Skiing is serious

Although biggirl has many ski lessons under her belt, babygirl had never shown an interest in a lesson, private or otherwise...until this year.
Fueled by the desire to finally have her own set of ski poles, she expressed the desire to take a private ski lesson. We agreed, thinking it would be good for her to learn how to use the adorable heart-covered white sticks which had not seemed very useful for her so far.
So, I called the ski school and asked for a 1-hour lesson and asked for a young, dynamic, female instructor thinking babygirl would warm up to a girl more easily. But,of course,there was only one instructor available and he was a he (obviously). His name was Robbie (which babygirl thought was an awfully funny name for an adult for some reason).
So, right on time we showed up at the bottom of the hill to meet with Robbie. I hurried ahead to tell Robbie how our goal was for her to learn how to "use" her ski poles and babygirl's only worry (which was really mine all mine) was getting on and off the chairlift since we had always (actually my husband because I'm busy enough getting my own little self off of the chairlift!)carried her off.
Well, in a matter of seconds, Robbie was off explaining how to gain chairlift independance with babygirl tagging behind as best she could.
The three of us, myself, my husband, and biggirl followed from afar, all of us (really all 3 of us) somewhat worried.
We sat three chairs behind them on the lift and wondered how in the world babygirl was going to get through the next hour.
60 minutes later, we caught up with them at the bottom of the hill.
Robbie reported that babygirl was an impressive little skier and that the chairlift was no longer a mystery for her.
We headed for the lift and babygirl informed us of chairlift etiquette as we stood in line. "The lift is serious," she said. "It's not a game," she added, with a serious face just as she reached back to grab the chair with one hand to pull herself onto the moving "vehicle", her little poles tucked neatly in the other hand. Once at the top, she proudly glided off the seat on her own, letting the chair gently push her away, off to conquer the mountain.
Wow.....
This was a lesson for us. Children are seriously capable little beings...we just have to give them the chance to try!