When I was indescructable.

My family lived in Minnesota when I was in preschool. The winters there were very cold and the lakes and streams would ice over for months at a time. It was perfect for a five year old to go out and have fun.

My brother and I would be outfitted in these bulky, head to toe snowmobile suits, wool mittens, with scarves around our neck. We would wear these large, fur (or something) lined rubber boots. Even with all of this, as soon as we hit the outdoors we tossed the scarves, usually took off our mittens and unzipped partway our snowmobile suits.

We would take off to the stream that ran next to our house and proceed to toboggan all around the stream and on it (even though we were warned about going on the stream itself.) One time I was sliding across the stream and the ice cracked and I fell in. I didn't think much of it, as I crawled out, except that now there was a place we couldn't run the toboggan. My brother and I continued playing like it was no big deal.

Well, when I got home my mom took one look and stripped the clothes off of me, turned on a hot shower and tried to warm me back up. In her words, I was blue. Really blue. I didn't think it was that big of deal. I never felt the cold. I was indestructible.

Thank God for mothers that know when to get their babies out of the cold.