Skiing

I have learned a lot about parenting from my life with Munchkin...most of it trial and error, and most of it greatly facilitated by having The Best Kid Ever (which is actually official...just try and dispute it, I dare you.) More than anything, it has taught me the value of traditions in a way that I would never have otherwise really appreciated. Whether it is chicken fingers on Thursday, soccer games on Fall Saturdays, rides to the beach on Summer Fridays or walking to school every morning, I think of her largely through the things that we regularly do.

One of the nice parts about traditions is the ability to chart her growth through memories of repetitive traditions. The first time we went skiing with her friend's family was 2007, and with the exception of 2010 (I was on bed rest, she had a broken foot) we have gone every year...including one year that me and SHR took the girls and left the parents home.

When I think back, though, they were really little girls the first time we went up there...all awkward and braces and gangly and newly boy-crazy. And now they are unquestionably young women (although still boy crazy:-)). I will admit that Munchkin is a lot "older" than the rest of them, but they are all basically little adults. That, of course, doesn't stop them from discussing, at length, their deep and irrevocable feelings for Boy A on the car ride on Friday night, only to meet Boy B while skiing on Saturday and make plans to hang out with him and his friends that night, and to leave on Monday excited that he is coming to a school dance with you in two weeks...but still:-)

I didn't ski or snowboard, although I thought about it! I cooked and relaxed and did a little work and went shopping on Sunday with Munchkin's friend's Mom, who I absolutely adore. We had a good conversation about their sick friend, and she admitted to having some of the same quasi-irrational thoughts that I did...which was helpful:-). She also admitted to having a completely ridiculous desire to have another baby, which I think I helped talk her out of - I doubt she was serious, but she is 51 and her four kids are between 15 and 22 and I think she was just missing the days of really little kids. I can think of almost nothing that sounds like LESS of a good idea:-)

And that was about it! Munchkin drove all the way up there and all the way back and I never had to use my imaginary brake even once:-) I did, however, decide that it is time to get a new car...maybe this spring.

Also...have we talked about me turning 30 this year? Oy...