One rather nice thing about family-break times, like the one we had just last week, is how I get the chance to really see my children anew. It doesn’t matter if we stay home, though I do tend to view them differently when they’re back-dropped by a different scene, or within different walls. I too, am running ambling at a different pace, so I actually hear more of their chatter. It’s as if my senses have awakened to them, and I notice how they’ve grown and changed. They’re taller. Their language has matured, too. I get a better sense of their new interests, as the subjects crest in conversations, and in deed.
We didn’t do a whole lot while at the cottage – the children spent a lot of time playing in the snow outdoors, only to return, completely famished, whereupon I would throw out plates of stuff like this for them to munch on while they rested… all before they’d suit up again, and head outside for more.
Easy-going, personified.
We’d take walks out on the drained lake which felt like an enormous tanning bed, due to the glaring snow around us (people were out in snowpants, toques, and t-shirts soaking up all that vitamin D) but mid-week, we got in the car and took the kids to an inner-tube run in the nearby town.
Ava Scarlett was super excited about it – she’d never really done anything like it before, save for gentle slopes for tobogganing outside the cottage’s front door. She put on her pink and navy striped tights, a beige cable-knit sweater, and her grey tutu, which is her most favourite skirt in the world.
Me: Um, maybe you’ll want to wear pants, darling… or leggings. They’ll feel more comfortable under your snowpants, don’t you think?
She: No, thanks. I like this better. *blinks*
Me: *le sighs* Fine. If it pleases you…
I mean, why fight? She packed TWO tutus for out time away in the woods. I can only close my eyes and shake my head. Clearly, she is her father’s child. *snort*
She had so much to say on the drive there, asking how it would all work, and do we have to walk up the hill, or do we get a ride up there? and her eyes were round and shiny as she gasped excitedly for air while she rambled on.
Indeed, there was a lift to carry us up the hill, which didn’t seem so high as we rode up, but upon peering down the hill of the first (and tamest) run we chose, my nerves almost got the better of me. And I wasn’t alone… Martin and I both exchanged looks that said YIKES with our eyes, but we didn’t alarm the children.
Oliver has what I’d call a healthy, natural sense of apprehension to new things, like water’s edges, and heights. She, on the other hand, is a completely different animal. She is the one who climbs without stopping, and who leaps before looking. She is the one who makes me panic in parks and other outdoor spaces by sprinting everywhere willy-nilly, and jumping into pools sans water-wings. She has… aged me.
Oliver looked over the side and gave me a frightful look. I tried to be enthusiastic.
Me: It’s gonna to be fun! *gives thumbs up* It might be fast, but it’ll be okay.
He: Do you think I could… you know… flip over?
Me: No, Boo… the edges of the runs are groomed so that can’t happen.
Shouldn’t happen…
He: Okay. I wanna be first!
She: No, ME!! *scrambles with her inner-tube to the start of the run*
Me: Wait… wait lady! WAIT!! *staves off heart-attack* Please… let Oliver go first, and then daddy, THEN you, and I’ll come after, okay?
She: *whines* But I wanna to go fiiiiiirst…
Me: I know you do. Next time, okay? I promise. Let Oliver go first this time, and next time it’s you. Yes.
And that’s just how it went, with Oliver and his excited nerves sliding first, and I watched my little boy tip over the lip of the hill, and I held my breath, waiting to see his butt still inside the tube at the bottom. Hours later, he was safely down the hill. Suddenly, I could breathe again.
Martin made a mock pained face, and went next, and I was left with Madame.
She: I’m NEXT!
Me: Wait, girl! Jeeeeeez… let your dad get to the bottom first. You don’t want to crash into anyone. Okay, now hold onto these parts here, and don’t let go of them AT ALL, okay? You have to hold on tight. It’s gonna be fast, I think…
I couldn’t believe I was getting ready to push my baby down the hill, nestled into an air-filled Shuttle Of Death.
She: *waves at me* See you at the bottom, mummy… *smiles and propels herself backward*
And then she winked at me.
Me: *shouts* HOLD! ONTO! THE THIIIIIING!!
And she was gone from view, cackling her wee head off, while the air left my body and I stood dying on the top of the ginormous mountain.
A queue was forming behind me, so as
not to hold up the line any further, I sunk my butt into the hole of the tire, and followed, spinning at the onset, and making most of the lightning-fast run down the hill backwards. I think I was too shocked to scream much.
not to hold up the line any further, I sunk my butt into the hole of the tire, and followed, spinning at the onset, and making most of the lightning-fast run down the hill backwards. I think I was too shocked to scream much.
When I got to the foot of the hill, I could hear Ava Scarlett in particular, still whooping and laughing, and she firmly held her tube by the cable, and started sprinting back to the lift line on her little legs. Martin had to run to catch up to her, so she wouldn’t cut into the line for the lift and go back up there alone.
Oliver was closest to me, so I asked him how it was.
He: I was a bit scared at first… it was faster than I thought it was going to be, but… it was really fun. *face splits into a huge grin*
Me: Yeah, it was faster than I thought it would be, too. But I don’t think you can tip over, so that’s good to know. *grins back*
He: Yeah.
She: *scampering wildly and shouting* THAT was the BEST fun I EVER had, mummy!! And I’m going to go to down the slide-y part next to the one we just did, and I get to be FIRST this time!
She skipped on the spot, Gangnam-style and shook her hips at me with her hands on top of her head. Punk kid.
Me: Holy crap, girl. You’re a hotdog.
She: *cackles with her head thrown all the way back*
She has almost no fear, this girl. Her sense of adventure and her bravery both amazes me and scares me a little. But I hope she keeps as much of this spirit as she grows… she is a hundred times braver than I am, and will do just about anything, given the opportunity.
I hope I don’t squelch it out of her. If she holds on tight to it all, she might be magnificent.
That is, if she doesn’t blow herself up first.
How about you? Are your kids very different from each other? Have you got a brave little hotdog on your hands?!
Funny, my oldest has a severe anxiety disorder, but almost never with the physical danger side of things. She’d climb any structure, hurl herself down any slope, dive headfirst into any body of water…but in other areas? She’s paralyzed by fear.
My youngest tends to be more of the apron-string tugger. She wouldn’t leave off her death grip in the pool until she was six – nearly drowned me a few times by squeezing me so hard around my neck! And she still likes to snuggle down for the night in bed with Mommy, even at nine. But she doesn’t have the same clinical issues as her big sis.
We try to face fears every day in this house. I’m so surrounded by those of my kids I don’t have time for any of my own!
Your youngest, just like mine, fourth child and all the courage was saved up for him. He has no fear. And sadly has the stitches to prove it..back of head…forehead…chin. After three boys never, ever, ever leaving their crib without me, this one comes along and climbed out of the crib and I had to buy baby gates all over again. Insane… and yes, ages me big time. Lord help us all.
Sure sounds like fun though…
It’s amazing how they can run All. Day. Long. Man, it makes me tired…
I think a little fear is good… and indeed, Will is ready to take on the world – he’s got a lock on it. Four, don’tcha know… Hee!!
LOVE this! I thnk my Missy & yours would be fast friends…running head-long into everything with you & I chasing them from behind. Mine has only 2 speeds, sleeping & running! I’m constantly telling her “walking feet” & “slow down, you’re going to fall!!’ She listens sometimes, but like yours there are times where she looks at me, grins & giggles her fool head off as she goes off! Definitely will keep us on our toes, don’t you think?!
god she’s amazing. Will is a little more on the Oliver side of things….mind you he announced that he’s not afraid of anything anymore because he’s four. Yeah. right.