Day on the Slopes - Jake

Jake, on the other hand (pun not intended), did awesome. He went for his 3rd ski lesson, and rode the chairlift up and came down the coaches run all day. He was turning back and forth across the slope, speeding up and slowing down, and just looked like he was doing great and having a blast.

His instructor says he is doing great and that they might go up one of the bigger slopes next time. After his lesson we went snowboarding (well he did), and did great at that as well. He seemed concern that I hurt myself, but come to find out that his main concern was whether or not I could still play football with him.

Day on the Slopes - Dad

Okay, so this is a picture of a broken arm. Before we get started with this update, we're going to play a quick game of "guess who's injured?"

1. Our contestant recently turned 40 years old, which people keep telling me, "isn't young anymore"

2. Our contestant just started snowboarding last weekend, and took the instructors praise a little too seriously.

3. Our contestant is a whole lot bit of an idiot, as evidenced by:

-Snowboarding for the second time on snow conditions described as "hard packed"

- Trying to see if he was able to perform a "quick stop" on basically a sheet of ice.

- Falling in the textbook manner in which he was instructed NOT to fall.

- After crashing and, as it turns out, breaking his arm, he:

-went up for four more runs, while wondering why his forearm bruised so quickly

-walked back to the car and stored his snowbaord gear

- walked back to the lodge and picked up Jake, carryng him down the stairs

- walked back to the car, carrying all of Jake's ski gear.

- lifted Jake into the car and changed his ski boots for snowboard boots

- carried Jake's snowboard back to the lodge

- got lunch for himself and Jake and sat down and ate

- took Jake out on the slope for an hour or so and showed him how to snowboard

-manually pulled Jake up the coaching slope four times for runs down so he could practice

-carried Jake's snowboard back to the car

-drove 45 minutes back down the winding mountain home

-fixed a snack

-watched some TV

-changed clothes

-THEN decided that a trip to the ER was probably a good idea

Who is our mystery contestant? I don't really have to answer that now, do I?

Snowboarding 101

I am embarrassed to admit I never even made it on the "flying carpet" to the top of the learning slope. Never even put my back foot in! The instructor tried hard, but I finally just told him to give up on me, focus on Brian, get him through the basics and leave me to it on the not-even-a-bunny-slope. I spent the rest of the hour trekking up the little hill, sliding back down- trying really hard to avoid pedestrians- falling on my ass, then trekking back up again. I know it doesn't sound like fun, but since it was only an hour, and I was able to watch Brian and Jake in their lessons at the same time, it was actually a good time. But, no, I won't be doing it again. When the instructor left Brian at the top of the hill and boarded past me, he stopped and told me not to be discouraged because (and I quote....) "Brian is an exceptionally fast learner. Most students are just like you." OK.... that made me feel a little better. So, as expected, Brian is heading to Play it Again Sports to spend a bit of our tax return on a "new" snowboard while I head to my yoga class- someplace I feel a lot less like a heffalump and a lot more graceful.

Sleeping Arrangements

I have to admit that taking down Faith's crib this weekend was a little emotional for me. All three of our children slept in it and to me getting rid of it was such a symbol of the kids growing up. As happy as I am that daily life is getting easier and easier everyday, there is a part of me that isn't ready to "say goodbye" to the baby phase of my life.

Still, Faith was overjoyed by the transition. As soon as the bed was built she climbed right up, snuggled under the covers, and stayed there playing and listening to her music all through her naptime. 2.5 hours later we gave up on her actually falling asleep and just got her up. At bedtime she again crawled right in, sprawled out, and passed out until morning.

She awoke without the usual welts on her forehead, previously caused by pressing up against the side of the crib after being curled up into a little ball in the corner. She goes to sleep with a full menagerie still, each day adding new animals to the mix. The first three nights in the big girl bed have gone great.....I'm just wondering how many days of this we have until she figures out that she can get in and out of the bed by herself and we find ourselves barricading her bedroom door as she screams herself to sleep and throws soggy diapers at us (aka her biggest brother)

Tanner has also been sleeping in his

own bed for the last week. He prefers to sleep with Jake, but after a continued theme of naughtiness at bedtime, we had to make a new rule: Tanner gets one chance. If he messes around, bothers Jake, or causes a ruckus of any kind, he moves to his bed for the rest of the night. He doesn't like it, but hasn't figured out that the way to stay in Jake's bed is all within his control. It is really cute to listen to them after I put them to bed. I stand on the stairs out of their sight sometimes. The other night Tanner rolled over and said, "Jake, I love you!" and Jake answered back, "I love you, too, Tanner. Sleep tight! I'll see you in the morning."

On a funny but "Should we be letting this happen?" note....our mornings have begun lately with "bathroom talk" between the boys. (Germaphobes please stop reading here) Apparently when Jake gets up to go potty at 6:30ish Tanner wants to come with him. So Jake has taken to bringing Tanner a blanket and he camps out on the bathroom floor while Jake does his business. They just chat and chat in there, which we can hear highlights of from our bedroom. It is hysterical to listen to.

A Day of Firsts

Jake had his first ski lesson yesterday. He has been so excited to get started but I had my concerns that he would actually enjoy it since he tends to not like the cold. Brian and I were so proud of him- he just got his gear, walked into the Mogul Mouse Ski School at Bogus Basin and waved goodbye as he walked in to join his teacher and class. I am constinually amazed at his ability to try new things. We watched from the lodge for awhile, then went outside to the mini-hill to see up close. We couldn't tell if he was having fun or not- it looked like hard work and it also looked pretty frustrating! There were no smiles to be had. He takes to sports so easily, I was worried he would have one of those, "If it's not easy I don't want to do it!" kind of reactions.

When we went back to the lodge to pick him up at lunchtime his instructor walked him out and Jake was sobbing. I thought that was it- skiing was not going to work out. Turned out his tooth had just fallen out- his first one! It was bleeding a lot and he was a little scared. His instructor (bless his heart) was actually holding the bloody little thing and while I carefully washed it and put it in my change purse, Brian got Jake cleaned up and calmed down. Turns out he LOVED his lesson and can't wait to go back. Brian and I set up a snowboarding lesson for Valentine's Day (while Jake is at his second lesson). If i know my husband, I am sure we will be heading to the "end of the season" snowboard sales by mid-March.

The tooth fairy came last night- although Jake did not want the tooth under his pillow. He requested that we put it downstairs so that the fairy wouldn't actually enter his room. There was a dollar waiting for him in the morning and Jake swears he saw fairy dust. He now has this gappy little grin that melts my heart- a visual reminder of how big my little boy is getting.

The Big 4-0

After a wonderful weekend away last weekend where we slept in, ate good food, watched a matinee and wandered the streets of downtown Boise in varying levels of snowfall without the children, we had the actual birthday event on Friday. Despite Chili's no longer serving the Blooming Onion (Brian's one request for dinner) we had a great time celebrating with the kids, Mary,and my mom. I think Jake was actually more excited about Brian's b'day than he was- he had told all of his teachers that his daddy was turning 40 so throughout the week Brian kept getting ribbed by different people at Jake's school: the PE teacher, the K teacher, parents of friends, etc.... For his 40th his family went together to get him a Wii- complete with Wii Fit, NFL Madden 2008, Wii Music, and Shawn White Snowboarding. Once again, I'm not sure who was more excited: Jake or Brian.
We have a snowboarding lesson next week- on a real board- and he can't wait to get started with that new hobby, too!

I am so proud of him. He set a goal two years ago to be in the best shape of his life when he turned 40. He has been working so hard to lose weight, get in shape, and eat better. He reached his goal and lost close to 50 pounds. He eats veggies now (a small miracle) and traded in ice cream in the evenings for yogurt (I really wish I could kick that addiction!!!). His blood pressure and cholesterol is significantly lower... and did I mention how GOOD he looks???

I definitely got a keeper.