This week was the first time that any of our kids were on a ski mountain. Before they could go down the beginner hill, I taught them to fall over sideways when they felt out of control. After that, Alden and Jasher weren’t interested in any of the other lessons. They don’t want to snow plow or turn or stop. They point down the mountain so they can bomb it until they get uncomfortable. Then they fall right over and use their hips as breaks. Jasher only went about ten feet one time and then he wiped out. He looked up from the ground and said, “I’m GREAT at this!”
Eden figured out her turns well enough to go to the “platter” run. I only had her take three runs though. She was going straight down, barely in control. At the bottom she said, “I thought about turning, but I was having so much fun going fast.” So next we went on the regular lift, where I could teach her some respect for the mountain. On the second regular run, we traversed near a “blue square” run. I told Eden she could choose to go that way if she wanted. She thought it sounded fun. Soon, the steep part got her worried. She asked whether she could take off her skis and walk down. We had another lesson on traversing. She decided to keep at it. She started concentrating on her snow plow turns. Then when she got to the bottom, she had a happy memory of conquering the run. After that she didn’t bomb the bunny hill.
I’m trying to remember that everyone has different learning techniques. I like to push myself past my comfort zone to learn new things. So that’s how I taught Eden, too. It made sense to bring her to a hard area of the mountain where her existing techniques would not be enough. Elisa learns the opposite way though. Elisa and I went on the regular lift together to get her to the next level. She did fine but she never really started enjoying it that much. She had a lot of reminders of her first day skiing at Courmayeur, when she thought she wasn’t going to make it to the bottom safely. The next day, she convinced me that we should spend an hour on the platter run. It wasn’t as challenging. Elisa felt comfortable and her form looked really good. She learns better when she is inside her comfort zone. Part of it is that she has a longer memory, and bad experiences haunt her for years. Eden has a shorter memory, so she already forgot most of her fear. Jasher has the shortest memory of all. Right after he skidded to a stop in front of me, he looked up, and apparently with no recollection of why he was laying on his back in the snow, bragged, “I didn’t even fall that time!”
Alden delivered this in Primary today:
Samuel said Jesus was coming. He told the Nephites to repent. I learn to repent too. After 5 years, Jesus got born. When the sun went down, it would still be light, just like in the daytime.
Jesus can help other people. He can just touch them and they won’t be hurt anymore. I know that Jesus is real because he can answer my prayers. Jesus has all the powers from Heavenly Father. That tells me to do nice things like Heavenly Father and Jesus do nice things. That tells me to repent. When I repent, it tells me to be nice to other people.
The kids made fruit pops all by themselves. Eden found the idea in a magazine. They used skewer sticks in place of popsicle sticks. Jasher was holding one that Alden didn’t see, and Alden sprinted right into it. It hurt him just below his eye, close enough that we imagined him losing his eye.
That made me think of writing down the run-ins that Jasher has had. Of all the kids, he’s the one we’ve come the closest to losing.
A little while ago Jasher ran out the front door, right as I heard the van getting ready to pull out of the garage. I ran after him, but I was too far back. Olea looked in her mirror right as Jasher broke in front of the van. She stopped and so Jasher was just fine.
We were on a trip to Italy where we walked around a farm. Jasher was on my shoulders. Poor Jasher wasn’t holding on very tight, and my grip wasn’t as good as I thought either. He leaned back. He landed on his head onto packed gravel.
During our move from London to Seattle, we had piles in our front room of things we wanted to sell. Against a wall was a big bookcase. Jasher was in the room alone on one of the days when it was very packed. He tried climbing up the shelves. The bookcase tipped over on top of him. On the ground nearest to him was a suitcase and a bassinet. Jasher landed on the floor in between them. The bookcase landed with one side on the suitcase and one side on the bassinet. Jasher was only safe from being crushed because he was in a foot-tall shelter right around his body. Elisa and I heard him scream from our bedroom upstairs. We guessed that something had fallen over on him. I remember being really glad to hear him crying, because if the bookcase had landed right on him, he wouldn’t have been able to scream. He ended up with just a bump on the back of his head.
A week after that we had our flights from London to Seattle. I was pushing a luggage cart that was piled about eight feet high with moving boxes. Elisa was pulling several suitcases behind me. Jasher ran on ahead, too far away from us. I couldn’t even see where he was very well. I left the luggage cart and ran to find him. The top-heavy luggage cart toppled all over the moving sidewalk we were on. Up ahead, Jasher tripped right at the end of the moving sidewalk. His shirt got caught in the teeth. Jasher couldn’t roll free. A man saw him and extricated him. I got there after he got saved. His shirt was ruined because of the holes in the back where the machine had started grinding him under.
