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Charlie couldn’t believe his son was wearing a dinosaur costume of all things. First of all, it was ludicrous that he insisted on muggle dinosaurs rather than dragons. On Hallowe’en they had followed Hermione’s muggle traditions with costumes and trick or treating. It had been fun, but Charlie was still salty that his son had picked out the dinosaur and wouldn’t let him transfigure it to add wings. Hermione had laughed at him when he pouted.
Second, being dressed as a dinosaur was not the best choice for snowboarding. But at least he was warm. Hermione had said if Charlie was going to insist on trying this out, he had to ensure that Liam was at least wearing something warm. Well. This qualified, especially as he had talked the little boy into putting it on over his snow gear.
He really wasn’t sure what Hermione was so worried about. He had a warming charm on the boy as well. Sure, there was that time he had nearly let Ana Rose get frostbite on her toes. But it was just once.
And Ana Rose was an expert at snowboarding now. She would be terribly jealous when she got home from school today that she hadn’t gotten to be there when Liam was learning. Or just gotten to go herself. He would need to spend some special time with her alone on the board at the end of the school week.
For now, he needed to focus on the little one in front of him. Charlie worked to get Liam all strapped onto the board so his feet wouldn’t slide off in the slick snow. It was powdery on top today, perfect for snowboarding as the snow in the Carpathians usually was. Of course right now they were just at the crest of a very small hill, not wanting to scare him on his first run.
Buckling him in was somewhat complicated by Liam’s dinosaur tail getting in the way, but Charlie had to admit the Muggle costume was pretty adorable. He couldn’t wait to show Hermione the photos when she got home from her shift at the research center.
Getting the little boy all set up, Charlie showed him how to angle his little body to keep from falling. Liam grinned and nodded, understanding exactly how he should move having watched his big sister plenty of times over the last few weeks. Hermione had insisted he wait for his 4th birthday before he did it, but now he was old enough and he was wiggling in his dinosaur suit in anticipation.
Charlie wasn’t even done explaining when Liam suddenly pushed off, singing to himself. “I’m not going to fall. I’m not going to fall. Oooooo. I might fall and that’s okay… That’s okay…”
But he didn’t fall. He reached the bottom of the little hill and grinned up at Charlie. “I did it, Daddy!”
Charlie raced down to him and picked the little boy up in his arms, flinging snow with Liam’s tail. “That’s right, you did! Let’s try it a few more times before we go down the big hill Ana Rose likes.”
Of course, Ana Rose’s hill wasn’t huge either, but big enough for such young ones. Charlie couldn’t wait to see Liam on that one. After a few more tries, he took Liam’s hand and walked up to the next hill, towing the boy as he slid through the snow giggling. Charlie knew his son would be well worn out by the time they got home later even if it was Charlie doing most of the work now.
When they got to the top, Charlie said, “I’m going to race down the hill now so I’ll be waiting for you when you get to the bottom, okay? If you fall, I’ll come get you.”
“Okay!” Liam said excitedly. The little boy waited impatiently as his daddy ran down the hill, skidding the last bit as the drop was a bit shraper there.
When Charlie turned and said, “Come on down now!”
“OKAY!!!!” the preschooler screamed excitedly as he launched himself. All the way down the big hill, he squealed, “Weewoo, weewoo.”
At the very end, where Charlie had skidded, Liam did a little bit of a cartwheel, falling down in the snow. But he was laughing and said, “Look! I’m a powdersaurus,” as he blew up puffs of powdery snow.
Charlie laughed with him as he rushed to help. By the time he made it to Liam’s side, the little boy was frustrated by his inability to get up by himself.
Pouting, Liam said, “I’m a stuck-a-saurus! Please help me up.”
Charlie tried to refrain from laughing as he helped his young son up. They did it six more time before the Stuck-a-saurus was too tired to even hang onto Charlie’s hands to go up again. So he gently unfastened his son’s feet from the board and picked him up, the snowboard in his other hand.
“Now I’m a Tired-saurus,” Liam mumbled against Charlie’s shoulder as he fell fast asleep before they were even home.