A new play gym, Shredders, opened in Boulder about six months ago, trying to partially fill a void left when Gymboree closed. Its goal is to introduce little ones to snow sports and to help them learn to love and thrive at these sports. There’s even a fake hill that kids can ski, snowboard or sled down; today you did the latter.

Nana and I took you to a class today called ‘mini-yetis’. The class is for kids starting at 10 months, and I remember I was so excited for you to turn 10 months so we could finally go. However, our schedule and the infrequently-held and oft-timed mini-yeti classes combined in such a way that today was the first day we could finally attend a class. There were two other girls, both a bit bigger than you, and as you usually do you just sat and watched for the first many minutes. The instructor dumped a bucket full of balls on the ground and that got you moving. You grabbed two and didn’t let them go for a while. After playing with the balls and then beanbags, we went to the top of the hill and rolled the balls down. You still didn’t want to let go of your two balls, so I’d get balls and drop them down and you enjoyed watching. Finally on the very last round of balls to be dropped you let yours go!

Towards the end of class we could sled if we wanted to, and I decided to have him sled down with you. It was actually a pretty big hill, and I was scared we’d turn backwards or somehow tumble out or end up in the wall on the far side of the gym. He sat you between his legs and down you went. You seemed unfazed by it, neither smiling nor unhappy during the slide or at the end. We decided that was enough and called it a day. I think you’ll really enjoy the gym as you get more mobile and start walking.