Mighty Mouse

On Sunday I took Callen skiing for the first time.  My parents went with me and I'm so glad they did.  Callen knows how to push my buttons and it a cold, snowy situation learning a new task I thought he might push them to the extreme.  Callen was very excited to go and wanted to get dinosaur skis.  The rental associate asked him if he wanted racing or jumping skis and Callen said dinosaur.  He then settled for jumping skis.  Really there is no difference he was just being friendly to Callen. 

Through out the skiing I heard that it was fun, he loved it and wanted to go fast to he hated it and wanted to go home.  We took him on the beginner hill that has a "magic carpet" conveyor belt to haul you up the hill and a very short chair lift to take us to the top of the beginner hill.  Intially Callen did not want to ride the chair lift, but changed his mind and decided to go.  He caught on to the "A" shape to slow down, but still having trouble with turning and stopping.  He would just sit down to stop in a controlled fashion.  Other wise he was falling to stop.

After we got into the car he was back to a good mood and wanted to go again tomorrow.  We offered to take him out again and he said no, he wanted to go tomorrow.

I think next winter we will enroll him in ski lessons.  Clayse will miss the cutoff to be enrolled but I hope to introduce him to it anyway.  We saw a 2.5 year old skiing with his Dad, so they make gear small enough!

Like Father, Like Son...

Callen has been standing close to the TV to watch it lately.  I intended on taking him to the optometrist by age 5 if we didn't see any signs of sight problems but this prompted me to take him on Friday.  Rusty started wearing glasses when he was 4.  His currently correctin is about +5.0.  Callen did good at the eye doctor and he was able to determine that Callen's correction would be about +8.0 or +9.0.  He refered us to a pediatric ophthamologist.  I can't say that I am suprise that he will need glasses, but I am relieved that we have discovered this and hope that it may help with some of his stubborness when it comes to school work.  Rusty is worried that he will be made fun of, but I hope that optometry has advanced enough that it is common to wear glasses and he won't catch too much flack.  Callen is excited about getting glasses and already has asked about when we go to the ophthamologist and when he will get his new glasses.  I hope it lasts even after he getst them and has to wear them.