Ice Skating: The Coolest Lesson EVER!!

B/N: Written Sunday 2/20/10
We taught our 5 year old to ice skate today and it was the best thing ever. We'd never been out on the ice before and I was deeply regretting the hefty admission fee right away, but once I got used to how oh-so-very-slippery that stuff is, I did quite alright.

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Determined to help my baby girl enjoy herself, I did everything I could to chase away that intense, scary look on her face and I'm so glad that in the end my efforts were not in vain. We decided on a whim to go out to do something as a family, MIL and out-of-town niece included, and the wheel stopped on ice skating. My saucer-sized eyes glazed over at the thought of finally going, but then I thought 'Why not, I've been meaning to do this forever. I can do this'.

So today, I bit the bullet and it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared: everywhere I looked I saw dangerous, sharp blades, 60mph skaters zipping through the heavy, unsteady crowd, lots of careless, carefree falling and the hardest, most unforgiving ice EVER (mommy gasp!), but as they say, good thing worrying definitely works because none of the stuff I worried about ever came to pass.

I can roller blade pretty well so I drew on this skill to help me (safely) ice skate. Once I got my confidence up and became more comfortable, I was giving mini-lessons to my daughter, my husband and two total strangers on how to...ready for it?...skate backwards! And to think I was petitioning DH to dole out over $200 for lessons, pfft!

It was the most fun I've had- we've had in along time and we'll definitely do it again. We have to- the baby girl was asking to go back again really, really soon. Mission accomplished.