G started asking about the rock wall at the gym a week  before her bday.   at 5+2 days she got her bonus present.   It would be fun, i was equally excited.   Her first time out she really sucked, but she got better every time up the wall.     Within a few runs she figured out to lean into the wall and not the harness, to move 1 limb at a time, to plan the move.   I tried to help her, but wtf do i know about climbing?   We hit it 3 times in the first week, and each session showed improvements – learning a little about her gear, what rope she liked, patiently waiting her turn. By then she knew as much about climbing as me.   A few weeks and half dozen sessions later, i see her ebbs and flows, when she is upbeat and when she wants to cruise. I have no plan for her, jut to coach the moments to help her succeed or have fun at whatever she is up for that day.   Usually it works, and when it doesn’t, I climb a line or let her play on the rope til she’s ready to go again or go home. Yesterday at the park i talked her up a puzzle moving 1 limb at a time just like on the wall, and another little tick-tock forwarded in her brain.

The week after she started climbing, we went to the pump track for the first time. I had the day off, took the girls out of school to the zoo, Lolo’s for chicken and waffles (G remembered from 6 months ago), then to Rage. I told her it was a party, and she loves parties, and i brought both their bikes jic.   The best and most unfeigned thing about my kids is if they see something cool happening, they want in!   But the PT is a complicated scene for little girls. No real reason as to when someone goes shooting around the track, when its clear, and why she can’t stop wherever the hell she pleases. Its a friendly scene, and dudes were gracious. By her second lap the lot full of shredders was cheering on the little blond riot gurl.   She ate shit heading into the sand in the inside of a bermed turn, and next time and almost every time after figured out how to get on the wall and rip.   She was fearless going up and down lips, and taking the dropin 7 feet down to carry her over the 4 ft tabletop. The only time she got off her bike was when she crashed.   This is mostly how it went the next couple trips to the track, non-stop, dauntless, elated. She got pissed when i came home late and told her i took the Malice to the track. She got pissed when she saw it on my rack dropping her off for school. She got psyched when i came home from the Fishbowl and reported on kid-friendly hours and small rhythm rollers.

The next week, she tried skiing for the first time. The sequencing was wonderful, and eerie, like i was scripting her reality show, programming her to be a deep cover assassin.   But dodging bullets in slow-mo is not on my Outlook cal for next week, soooooo my conscience is clear.

Child Services Rep: Sir, were you exposing your child to danger?
Me:   She wanted to, she was pretty good.
Child Services Rep: gnarness is no excuse for bad parenting.
Me: I gave her pads.

Skiing was equally awesome. Her progress seemed glacial to us, but not to her, and she rode the wave until she crashed.

Day 2 was better, and Day 3 she got on and off the lift and completed a green run. Conflicted all weekend about not being with her, while getting shooed away by the Squaw Kids staff, and tugged by our own repressed love of boarding, we were thrilled and relieved. She is a bit above average — which was cool — and got to taste the mountain to end her trip, which was the capstone on our foot of fresh on Day 3.

token pic

awesome pic!