Still Above (Way Above) The Mason Dixon Line

How was skiing one might ask?  I had a bit of fun, Aunt Susan had a bit of fun, Uncle Dan had a bit of fun, Alex and Katherine had a bit of fun!

Tate had hot chocolate and french fries.

Sigh.

We loaded up and drove to Edelweiss bright and early Sunday morning; about an hour from where we are in Ottawa.  I had signed Tate up for a private lesson and ordered a lesson for Susan and myself.  Tate had been going on and on about skiing like 'Curioous George' for a couple of weeks.  Apparently though Curious George skis with no shoes on.  Because the minute I got Tate's ski boots on he started bawling and crying and whining, he never stopped.

And for those of you who ski you know what an ordeal it is to get yourself suited up in ski boots, lugging your poles and skis (luckily the 3 of us were without poles) while in a room full of people all struggling to get dressed and said room is almost always 85 degrees seemingly, and you all have on 3 layers of clothes.  Gloves fall to the ground.  Hats get stepped on. Scarves get tangled up.  And then voila!  You're ready to ski.

If you're just getting yourself dressed.

Imagine doing all that with a 3 year old who is still crying, a 9 year old who wasn't enthused about the trip initially and a 7 year old who can't wait to hit the slopes. I was exhausted before I even tried walking in my boots.

Alex and Katherine happily scampered off with their dad to ski the blacks while Susan and I trudged over to the ski school meeting place.  Our instructor was actually fabulous, while Tate's not so much.  By the time we had made our way to the meeting place Tate had started crying again.  He was not at all impressed with the snow, the gorgeous views or the idea of putting two skinny sticks on his feet and hurling himself down a mountain.  He cried and cried and cried.  His instructor was a very young guy (late teenager it seemed) and French and he seemed totally out of his depth with a crying 3 1/2 year old.  We were going to be all be on the same bunny slope, so I walked with Tate over to the lesson area hoping that since he would be able to see me that he would come around.  No dice.  He continued crying, refusing to put on his skis.  Our instructor, Yves suggested to Tate's instructor, Julian that he just take Tate a bit to the side and throw snowballs with him or simply play with him.  This seemed a bit much for poor Julian.  Susan and Yves went on up the pulley for her to start 'our' lesson while I stayed down trying to convince Tate to stop whining.  I went up with Susan and Yves the second go round and had a fantastic 'run' down the bunny slope :).  Halfway down I heard Tate just a boo-hooing.

We decided to forgo his lesson and I took him on back inside, and I was not happy.  When I got him back inside I asked what on earth was wrong and his complaint?

His boots were too tight.

SKI BOOTS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE TIGHT!

I had told him this from the beginning. 

No amount of cajoling would convince him to try again, so I calmed down, he stopped crying and we hung out inside.  About 45 minutes later Susan came in, offering to take Tate upstairs for some hot cocoa and french fries and I could go finish out the last 30 minutes of our lesson.

It was glorious being on skis again even if for only 30 minutes and only being on the bunny slope.  I am amazingly afraid of heights, but for some reason as long as I don't have to be on a lift, and I don't look down I can do ok.  Yves was great and patient, but I still could not be convinced to go up the lift and try a regular green run.

I made my way back to Susan and Tate and found everyone finishing up some semblance of lunch.  I grabbed something for myself then while Dan and Katherine did another run, we returned our rental equipment.

We made the trip home uneventfully, the kids played here while we adults recuperated, mostly our ears from Tate's crying. :)

We ventured out to dinner which Tate usually does quite well with.  I made him a hot dog at home since I'm never sure of the offerings with his allergies.  I figured he would nosh on french fries as almost every kid-friendly restaurant has french fries.  This place was no different, but I forgot to ask for the french fries to be unseasoned and he was less than thrilled by the pepper on the fries.  A few tears commenced (and he had done so well while waiting, coloring away), and then the hot dog didn't look the same as the day before.  Ugh.  A few more tears.  The milk though was yummy as was the mini scoop of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, so he was overall a happy little guy.

He was sound asleep by 740 and I joined him less than 2 hours later with sore calves and rosy cheeks.

I didn't hear from Tate until 638 on Monday morning!  I could not believe it.  The previous night had been the same...he slept from 735pm Saturday night until 650am Sunday morning!  He hadn't had a nap since we arrived, and we had no end of the evening meltdowns AND he made up the nap hour overnight!  Woot!

We made our way downstairs and he made a beeline for the tv to watch THOMAS!!  I'm pretty sure Tate's idea of a vacation is Mommy letting him watch 'Thomas' for an hour or more upon waking and then 'Curious George' for an hour or so after some playtime, then more 'Thomas' when we get back from wherever we've gone interspersed with some serious playing in the awesome basement with the amazing train tracks Alex and Katherine put together for him.  Then there's the playing in the snow!!  Fun! Fun!  Followed by more 'Thomas' or more 'George'!

The kids had to go to school Monday, and Susan and Dan had to go to work.  Dan graciously left me his car, so I opted to take Tate to The Museum of Science and Technology.  If you click on the link you'll see why we thought he'd enjoy going!  That train was spectacular in real life outside in the midst of several feet of snow, and Tate was in heaven as soon as he saw it from the car.  Which is how we saw the entire museum as it was closed!  :(  But Tate seemed content enough to drive by the train a couple of times.

We made our way to a small shopping area across the way which had a grocery store.  As we wandered around I ran into a small toy boutique.  We ventured in and VOILA! A huge train table was set up inside the store.  We were the only patrons, and Tate played for over 30 minutes while I had a lovely conversation with the shop owner about all things Canadian and all things American.  One shiny black train (ala The Polar Express per Tate) and we exited.  We had a nice lunch back home together, watched yet another 'Thomas' episode, Tate played with his new train and I rested my head.  We then bundled up and made our way to a local playground. 

This was quite the adventure!  The snow was pretty untouched on the playground, and Tate had a blast walking through it, falling down and figuring out how to get back up.  After about 20  minutes though he was tired of trying to keep his mittens on (they were a bit too big), and I was tired of arguing with him about why he had to keep putting them back on, so we trounced through the snow happily and made our way home.

The kids and Susan returned around 345, minutes after we did.  The kiddos did their kid thing while Susan and I chatted.  I got some dinner into Tate, then we headed upstairs to get ready for bed.  After bathtime and a much easier tooth brushing time than the previous night's screamfest because I wouldn't let him put an entire tube of toothpaste on his toothbrush, we started reading stories.  Well I should say Tate started reading stories.  He was scratching his legs and underarm a bit, and I noticed he had a couple of splotches in the areas with very small hives after removing his pjs.  I rubbed the areas lightly and redressed him.  He was fine for about five minutes then started scratching again;  I undressed him and inspected again.  The areas were red, but the welts still only about 3 mm in diameter and only about 3 or 4.  I opted to bypass the Benadryl to see if his little body could take care of itself.  This put him not going to sleep until 750pm.  A twenty minute difference from the past 2 nights pretty much, and he didn't fall asleep as easily.  But easily enough.

I ate my dinner, relaxed and climbed into bed by 930.  This is the best part of 'vacationing' with great, great friends.   With kids.  They understand that having no 'chores' and being able to be asleep before 10 is the best vacation for me.  The just being able to not have more responsibility than my child and cleaning up after ourselves is just so relaxing.  Not doing laundry every night, not sweeping up every night, not doing the one million little things I always find I just 'have' to do every night is just fabulous.

I have to vow to really allow myself the time to just be for just a little while each and every night I'm at home.  And that includes staying off the computer, which is one of the reasons for Lent this year I have decided that I will not get online after 9pm unless it's to update my blog, and even that I try to do before 9pm.  If I do update it, I don't read anyone else's new posts or even new comments on my previous posts.  I just journal about our lives.  It's been freeing, but now with that 'extra' time I need to spend time for me.  I can't wait.