Ski Baby

We've been taking Violet out on the cross country trails with us since she was about six months old. She rides in the Chariot Cougar trailer (using the cross country ski conversion kit) and Eric pulls her behind him. Last year, she never lasted long before the ride lulled her to sleep, but this year, she's been soaking up a lot more of the scenery. We typically stop about halfway through our trek to let her get out and stretch her legs, and as soon as she's free, she heads striaght for our skis and tries to stand on them. Somebody's been paying attention!

After she showed interest in our skis a couple times, we decided to pick up a pair for her. On our way to the local resort last weekend, we found some just her size that strap right onto her snow boots. At the end of our stint that day, we pulled them out and let her give it a try.

Violet took to skiing without hesitation. Not at all unnerved by the strange sensation of sliding on boards attached to her feet (am I the only one who is unnerved by this? really?), she took her Dada's hands and took off. Of course she's not skating away from us just yet, but she had no trouble shuffling along with his help. When he held out a pole, parallel to the ground, for her to hang onto, she insisted on taking it from him to use as it was intended. Like I say . . . somebody's been paying attention.

Things really got exciting, though, when Eric decided to carry her up the little hill next to the lodge and ski down with her on her feet in front of him. Got himself a decent workout doing that four or five more times - at Violet's insistence - until she got too cold to stay out any longer. (Too cold by Mama's standards; Violet would've been there all afternoon if we'd left it up to her!) Now that she's had a taste of one of her Dada's favorite things, I don't know how eager she's going to be to spend her time on the mountain inside the Chariot. At least we can use it with the bikes a little longer. She's not old enough to start riding a bike, right? RIGHT??