We took the kids to the sledding hill yesterday, for the first time this year. One of Mayberry's charms are these hills, mounds of earth engineered specifically to provide rockin' runs for snow tubes, toboggans, and whatever else can slide from top to bottom. Opie, of course, protested mightily while being suited up for the outing, his sobs pausing only long enough for him to announce "don' yike it... don' yike it!" Jo was eager to go, but also dissolved into tears over the itchiness of her socks.* More than once we considered scrubbing the whole thing, but perservered.
Halfway to the park, Opie consented to move from my arms into the sled and be conveyed thusly the rest of the way, although the look on his face made clear that he was just doing it to humor us. Once there, anytime we set him down on the ground he remained firmly rooted in one spot, every muscle firmly locked (Jeff: "It's the first time in almost two years that he hasn't been moving"), and begged, "Hold you!" Each time he saw Jo go down the hill, he seemed the tiniest bit intrigued; but any invitations to have a turn were firmly refused. We took him down a couple of times anyway, and each time he commented, "Fast." Was this a question? A complaint? A proclamation of delight? We couldn't be sure.
Jo, meanwhile, was decidedly delighted. Her friend Joe (a boy nine months younger, but about 18 inches taller than she is) arrived at the hill just as we did, and they spent more than an hour hotdogging down: together, separately, with dads, without dads, with sleds, without sleds, head first, feet first, you name it.
Then she fell asleep on the floor in the guest room (hiding behind the bed) at 5 p.m., while Opie chattered endlessly about "p'ay in s'ow! Sedding!" as if he'd actually enjoyed himself.
*She has been complaining a lot lately about itchy extremities. Also blinking in a strange, prolonged way. That combined with her sleepiness has me a little worried. Would you be? (I'm full of questions these days... thanks for the excellent advice on my last batch!)
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9 comments:
Fun! We've had no snow to speak of.
I don't think you should worry, and staring and itching seem sort of far apart, but you could always ask the ped.
I don't miss snow much, but I do have fond memories of sledding down the slope in our backyard.
Itching - growth spurt perhaps?
Maybe it's just dry winter skin and dry eyes from the heat... I get super itchy when I have to be bundled up every day. Do you have a humidifier?
Itchy- my daughter ...she finally moisturizes quite a bit on her own...dry skin with a touch of exzema...although you would know if it were exzema.
blinky eyes- my 14 year old...it drives my hub and I crazy..but it seems to be dry eyes and allergies.
I agree with the humidifier comment...we usually turn ours up when they are having issues and it helps a lot.
Especially if they have a cough.
where is the hill? I love your phonetic interpretation of what Opie is saying...I can completely hear him. My niece just turned two and is just strating to repeat everything she hears. I love this age.
I am getting irritated because I cant type the word verification correctly- this is now my 4th try
I agree it could be the dry winter air affecting her. Crank up the humidifier and see if that helps any.
And what fun to go sledding! There are no good hills in our area, and while we've had snow, it hasn't been much for sledding.
I loved Jeff's comment - "the first time in two years that he's been still!"
And I agree with the others about dryness being a likely culprit. Also, you know how your feet and fingers get itchy when you go from being cold to being warm? Maybe that's part of it too.
"I don't YIKE it..." That phrase brings back a flood of memories.
I'm with Tb -- probably just dry skin.
Oh, man. This time of year I really, really miss having the hilly backyard I grew up with. I got to sled every snowy day for as long as I wanted. Sigh.
No advice on the itchiness/sleepiness. But I always worry obsessively about little potential symptoms that turn out to be nothing.
I'm so jealous!
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