Roller Skating

I loved Roller Skating as a kid! Living in a small town it was one of the few places you could go and play with your friends. So I hoped LL would love it too and had visions of monthly roller skating outings as a family. Well that was a lovely thought until we went to a roller skating party last year. All that happened was both of us putting roller skates on and standing up and then taking them off. LL was not having it. He likes control and being on skates, he did not feel like he had it. I was bummed, but realized most of the 4 year olds weren't ready for skating yet.

 Fast forward to this past weekend. We were invited to another skating party. LL assured me he wanted to go and would skate. He learned how by watching Peppa Pig on TV....skate, skate, glide.....okkkkkk.

So we get our skates on and we start to go.  And by go I mean me holding him up and flailing his legs all around. We went to the practice area. Again more flailing, me get frustrated because he wouldn't even stand up. This led to him telling me he was N.E.V.E.R. skating again!!

 Well I left him there and chatted with another Mom.  LL started watching his friends who didn't skate either trying it out. So slowly he started holding onto the side of the wall and making his way up and down the side of it.  He did that for a half hour.  Then I started challenging him to do it one handed.  He was gaining confidence!  It was time for the party to end.  So I helped him skate to put his shoes on.  As we were going, I let go of one hand then the other hand.  He was doing it alone!!!  We decided to stay a little longer.  He could go by himself pretty well on the carpet because of the extra traction.  However, the skating rink had these fancy helper things that the littles could use.  Here LL is doing his thing with a smile on his face!

After we left LL declared he wanted to go skating next Sunday too :)  Yippee!!  Now if only Flower Power was a little bigger!!