I know, I know. I just posted about Nora skiing a few days ago. And it was technically old news—those photos and videos were from Christmastime!
Bad mommy. Bad blogger.
This weekend, we watched 18-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin own the women’s slalom race in Sochi, coming home with the gold medal. I may have gotten choked up when I saw her parents’ reaction to her crossing that finish line with the winning time.
Then, on Sunday, we took our own little champion skiing… for only her fourth time ever. And you guys, she rocked it! I was so, so proud of her. In fact, I’m still beaming about it, so that’s why I’m back and talking to you all about it… again. Bear with me if you can. I apologize for gushing.
As I mentioned in my last post, we bought her a pair of skis and adjustable boots. We also bought a Wedgease tip connector, and this was our first time putting it to the test. It was invaluable—worth.every.penny. We also use a Lucky Bums ski harness, which you’ll see below. That thing? Also awesome.
We made it out to the mountain and caught the chair lift right away to take us up to one of the beginner trails. Upon beginning down the slope, Nora was ALL OVER THE PLACE. I had her skiing between my legs, keeping the tethers to the harness VERY short so I had control over her at all times. But she kept shifting her weight side to side and back and forward and it was worse than I remembered it being when we were out with her last month. I felt like I was literally holding her up with the harness, and I had to basically support the majority of her weight the whole time. In other words, she wasn’t doing ANY of the work. As you can imagine, it was exhausting.
When we got on the next chair lift, we discussed it (my mom, Michael, and me) and I decided that when we got to the top, I was going to give her a little more slack on the tethers so that she could begin to feel her own balance, and work to keep it. We also repeatedly reinforced the “pizza wedge” position of her skis and… she totally understood it this time. When I would remind her, “pizza wedge! pizza wedge!” she would move her skis more into the wedge position, just like she was supposed to. And her balance? When I started giving her more freedom with the tethers, she improved right away.
{Using the Lucky Bums ski trainer harness}
We were SO proud of her, and she was SO proud of herself. She kept saying sporadically, “I’m doing it!” as we made our way down the trails. Adorable.
{Rossignol Experience Pro 80 cm Skis + Roces 2014 Adjustable Kids Ski Boots. We purchased them in a package deal. Oh, and I can’t forget the Wedgease tip connectors. Those things are gold. They don’t “force” a wedge, but they keep the skis from going every which way and seem to be a tremendous help. Please know that I have not been compensated by any of these companies—we purchased these items ourselves and I’m just sharing our honest experience.}
We had a few rough moments. Even on the easy trails, there are sometimes steeper portions, and Nora had a really hard time getting down those parts without several falls and a ton of help. Our upper bodies got just as much of a workout as our lower bodies since we spent so much time picking her up and/or holding her up! I’m hurting today! Also? The conditions were not at all ideal. We had a string of warmer days late last week and over the weekend—with some sun, too!—which really softened things up out there. It was the granular ice type of surface, which is like skiing on a sno-cone. There were piles forming all over the place, and truthfully, most of Nora’s falls came when her ski would go through a pile and get stuck.
Even experienced skiers can have a tough time keeping their speed and balance in these conditions, so it’s no wonder that my 3.5-year-old beginner was having some challenges. I mean, hell, Michael and I took a couple of runs by ourselves while my mom and Nora finished up lunch, and I was also feeling a little uneasy about picking up speed and making my turns with all of the huge piles everywhere—and I’ve been skiing for 20 years (well, not EVERY year, but I started when I was 10!). It was “spring skiing” but in February.
As Nora grew more and more independent with it, she started to enjoy it even more. And as we spent more time out there, she became noticeably more skilled. By the time we came down one of the beginner slopes for the last time, she was easily manipulating her skis into “french fries” to pick up speed and “pizza wedge” to slow down. She was even putting enough pressure on the pizza wedge to stop herself, and even began making some little turns. I was amazed. And so impressed.
Oh, and the Lucky Bums harness is a total lifesaver (literally and figuratively) for getting on and off the chair lift, by the way. Even when we are up in the air, I never let go of that handle. I keep a death grip on it as a safety precaution.
On our last run down the beginner trail, we were all definitely showing signs of exhaustion, although Nora insisted she wanted to keep going. We compromised, telling her that we could go only on the bunny hill—with a magic carpet lift instead of a chair lift. We figured she had been doing so well on the “big hills” that she would probably conquer the bunny hill with no problems… even all on her own, with no harness whatsoever.
And we were right.
I’m kidding about “the next Mikaela Shiffrin” thing, by the way. If Nora actually ever gets into competitive ski racing, I think I will die of a heart attack. That’s the thing about skiing—particularly competitive skiing—it can be so dangerous. My own mom was in a pretty horrible ski accident last winter. She was taken out by a young skier who came up from behind her and ran into her. She was taken the hospital in an ambulance and ended up with broken ribs, a broken tooth, and a broken FACE. No joke; she broke three bones in her face. And THAT is why we all ski as safely as possible and wear helmets, y’all.
Anyway, fun times all around. And we totally wore her out:
Now we are dying to get out just ONE.MORE.TIME before the end of the season. I want to see what she can do next! :)
I didn’t learn to ski until I was about 10 years old. At that time, my mom put my brothers and me in lessons and it was a family activity every year thereafter.
Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to ski in Colorado a handful of times, which… if you’ve ever skied out west, you know that there is not much that compares to that quality of skiing. It’s so amazing. I can’t wait go back some day, and bring my little family with me.
So Michael is practicing his skiing. It was never something that he really got into, but he has interest now. My mom, on the other hand, is still an avid skier—a season pass holder at one of our nearby resorts—and she was chomping at the bit to get Nora and Hunter out on skis this year. Particularly because she could add them to her season pass for free.
My mom took Nora up to the mountain one day while we were at work. She went and picked her up early at Mary’s and took her for her very first runs on the bunny hill. We weren’t sure how she would do, but apparently she loved it…. even if she did only go down twice. At the time, my mom sent me this pic, and I was so proud!
That was the week before Christmas.
Then, when we were all off of work for Christmas and my dad was up to visit, we decided to all take a ride to the mountain and take both Hunter and Nora to ski. It was the day after Christmas, actually. It was our first opportunity to see her in action. SO CUTE.
My mom bought them their own helmets and goggles for Christmas. I love the tiny ski gear!
My mom, Hunter, and Nora were the only ones who actually skied. The rest of us—Michael, Trevor, my dad, and myself (I even had Vivienne strapped to the front of me in the Ergo!)—just walked around with them on the bunny hill. At first, we walked beside Nora and tried to keep her upright (her instinct was to lean backward too far). It was so hard! Eventually we figured out that it’s actually much easier if you do ski with them, so my mom took the lead. We were having great luck with Nora skiing beside her, holding onto her poles. And that was when Nora really fell in love with it all. She was having a blast!
It was a great day. It was so fun to see my baby girl on skis.
Then, last month, we all went skiing together one Saturday night. Michael and I hadn’t been in a couple of years. We also invested in the Lucky Bums ski harnesses for the kids, so we could take them up on a couple of the actual beginner slopes. The harnesses are so, so great. I skied with Nora kind of in between my legs the whole time, keeping her skis in between mine. I kept her on a real short “leash” with the harness so that when she lost her balance or slipped, I was able to keep her upright. As she gets stronger and more skilled at doing this herself, I’ll give her some more slack and let her ski out more in front of me. But man, what a workout; I had to ski in the “pizza wedge” the whole time and it was KILLER on my knees, thighs, and hips. Holy moly! My legs were jello by the end of the night!
Oh, and the harness was absolutely KEY to getting her on and off of the chair lift safely. It has a handle on the back so you can basically grab the handle and lift them onto the chair lift with you using only one hand. I still had a minor heart attack one time when I had trouble getting her up all of the way onto the seat, but I had a tight grip on her the entire time and did get her up where she belonged after a few long seconds. And as it turns out, riding the chair lift is her favorite part of skiing now. Go figure. :)
Nora absolutely loved going down the real slopes and doing it all “by herself.” After this outing, we actually decided to go ahead and buy the girl her own skis! We found a good deal and they are a size she should be able to use for next year, too. And the boots are ADJUSTABLE (so cool!) for up to six sizes, so she should get a few years out of them, too. Not to mention we have a second child who will be able to get use out of this stuff, too. Beats paying $15-30/pop for rentals every time… and saves us the hassle of waiting in the rental lines every time, too!
We’ve been trying to get back out to the slopes for a few weeks now but weather (bitter cold temperatures) and sickness (stomach bug, ick!) have gotten in the way. Fingers crossed for better luck this weekend!
Maybe we have a future Olympian on our hands? :)
I know it’s not completely unusual these days for me to go several days without posting. But this past week? Wow, it was a doozy.
Last weekend was Michael’s birthday weekend. He didn’t feel well on Friday and had stayed home from work, and was kind of still “off” on Saturday. So we didn’t do a whole lot. But on Sunday (his actual birthday), Nora and I were going to make him a cake, and we were going to make a really nice dinner at home.
We woke up, we made smoothies (pineapple coconut) for breakfast. Nora and I had wrapped Michael’s gifts the night before and she was dying to give them to him, so we did that first:
Vivienne had been fighting a fever since Friday night, and did not seem to be feeling well at all.
I was a little worried about her, but around 9:30, Nora and I went into the kitchen to get started on the cake. Only the recipe I had bookmarked for a milk-free chocolate cake turned out to be much more complicated than I initially realized. So I started searching for another one on the iPad… but in the meantime, I started feeling lousy. Really, really lousy. I had to cease and desist on the cake-making to lie on the couch.
Which led to me lying in bed with the shakes and aches.
Which led to me PUKING MY EVER-LOVING GUTS OUT.
I was so unbelievably uncomfortable. And I could not keep ANYTHING down. My stomach was revolting against the world, forcing me to throw up even when I had nothing left. It was so awful. The stomach bug is the worst! Oh, and probably needless to say but… pineapple coconut smoothie? Never again.
So, instead of baking a cake, making dinner, and celebrating Michael’s birthday, I couldn’t move from our bed (except for the occasional trip to hang my head over the toilet) and he had to take care of the girls all by himself. HAPPY 33rd BIRTHDAY TO HIM. He sent me this photo of him and the girls as I was upstairs in bed, wishing someone would just put me out of my misery:
On Monday, I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck. I was still so messed up from the bug, and although my stomach had calmed, I was still so, so sick. We kept everyone home as a precaution (we were so worried Nora was going to get it AGAIN!).
Tuesday, I went back to work, but only made it half a day before I had to come home and lie down on the couch.
I was finally able to function on Wednesday, but my stomach did not truly get back to normal until YESTERDAY! A whole week of messed up stomach. Not fun at all, and I do not recommend it. WASH YOUR HANDS. Early and often. Avoid the norovirus at all costs.
In addition to the plague, I discovered in the middle of the week that Honda is offering a Presidents’ Day promotional financing rate of 0.9% so we started back up the discussion about buying an Odyssey. And, well, it’s looking like I’m officially going to become a minivan mom, folks—probably later this week. I’ve been negotiating and making my way to all of the local dealerships to have them give us a trade-in offer on my CR-V. One of the dealerships actually let us pick up an Odyssey yesterday and keep it for the remainder of the weekend so we can get a feel for how it will work for our family. We have to take it back tomorrow and I DON’T WANNA! so I’m guess that’s a good sign, right? I just realized we didn’t take any photos of us in or around the test drive van this weekend… we’re no fun! But stay tuned, because hopefully I’ll be posting soon about our very own Odyssey sitting in our very own driveway.
Tessa turned 8 years old on Wednesday. Nora was more excited about Tessa’s birthday than anyone else. I think she thought it meant we’d have cake again. But even when we explained that it’s just a little treat for Tess—a cracker with a glob of peanut butter, sprinkled with a few Cheerios—she was still happy to “celebrate.” She wanted to hold the plate with the treat and the candle for Tessa, and she sang “Happy Birthday” to her. It was cute.
Oh! We DID deck out the girls in their dachshund gear to mark the occasion. And we managed to snag a photo of them with Tessa:
Finally, Friday was Valentine’s Day. We have never been much of a Valentine’s Day couple, we don’t really do a whole lot to celebrate. But it was fun to celebrate with Nora this year. On Thursday night, she and I made valentines for her friends at daycare, and she was completely into it and actually participated. She told me the names to write on them, she signed her name to each of them (I guided her hand), and she counted out all of the ingredients for the baggies. It was adorable.
Friday morning, we surprised her with a Valentine’s Day donut for breakfast, and then she was psyched to go to Mary’s to hand out her valentines and have their little party. She and Vivienne dressed up in hearts and they were generally adorable. We are lucky parents, I’ll tell you that. :)
It is our tradition to get pizza on Valentine’s Day. We didn’t think we were going to do it since I’ve been avoiding dairy. I haven’t had pizza since mid-November. BUT we decided to go ahead and just do it. I had a small slice and OHMYGOD it was so good. Vivienne didn’t seem to suffer any ill effects from it. I am still aiming to wean her off of her Zantac before officially adding dairy back into my diet, but it was so good to have a little pizza. I’ve missed it immensely.
Now, we’ve had a nice, normal weekend. It’s been busy but fun and no one threw up, so that’s always a plus. I’ll leave you with a few pics from this morning:
Have a great week! I’ll try to be back before next weekend. :)
I’m still loving our breakfast smoothies in the mornings. It has reached a point where I am actually craving them and looking forward to them every day, so we are making them more often than not now. We have made a lot of really tasty combinations, but this is definitely one of my favorites.
If you’re freaked out by the green color of green smoothies—this one is for you. The combination of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries transforms this smoothie into a lovely purple color that is appetizing to even the most discerning smoothie drinkers. But the secret is that it still has a few cups of healthy, vitamin-packed spinach hidden in there! Blueberries are the real color culprit. Any time you want to hide the green? Add blueberries.
My only complaint about this smoothie is that it is a bit “seedy.” Strawberries play a role, but it’s the raspberries that give this a little bit of “bite”! You just need to make sure to do a good tooth brushing/flossing afterward. :)
The Ungreen Green Smoothie
(Source: Annie’s Eats)
Makes 2 large smoothies
Ingredients:
– 1-2 cups orange juice
– 1 1/2 cups baby spinach leaves, loosely packed
– 1 banana (frozen or not)
– 1 cup frozen blueberries
– 1 cup frozen raspberries
– 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
– 2 servings protein powder (optional) or 1-2 tbsp. ground flax seed (optional)
– Agave syrup or honey (optional)
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in your blender (may want to do this in stages, blending in between—depends on the quality of your blender). If necessary, add more orange juice a splash at a time for a thinner texture. Taste and if needed, add up to 1 tablespoon of agave syrup or honey to lightly sweeten.
As is usual for me this time of year, I am starting to feel the effects of the cold, snowy, dreary weather and being cooped up inside. Cabin fever, if you will. February and March are generally my least favorite months of the year. I struggle with my mood, and my motivation to do anything.
We’ve had a couple of low-key weekends recently, though, which has done wonders for my feelings about balance. I feel like I have had nice doses of quality time with my girls, who are bright spots in an otherwise “blah” time of year.
Nora has been really, really funny lately. We’ve had some serious challenges with her (maybe more on that another time?), but she’s also so amazing, all at the same time.
“Mommy, do you love me?”
She randomly asked me this on the way to daycare one morning this week. Heart = busted. I briefly wondered why she was asking—could she really be insecure about my love for her?—but the fact is that she’s learning a lot these days about feelings and emotions. Love, anger, happiness, sadness. It’s tough to be three-and-a-half, you know.
“What are we having for dinner?”
She asks every day when I pick her up from daycare. She is interested in knowing, always. If I say leftovers, she’ll ask, “What kind of leftovers?” That’s the other thing about her recent development—she asks good questions. Questions that you or I might ask, too. It’s rather strange hearing such “adult” questions coming from someone who I still see as so little.
Some days, I’ll pick her up from Mary’s and she talks my ear off the entire way home. Like will.not.shut.up. It’s hysterical. And her memory is insane. She remembers everything. She’s getting better at her pronunciation of words, although she can still sometimes be difficult to understand. It’s funny how there are some words she just can’t seem to say clearly, yet she belts out words like “quesadilla” with authority, loud and clear.
“Mommy, what is that amazing smell?”
She asked while we were baking brownies. When did my baby become such a… person?
I had to work really late on Tuesday night, so the girls were both in bed by the time I got home. On Wednesday morning, Nora came into our room to get me up out of bed. She said “Mommy, you’re home!” and came in to snuggle with me. I asked her if she missed me, “Yeah,” she said. “But Daddy take good care of me. He fed me quesadilla for dinner!” How stinking cute is that??
I’m going to have to try to get better about jotting down her “Nora-isms” again, because she comes out with some seriously good ones these days. I would definitely have enough material for a weekly post. I HAVE to try harder. Besides the occasional Facebook post with a quote from her, or texting my mom, I haven’t jotted down any of her quotes since before Vivienne was born. *sigh* Time just flies, y’all.
I just wrote all about Vivienne in her six-month post, so I don’t have too much to add here. Just that she’s happy and smiley and adorable and fun. She is such a joy and I am doing everything I can to soak it all in while she still lets me hold her and snuggle her a lot of the time. She’s really into her toys now and actually plays. Crazy how that happens.
We’ve had a lot of time on the weekends to just play. Hang out. Be together. Take family trips to Wegmans for the weekly grocery shopping.
It’s all mundane, but so precious all at the same time. I want spring to be here, but I also don’t want to wish away the days, weeks, and months.
We’ve been achieving “dual naps” most Saturdays and Sundays. Amazing to have that time back. Sometimes we take advantage to get things done—cleaning, shopping (only one of us!), or whatever. Other times? Not so much. Butt? Meet couch.
There are a few house projects that could use some attention. A few more doors to paint upstairs. Our master bathroom needs some paint and a mini makeover (fixtures, mirror, and the like). Our basement needs organizing.
I should exercise. I have a perfectly nice treadmill downstairs on which I can complete a Couch to 5K program. Because lord knows I need to start at the “couch” part these days.
But blahhhhh motivation. Winter makes me lazy.
On Sunday, we “celebrated” the Super Bowl with a pajama party picnic in our family room. Just the four of us. Michael and I made some killer nachos (no cheese, though) and Nora had leftover quesadillas from when we went out to dinner the night before. Nora was SO EXCITED about the picnic, and even acted excited about the football. Such a goof. The next day, she asked me if we can have a picnic in the living room again sometime, so clearly she had fun.
Vivienne went to bed during the first quarter, and I put Nora to bed during halftime. Living large in this house! But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I want winter to be gone, but I don’t want it to take these moments with it. I’m going to focus on my bright spots.
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
