It Has to Be Fun

Our little guy is 18 months old. Since we live at a ski area, we thought it'd be fun to take him out 'skiing' this winter. We weren't serious about it, just thought he'd get some time on the snow and hang out with the neighborhood kids.

After going a few times though, it was easy to get caught up in watching him learn and wanting him to progress. He would stand on his own or walk a few steps and we'd want him to do it again. As soon as it became anything other than just pure, spontaneous fun, he didn't want to do it. Why should he?! He's only 18-months old, we'd remind ourselves. But then, the next week, he glided on his own for 5 feet or so. So of course we wanted him to do it again, maybe even go further. He fussed and refused to stand on his own.

Tonight, we went back out on the snow. K was interested in falling over on purpose, shouting "Boomba!" as he went down. He also wanted to make snowballs. He didn't care to ski unless he could be a limp noodle held up by one of us between our legs. We followed his every whim, spending most of the night giggling about falling over and throwing big snowballs. He had skis on but he was mostly hanging on the hill with mommy and daddy. And he had fun, which is, after all, the whole point. It has to be fun, that is our new motto.

We ended our evening with what many little ones find to be the best part of skiing- a cup of hot cocoa.