons before her brother was potty trained those sessions used to be excruciating for me. I feel your pain sista.
At 1/07/2010 8:29 AM, Alex Elliot said…

Thanks, Heather! Tyler and Kendall's Mom, I'm also going to pick up underwear for the boys. They didn't have any and OS was cold. Kim said her kids always wear it when skiing.
At 1/07/2010 8:36 AM, Alex Elliot said…

Whoops! I meant LONG underwear! LOL!
At 1/07/2010 12:20 PM, Whirlwind said…

I keep saying I need to take the girls to learn to ski (they're ancient by those standards - 5,6 and 8). But the closest place - and probably the same one you are using is about 45 minutes away. By the time school and homework is done, it's just too late. Maybe some weekend when we find some free time.

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Name:	Alex Elliot
Home:	MA, United States
About Me:	Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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