We took AJ on his first downhill sled ride this morning. He was not at all keen on the whole excursion at first. He let us know in no uncertain terms that he had no interest in wearing his boots. Or his hat. Or his mittens. But eventually, having been coerced into donning all three, we ventured out to the sledding hill up the street with his little flatlander sled and the lid to a garbage can in hopes of rekindling our own youth and introducing AJ to one of winter�s greatest pleasures by hurtling down a steep and slippery slope at record-breaking speeds.

First of all, AJ�s sled was a bust. It turns out that there is actually too much snow for it to work. It was rocking and teetering precariously at every pull of the cord, causing AJ to wail in anticipation of being overturned. My husband threw AJ on his shoulders � the snow comes up almost to AJ�s hips, so it�s pretty impossible for him to walk on his own � and we pinned all our hopes on the garbage can lid. Alas, I must have used a different kind of lid for sledding as a kid. Or maybe it was just because I was lighter. But this lid wasn�t going anywhere. Fortunately, we discovered a sled abandoned in the pasture below the hill. As any potential owners were surely in school, we decided to borrow it. My husband hiked halfway up the hill with the sled and AJ, plopped on and came barreling down. AJ was shrieking with delight and as soon as he got to the bottom, started jumping up and down on the sled yelling, �Do it again! Do it again!� We kept going and going until we were all cold, wet and laughing hard. I picked up AJ to hike back up the hill and out to the street. His cheeks were flame red, his nose was streaming. All the way home he kept repeating in my ear, �I rode on the little boy�s sled. We came down fast, fast! The snow was in my face. I had fun!� like he was trying to ensure the experience was committed to memory forever.

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