Snow Day, Part 2

So, Wednesday was a "late start" because of ice on the roads, or cold weather, or something like that -- it's all a blur now -- and so Drew went in to work at his regular time while I took Rachel sledding again just before school started at 11 a.m. I thought there'd be lots of kids on the hill near the school but there was only one guy, Eli, and his kindergartener, Nora. Eli and I had a nice conversation while the girls went sledding, and Rachel and I took a few runs together. (Drew had warned be about the hill, that it was slick because so many kids had sledded there on Tuesday -- in fact, he had taken Ivy and Rachel there later in the day, again, while I was at work). Rachel had a lovely description of the hill: "It's like a sugar cookie with chocolate chips," the chocolate being the patches of brown grass underneath. She was right -- we were sledding on packed-down snow and grass, but it was fast and fun and even a little scary.

Eli wouldn't let his daughter go alone, and I felt terrible when I let Rachel solo and she crashed into the baseball net pole (luckily just her leg and not her head hit it, and her leg was covered with leggings and snow pants, and she said she wasn't hurt). "I'm probably too loose with her," I told Eli. "Probably because I've hitchhiked around Africa."

"And would you be okay with that if SHE wanted to do it?" he asked.

I thought about it a bit and said, "probably not." That's because I'm her mom, of course.