Snow day

• Went skiing again today, third time this winter. I don't think I've gone skiing more than once per winter since I was a kid, and had to take skiing lessons every week.
  
  Justin wiped out twice. He continues to be Not My Kid. He wailed for a little bit after the first wipe-out, seriously freaked out that one moment, he was skiing just fine, and the next he was on the ground with both skis gone. I let him cry for a while, hugging him tight and making reassuring sounds, and at one point he looked down at his crash site and said, "Wow. That's kind of impressive." And giggled a bit.
  
  Things got better pretty fast after that. He stopped crying and became highly interested in the area and depth covered by his fall. Put on his skis again, started off down the mountain almost as fast as he'd gone before, very much looking forward to finding Chris to show him the crash site. Complete with a drop of blood! Wow!
  
  Had a little talk with him on the way up the lift, and reminded him that he had just gone through, and survived, my worst childhood fear on the slopes: falling.
  
  "Well no, you were probably afraid you'd break something," Chris said.
  
  "Um, no, I didn't think that far. I was afraid of falling. Being upright, and then not being upright, without choosing to do so. That was pretty much the extent of my fear."
  
  "There you go, Justin. And you're OK, right? Wouldn't it be nice if you could travel back in time, and tell little Jimena that falling wasn't so bad and she didn't need to be scared of it? And you're her son, and you know it's OK?"
  
  "Yeah!"
  
  "Except I probably wouldn't believe you. I would say you were lying, because first of all I was never ever going to go back onto a ski hill once I was a grown-up, and second, I would sure as heck never make my kids go onto a ski hill!"
  
  Went up and down a few more times, then he fell again on our very last run. Cried a lot longer - I think he was hurt a lot worse - but eventually got himself back together, got up, and we started back down. I reminded him that the "most fun" (ie steepest) part of the run was still to come, which worked well. He grinned and said, "And I'm going to have fun going down it!" and by god, he did.
  
  Not My Kid. The thought of going down something steep after a wipe-out like that would've made me sit down, take off my skis, and bloody well walk.
  
  
• In other news, we're getting a new car. Whoa. Which means I'll be saying goodbye to my mom's 1995 Chevy Cavalier.