Part II: Snowboarding in the Living Room
Maris—all smiles and thumbs up
Two great things have already happened this morning, and it’s barely 9:00 a.m. First, we awakened to the pit, pat, tap, tap, rat a tat of rain. Rain to dampen the raging fires. Rain to clean the dirty air. Rain to feed the dry streams. It was a very sweet sound.
Second, Maris opened two boxes from Burton, starting the next chapter of her snowboarding saga. Exciting! One box contained a pair of tiny purple-and-white boots, sized just right for an almost-4-year-old. The other box contained a pair of shiny black bindings. Maris quickly put the boots on all by herself, with just a little cinching at the end from me. “How do they feel?” “Comfy!” She walked around the house for 45 minutes or so, showing them off to anyone who would look—me, Eben, Anaya, Oliver, Lucy. . .
Once Maris had the hang of walking around in her new boots, Eben brushed the beach sand from her Burton Riglet Snowboard and attached the bindings. They were a perfect fit. With the lawn wet from (glorious) rain, Maris decided to try out her new set-up in a puddle of blankets on the living room floor. Eben helped her into her bindings, gave her his hands, pulled her up, and voila! She was all smiles and thumbs-up before she plopped down onto her butt.
ME: How does it feel to stand up on your snowboard?
MARIS: Well, I fell on my butt.
ME: Did you get yourself back up?
Shredding in a puddle of blankets
MARIS: Yeah.
ME: How did you do that?
MARIS: It was good!
ME: Are you excited to learn how to snowboard?
MARIS: Yes, because it’s really comfortable.
ME: Are you ready to try that on snow?
MARIS: Yeah.
ME: Is there anything else you want to tell your followers?
MARIS: I got up and took my snow boots off. Now we’re heading to Trader Joe’s.
Good talk.
The next step in our grand plan to get Maris shredding is to use this long, rainy weekend to practice snowboarding on the Wii balance board with our vintage Shaun White snowboarding game. So far, I’d say the Burton Riglet Snowboard has earned its keep. Maris is intrigued, inspired, and ready for more.
This is Part II in a series chronicling our preschooler Maris’s snowboarding journey. For Part I, click here. For Part III, click here.
To visit Happy Cabin during your trip to North Lake Tahoe / Tahoe Vista / Kings Beach, click here.
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