Quinny was invited to a friend's 5 year old birthday party this weekend at the ice rink with a free skating lesson. Imagine 12-15 kids ranging in age from 3-6 in ice skates mixed in with the rest of the public skating on a hockey rink. It was organized chaos. Quentin didn't know what to think when we got there. He was excited but totally shut down as soon as we got there. He wouldn't even put his skates on! I'm not sure what that was about. I don't know if he was afraid of the skates, the ice or if there was just too much going on but he cried and cried when I tried to lace them up for him. At that point we took him out to the arena so he could watch the other skaters hoping that would build some confidence. He liked that but he was still too shy to make the leap to getting out there. We tried to get him to put his skates on again and realized they were too small so Carrie went back to the counter with Gavin in tow which drew a lot of comments, "Wow! You're getting that kid skating?!" Um no people he can't even walk. Upon returning with the right size we finally convinced Q to put them on. The whole place is decked out in thick rubber flooring so you can walk around in your skates, which helped him out a lot with balance and getting used to wearing them. At the end of the day him walking around in the skates was the biggest factor to him getting it later.
We finally got him on the ice and the teacher said he had rubber legs so he wouldn't stand up. She told him if you walked out here you can skate. He cried. He sat on the ice, literally freezing his butt off. He cried some more but than a nine-year old, an older brother of one of the birthday attendees, who doubled as a professional skater, took a liking to the old Q-ster and started helping him out. He was literally standing behind him holding him up like a fireman's carry under his armpits. Quinny was not feeling it so he came off the ice but didn't want to take his skates off. He kept walking around and getting more comfortable in his skates watching from the stands.
After a while we convinced him to go back out there and give it another shot. They have these PVC contraptions that basically help you wheel around on the ice. I can best describe it by saying it's a walker for kids on the ice made out of PVC piping. I tried uploading a truly awesome video of Q doing his Gretzky impression but I can't get this site to accept it. He his hauling around the ice in it after he finally gets it, feels confident and really starts enjoying it.
By the end of the day he was loving skating and had made a ton of progress. It was really cool for me. We haven't tried organized sports yet so this was a new moment for me watching him get better. The amount of progress he made in the couple of hours we were there was so much fun to watch.
By the end of the day he was loving skating and had made a ton of progress. It was really cool for me. We haven't tried organized sports yet so this was a new moment for me watching him get better. The amount of progress he made in the couple of hours we were there was so much fun to watch.
With the party we got a certificate for a free pass to skate again, which means I'm going to have to go out there and help him balance. Yikes. I have hockey skates but I don't think they've come out of the box in roughly 15 years. It should be interesting.
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