![\"\"](\"http:\/\/katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/1\/almonds.jpg\" "\\"almonds\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Ski trip #1 \u2013 I pick Josie up from school. We stop twice to use the bathroom. We\u2019re about 20 minutes from the summit and she starts screaming that her mouth hurts. I pull off the highway and identify it is, in fact, her ears that hurt. At first I think, she must have an ear infection. Then I realize it\u2019s the altitude and pressure on her ears. We\u2019ve never had a problem with her ears releasing before and after much yawning and water drinking, I realize that she must have fluid in her ears from her cold and this isn\u2019t going to work. We turn around and head for home \u2013 J screaming her head off in disappointment \u2013 and we hit Seattle at exactly 5:00 pm. All together we spend 3 hours in the car and don\u2019t even see snow. Super!<\/p>\n
Ski trip #2 \u2013 We make it to the mountain. The first few runs are tough. I use the word \u201cruns\u201d loosely. There\u2019s a very gradual slope that frequently requires pushing or scooting and is really only about 40 feet long. Nonetheless, she\u2019s a pile of arms and legs pointing in different directions, skis crossed, screaming that she just can\u2019t do it. There is much crying and frustration. There is some talking about how hard it is to learn something new — that it takes time and patience and practice.<\/p>\n
I tell her we can go in at any time but that only makes her scream more. She does not want to go in.<\/p>\n
Finally at the top of the run I tell her we will wait until she is ready to try again. She needs to think that she can do this. I tell her to take as much time as she needs. Then I bring out the bag of almonds.<\/p>\n
Now, I come from a long line of hypoglycemics and J\u2019s different biological history has not altered the family line in that respect. When my sister first started dating her husband they went to Paris. I didn\u2019t know Steve well at the time but I wanted to call him and tell him that he needed to carry a block of cheese in his pocket and force her to eat some every hour. Oh, here we are at the Eiffel Tower, would you like some cheese? Notre Dame! Cheese? Louve! Cheese!<\/em> This is what we must do and I was applying the same principle to J that day. We ate rice cheese in the car on the way up. We ate ham in the lodge before started and we ate almonds on the slope.<\/p>\n As we eat our almonds, she is uncharacteristically quiet. It\u2019s strange. I want to video tape her to show Paul because I didn\u2019t think he\u2019ll believe me but it\u2019s pretty uninteresting to watch a video tape of a quiet child. At one point I ask her what she\u2019s thinking about. She says nothing.<\/p>\n Then she says: I like your braids, Mama.<\/p>\n Me: Thank you.<\/p>\n J: I like them so much I want to cut them off and eat them.<\/p>\n Me: Oh. That\u2019s nice, dear, I say, wondering if hair contains any protein.<\/p>\n J: OK, I\u2019m ready.<\/p>\n I help her up, we put on her skis. I give her a push and she is perfect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ski trip #1 \u2013 I pick Josie up from school. We stop twice to use the bathroom. We\u2019re about 20 minutes from the summit and she starts screaming that her mouth hurts. I pull off the highway and identify it is, in fact, her ears that hurt. At first I think, she must have an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mom","category-parenting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1315,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312\/revisions\/1315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}