After gorging on quasi-burnt marshmallows and finishing Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Robby surprised me by happily hopping into his race car bed for the night. I was delighted that it was 8:30 and, had I not been so tired, I probably would have skipped to bed. I turned on the electric blanket, turned off the tv, popped off my leg, and snuggled in for a long nights sleep.
As soon as I laid down, my leg began to do the jitterbug kick. Then the stinging sensations began. At first it was felt like it was on of my stump, but quickly migrated across my whole limb. For good measure, my missing toes decided to join my phantom pain party. My big toe felt like it was being twisted in a vice. At one point I was sweating because of the pain.
At 1:00 I finally broke down, put on my leg, and went to the kitchen to get some Tylenol PM. Although I hate taking sleep aids, in retrospect I should have admitted pain defeat earlier as I could have saved myself a lot of pain and lost sleep. As it turned out, the pills worked quickly, and I was asleep in about 30 minutes.
In the morning, Robby walked into our bedroom and squealed with delight when he looked out the window. The ground was covered with snow! My phantom pain episode suddenly made perfect sense: my leg always hurts when it is snowing! Although I was groggy, I knew that I was destined for hours of sledding fun. After all, Santa gave Robby a super cool new sled that has remain unused because of the unseasonable winter.
Despite his protests, I insisted that Robby drink a cup of milk and eat an Eggo before going outside. I quickly chugged two mugs of coffee before giving the go-ahead to get bundled in his winter gear. Not wanting to waste anytime, Robby put his snow pants over his SpongeBob pajamas, put his gloves on the wrong hands, and forgot about wearing boots. Thankfully, Daddy was at the bottom of the steps to fix his wardrobe malfunctions!Robby ran to the top of our hill and stopped where he wanted the sled placed. I put the sled down and Robby hopped on. I tried to remind him how to use the brake, but he immediately stopped my instruction. "Momom, I don't plan on stopping. I am going to go super fast and I don't need a brake." I ignored his pleas for speed and refused to let him ride until he finished the safety lesson.
Finally, it was the moment of truth. Robby was poised on the sled and gave the ready signal. I gave him a small push. My little boy, in his cherished new sled, went flying down our hill.
I have to admit I was surprised by the speed of his little sled. He went zooming down the hill. My heart skipped a beat when I saw him slide across the ice covered driveway; I felt a surge of panic and took off running when I saw Robby and his sled go down the embankment leading to his tree house. I couldn't see him for a few seconds, but my fears were quickly alleviated when I heard him scream "Wahoo! That was so amazing! I'm the bestest sledder in the whole world!"
Robby, it turns out, is an excellent sled driver. He was able to steer the sled between the tree house footers with ease. We only had an inch of snow, yet we were able to play all afternoon. Even Scott and I took turns on the sled and the decision is unanimous. His new sled is awesome!
Saturday night I was exhausted, but this time the cause was physical rather than stress induced, and I found myself going to bed at 8:30. Thankfully, I had no problems going to sleep. I still woke up sore, but this time it was from sledding. I'm reminded that I'm getting too old to go zooming down hills on a child sized sled.
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