My Little Beast

This morning Ruby dazzled my students with her fearlessness as she strapped on a harness and repeatedly climbed ropes and ladders in the gym like an old pro. The kids couldn't believe how easily she climbed a rope at 15 feet above the gym floor and one of the students said, "the kid's not normal, I've seen her ski." The kid is not normal. As a baby a man who met her called her "magical" and that just kind of stuck. When she was 3 or 4 she was dancing for me and some friends one night when she stopped and said, "whoa I gotta take a break, I'm really hot and when I get really hot I get really magical." Ruby is one of those people who can watch and think about something and then just do it! Hours spent at the pool and on a trail a bike gave her time to figure out swimming and riding a bike. The first time I looked over in the pool and she was playing "lifeguard" with her bff and swimming out to save 7 year old Emma, was such a beautiful sight it made me cry. The same thing happened on the evening when my 4 year old decided it was time to ride her 2 wheeler, so she walked it out into the street, got on and did it!

Ruby and I have been trying to hit Mt Pisgah and Big Tupper at least a couple of times a week this winter and it's been amazing to see her skiing progress-from her fear on steeps the first day of the season to her choosing the steepest line possible and following her dad off jumps without hesitation. She was so inspired watching Billy Demong race from 24th place to 6th in his first Nordic Combined event at the Olympics we went out for a cross country ski and she started using her own version skate skiing. A few days later we took advantage of NYSEF's Learn to Fly Wednesday's and she learned to ski jump! On the way home she was so enamored by the act of flying down and off a ramp that she couldn't stop saying, "I loved ski jumping so much, I wish I could still be jumping right now!" It was that day that I was certain-what an amazing place to raise a kid:) Ever since the ski jumping episodes she responds to every challenge by stating she's ski jumped she's not afraid of anything. Last night we got to Mount Pisgah just as it had frozen after a beautiful early spring day, Ruby shoved me off the T-bar because my snowboard was cramping her style and flew down the ice covered slope. After 5 runs like this, her flying like a bat outta hell, me slip sliding away I asked if the ice bothered her at all. She responded by saying, "What do mean? It's just louder than regular snow." Oh yeah, just louder.