Ice Harvesting Lesson

Today we ventured to the local ice rink for Gavin's first official ice skating lesson. He's been out with Craig a few times, but had been relying a bit too much on the A-frame bar (much like myself in earlier post). Overall he did pretty well. Turns out the skates we brought were harder to learn on... who knew hockey skates were curved so kids fall down more? Well, Craig and lots of other people for sure, but not me. I'm totally out of my element at the skating rink.

Next week we'll get the rental skates which are straighter and have the toe pick so kids don't fall forward on their faces. Gavin never fell on his face (that I saw anyway), but he did spend a lot of time harvesting ice shavings while lying on the ground. Once he fell, he couldn't really get up on his own. I don't know if that was his skates or that he just doesn't know how to do that yet. We'd always helped him get up. (Good plug for the sink or swim mentality.) He wasn't the only one floundering, mind you, but with only 3 teachers for 10 or so 3-5 year olds, it was hard to get to everyone.

The highlight of the lesson was leaving early to go get donuts and hot chocolate next door. The Vietnamese ladies behind the counter were quite taken with Graeme and his chattiness. After every sip of hot chocolate, he'd say: "My like it." It was pretty cute, because he was totally serious with furrowed brow each time. Like a gruff quality control agent giving approval. Seriously, after every sip. Good thing that they liked us (or him), because we'll be back every Tuesday for the next 6 weeks!

(On a side note, I've come to realize my kids eat a fair amount of sugar... I'm OK with it. They eat good food too. Vegetables, flax seed, fish, blueberries... it's all part of being a kid to me. And it's fun for me too. As long as I'm working out.)