Hurtados make the Headlines

I'm going to throw all these pictures up here so I can quit thinking to myself that I need to do it.  This winter has been pretty great.  One of the highlights was getting to chaperone at my boys' ski school.  I got to go to Sundance with them for each of their six lessons and ski on my own.  I was able to ski more in the last six weeks than I had in my previous 36 years of life.  I loved it.  David also came up twice and although he was skeptical of having a good time, he being haunted by that one awful time he went skiing as a teenager, he ended up a.) having fun b.) feeling jealous when I got to go and he had to stay at the shop and work and c.) having something "click" so that he actually began to parallel ski instead of snowplow.    

Raycito

Me and Raycito

Me doing one of those stupid one-handed photos

Little D

A friend, Little D, Raycito

David 

Dave and I

Little D and Dave

The boys

I have to talk about this picture.  There is Raycito below me while I'm riding the lift.  He is in his typical ski stance that his instructor calls "Pizza" (skis making the shape of a pizza slice).  I call it snowplowing.  Raycito, after the 6 weeks of skiing was a very efficient snowplower.  He would go up to the higher runs no problem- he'd plow the whole way down in virtually a straight line.  He said his fellow students in the class would be weaving back and forth, following the instructor, but Raycito would come from the end of the line and turn their S tracks into a $ dollar sign as he plowed through.  On the last day of ski school, Dave and I skied with Little D and Raycito together.  It was a dream come true for me.  As I finished a steeper spot with Little D, I turned back to see Raycito plowing the whole way down.  Dave was right with him doing a bit of it himself.  As they caught up to Little D and I, Dave told me that he had started snowplowing because he got a little nervous.  Raycito said "OH Dad! Don't ever snow plow.  That is the worst thing you can do.  Don't ever snow plow!  Do pizza!"  Dave and I looked at each other and chuckled.  "Dad, I am such a better skier than you are!  I am really good at skiing."  

I am really proud of Ray.  I'm proud that he feels so good about his ski skills.  I love that he was willing to try something that he really didn't want to do (and got talked into by me) and he ended up loving it.  I'm also proud of Dave for trying something that he really didn't want to do either- and that something clicked- and that this might just be something we can do more often.  I'm craving it.

Raycito doing Pizza.

Also hitting the headlines here at the Hurtado home is Little D's nub of a tooth.  He has a slight underbite which caused his top two teeth to get chipped and ground down by his bottom teeth.  We have been waiting and waiting for these top 2 teeth to fall out.  He is almost 10 years old now and still had them both.  (Little Lou, who is 2 years younger had already lost both of hers.)  Finally, one of the top teeth began to loosen up though even then, it took quite a while for Little D to get it out (it held on to his gums for dear life).  We finally tied a piece of string around his teeth.  I tied the string to the door and slammed it and it flew out causing very little pain.  This is a technique I had perfected in my youth. 

He still has to get the other one out- but it feels pretty firmly planted for now.  Little D was my slowest child to get teeth.  His one year old picture was toothless compared to both Raycito and Little Lou who had two teeth by that age.

Also, I don't think you can tell too well by the pictures of him, but Little D got one of the worst haircuts of his life a few weeks ago.  Dave took him to Craig's Cuts (we've been there before without any problem) and he came home looking really bad.  Immediately I noticed and asked what they had done with his hair.  They had chopped his sideburns off so high and the hair around his head was cut very very close to his scalp and it was skewampus.  It looked ok if I gelled it up, but when it fell, it looked very bad.  The next Monday, Little D went to school and here was a conversation he had with a boy there:
Boy:  "What happened to your hair?!"
Little D:  "I got a hair cut at Craig's Cuts."
Boy:  "No, you cut it yourself."
Little D:  "No.  I got a bad hair cut at Craig's Cuts."
Boy:  "You cut it yourself and you're lying to hide your shame."

If a 4th grade boy notices a bad haircut and thinks you cut your own hair then that haircut was really bad!  What's worse is that all the kids have started calling Little D "Craig Cuts".  Poor Little D.

Lastly, here is Lou with here little dance class.  They performed at Thanksgiving Point.  I was surprised by Lou's stage command.  Her smile was permanent through the whole routine.  She was darling.  I think she may have a little acting gene inside of her that she didn't get from me.

Oh...and one more thing.  Dave made a dinner of Lomo Saltado and Papa a la Huancaína one night while I was working at the hospital.  It was ready when I walked in the door.  He spent all afternoon cooking and it was delicious.  He invited over his parents to share the meal with us too.  That dinner makes Hurtado Headlines.