Cooper's first day of skiing!

We took Cooper up to the local ski hill today and it was a huge success! After the extremely predictable tantrum in the lodge (he HATES when we put on his ski pants, despite them fitting well and looking really awesome) we headed to the little bunny hill.

Matt started off by taking a run so Cooper could see how it works, with me narrating while we watched, in the hopes that it would help Cooper figure out the process. "See, Dada goes up the hill next to the rope, and then he turns around, and then he uses his skiis to glide back down! On snow! He's having fun!"

Cooper, being the cautious and nervous little guy that he is, wasn't really sold. But he had gotten used to wearing his boots by then, so that was a good start. Matt then took Cooper on three short runs just carrying the little guy in his arms. That was met with a lot of enthusiasm for the general process, but screams of protest for the cold wet snow in his face. However, each run ended with a smile. We took that as a very good sign.

In this video, the word that Cooper says is "Skiis." Awesome.



After the first couple runs went pretty well, we upped the ante and put Cooper's teensy weensy little skiis on, and Matt took him on his maiden voyage. Cooper refused to put any weight on his feet, and he screeched the whole way down to complain about the snow and wind on his face. But when Matt stopped at the bottom, we'd ask "All done?" or "Do you want to stay with Mama?" and Cooper emphatically said... No! More!

In case you are not familiar with Cooper-speak, the word "more" is used mostly as the word "again," as in... let's do it again! So when he kept saying "More!" it was absolute music to our ears. Matt and Cooper ended up doing two long runs on skiis, and then one short run before I got worried about how cold Cooper's nose and cheeks were. Don't want him to remember the cold more than he remembers the fun, of course.

Naturally, I've rarely seen Matt more excited about anything in his life then Cooper's first day on skiis. We both were really surprised at how well things went, given Cooper's tendency towards getting very worked up over new experiences. When we were back at the lodge afterwards, Cooper even refused to let me take off his boots- a very good sign! He enjoyed a post-ski snack of raisins and cheese puffs, and then we all went home for a nap.

Enjoy the short video of his second successful run! You can faintly hear Cooper whining about the snow in his face for almost the whole video, and also at the start you can hear me giggling over the fact that he's like a little siren even though we could tell he was having fun.