A Weekend On Ice

The lass finally got her long standing Winter wish. She went ice skating. Twice, in fact. The second time on her own skates. Don’t think she doesn’t know what THAT means.

The weather here broke a little this weekend and it was actually pleasant to be outside in less that full blown Arctic gear. So, in a bid to give the kids a little something different to think about, we took them ice skating outdoors at the Kennedy Plaza in Providence.

They offer rental skates there and the thought of sticking her feet in a pair of skates that some other toddler had stuck their sweaty peds into didn’t phase her one bit. She was going to skate. On ice. With Mom and her brother. Sweaty kid’s feet be damned.

Well, she wasn’t exactly Dorothy Hamill, but she got up on her skates and she went all the way around the rink without falling. She wouldn’t let Mom hold her hand and she did not hold onto the side of the rink either. She just kind of shuffled herself forward, stopping every now and again to proudly proclaim “Mom, I’m SKATING!” She wasn’t intimidated by all the other people zooming around on the ice, she wasn’t concerned about falling. She was just happy.

She only fell a couple of times all afternoon. The boy accounted well for himself also- trucking around the ice and handling all the other skaters. The highlight for him was being able to “see the sky” while skating. I told him the best view would be from his back. I’m not sure he quite got that one. The Wife had a good time alternating between her half-hour treks around the rink with the lass followed by half-a-minute “sprints” around the ice without her.

The only thing that could top that would be skating in her own skates. She got that wish Sunday when the Wife took her to get a pair of skates so that she could do the family skate at the local rink after dinner. She had been watching Mom and the boy do the skating for the past month or so now. During that time, she spent the time with me wandering around the rink and watching all the other skaters. Now, she was a skater. When she finally go onto the ice, her grin was ear-to-ear. She even tried spinning like the figure skaters she’d seen earlier on TV.

The Wife is now good and sore. The lass spent more time on her backside on the ice this time around. As a result, she was more accepting of the Wife’s offer to help. She went around the rink 3 or 4 times, coming off in between to get a little rest and to give the Wife a chance to skate normally for a bit. The combination of the previous afternoon and last evening on ice took it’s toll on the Wife’s legs and back.

We got home afterwards and the kids took showers and went to bed. When we went back to check on them prior to ourselves going to bed, both were fast asleep. Neither had moved from the time we put them to bed a couple of hours earlier.