Bad Uncle-ing on the Runaway Sled

I took a walk around the block today to air myself out and look at the snow and it reminded me of something I did last year when it snowed.

I took my nephew sledding. He was around three years old. I was totally psyched. Not only to sled but I felt like I was being a good uncle all like doing uncle/nephew stuff and stuff. He was bundled up with the mittens and hat and puffy coat- and this big hill we were on was perfect for some sledding on an old-school flexible flyer. We got to the top of the hill and I put him on the front of the sled and got behind him with my feet on the steering bar. I figure we'd coast down the hill together all nice nice fun. Bump here. Turn there. Winter wonderlandy and whatever.

One... two... and three! We shoved off-- but somehow right away we started picking up speed real fast and before I knew it the sled felt like all out of control. I probably was speed paranoid but it seemed way fast to be going with a three year old. And we weren't even at the steep part of the hill yet. So I tried to stop the sled by digging my heels into the snow to like jam on the brakes- but it just made a huge cloud of snow fly up in our faces and it didn't really slow us down- so I put my feet back on to steer. We were zooming going over little jumps and stuff. I'm sure it wasn't going nearly as fast as it felt but I think I just scared easy or something. I had my arms around him and remember being all set for an over-the-side bailout move, but then we got to the bottom of the hill and the sled slowed down and everything was ok.

As soon as we stopped I got off the sled and started brushing the snow off of his jacket and hat and asked him if he was ok. He sat there sort of wide-eyed and didn't say anything. Then he slowly turned to me and shot me a look like, 'Dude! What was up with that frickin crazy ride?!?' He definitely wasn't up for another go. So that was that for sledding that day. 

I felt really bad cause I just wanted to be a good uncle. So this year if he goes sledding I hope everything goes smoothly and he has no post-traumatic sled disorder due to my bad uncle-ing...

ok bye!

tOdd