| This may be an insignificant incident for most parents. Not for us. It made our Saturday a very happy one.
I have already mentioned that JSK is very cautious. She started walking a few days after she turned 1. And when she did I could see she was very careful. She will do something only and only if she is comfortable and is not afraid of falling or getting hurt. I am like that too. DH is not. I have seen kids especially boys just do it and not worry about anything. JSK needs a lot of warm up time. So you can see how difficult it is for us to just go do something new out of the blue. Swimming is a lost cause on JSK. She is extremely scared of putting her head under the water. And what swimming can she learn when she is not able to do that? After 2 years of trying we gave up on swimming.
We decided to go ice skating yesterday. DH and I have gone once like ages ago. DH likes and enjoys doing all these activities. I go for it because they sound cool. ;--P DH prepped JSK the whole week. He explained how the shoes will be, knife like at the bottom, the hard ice on which we will go, and that if she falls down she should brush herself off and continue skating. He even showed her videos of ice skating.
On Saturday we set off at 12:45 to the nearby ice rink. To our dismay the public skating was not available. I could see disappointment in JSK's eyes. We enquired about kids classes and more public skating times. The guy mentioned that their San Jose center might be open. A quick check revealed timings of 1:15 to 3:15. We were just in time! We decided to head out there. When we reached JSK had already fallen asleep in the car and so was cranky. We went in and I showed her the rink and the kids skating and she seemed pretty awed. We got the shoes, JSKhad super tiny cute shoes. I put them on and asked her to stand carefully. I was worried she might fall, but she seemed to have a good footing. Both me and DH put on our shoes and realized we have to tie them really tight in order not to fall or slip. At that point I noticed JSK was walking more comfortably than either of us. That was just the beginning.
We stood at the doors, got our buckets to hold on to. Buckets are for beginners just learning to skate. DH went in first. I was standing by JSK who put one step in and found it slippery and just wouldn't get in after. There it is, our eternal struggle at getting her to do anything. I really wished at that point one of us knew skating so we could take her in. We should there for a good 15 minutes blocking the entrance. I of course asked for some tips from the staff, how to move forward, and how to break. I showed JSK all the little kids doing it but she wouldn't go for it. I decided I will go while DH tried to get her in. I put one foot in found how slippery in was and was very very close to quitting. All the pain of falling down and balancing on your ankles and calves came back as a flooding memory. Did I really want to do it with my dysfunctional ankle? Am I going to be one of those mommies that just watches while dad and daughter do these fun things?? DH came by and said "Looks like you need some convincing too to get on the ice!" In those days of being a no kid couple DH only used to pep talk me into doing these things. Now he has to do it with two of us. ;--P poor DH eh. While we were standing there I held on to JSK and made her skate on the ice only 6in away from firm ground. ;--P she seemed to like it. In the mean time DH warmed up a little and DH decided to take JSK on her short bucket. Both would go together. They went a little bit in and I was happy to see it. Now I had to go in too! I began my internal pep talk and noticing people's stance and movements to ready myself.
DH called out in a minute saying JSK wanted him to let go of her bucket and that she can do it on her own! I laughed and he continued to say that he will fall down if he lets go of the bucket. They come back and each get their own buckets. And then I go in.
Slowly all of us got comfortable sliding holding the buckets. The most comfortable was .. JSK! She would come and bump on us. She would slip and manage to balance herself. She would intuitively learn how to slow down. And she would tell me ' stop following me everywhere amma!' Gosh! I got a glimpse of my life 10 years from now. DH and JSK bumped into each other and fell. Since Appa laughed and got up, she did too. And then she said ' amma I want to skate and then take some rest and then I want to come skate and the take some rest and I want to come skate again and then take some rest' It sounded so sweet in my ears! I had binned JSK to be an indoorsy bookish and not too good at any physical sports. There she proved me wrong. She even managed to stand without holding on to the bucket. Skating uses some of the same concepts as skiing, and so skiing practices actually helped us here a bit, the leaning forward to prevent falling and the breaking etc. Neither of us are good at skiing but we want to take JSK skiing too. I am hoping that when JSK learns to skate and ski she will teach us. Sigh!! A confused happy yet resigning to old age sigh that is. Kids can learn stuff really fast. They don't mind falling down. They won't have muscle strain that will live with them forever. From the time I saw her standing firmly while we were wobbling on the skates I kinda knew she was comfortable in them. She slipped many times but managed to recover and still continue which was amazing. She fell another time as she returned to the door, she confidently left the bucket and decided to hold the walls and get out, but she fell. Three very happy people got out from the rink, one hopping and skipping, the other two relieved that their extremely careful daughter has taken to a physical sport.
Believe me when I say I have to coax her into the jumpy house in birthdays and slides in parks.
We visited the German Market by the German International School in Mountain View after. It was cute. Lots of shops and food and middle school band. We petted some bunnies and hens and ducks and ponies. I felt sorry for the animals in the Petting zoo. ;--( I think the older kids can really scare the poor animals. JSK is big now and wanted to carry a poor hen. I am going to stop visiting petting zoos. We had German cake. JSK said she wanted Chocolate Croissant because that's what we had for breakfast everyday when in Germany. The lady at the store said ' oh we have to correct this! croissant is not German! The French brought it into Germany! You should have our bee sting cake!'
Overall it was a beautiful day. We haven't spent time as a family like this in a few months. Sometimes it is good to be just us.
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