First Time Skating!

Last weekend we took our daughter skating for the first time. In 3 months she will be 6 years old, and until now never showed any interest in skating. Suddenly she was ready, and luckily we had already purchased "bob skates" in anticipation of this day. Never heard of "bob skates"? They're two (yes two!) very dull blades attached to a rectangular length of plastic. And the best part is that they attach to any regular snow boot.

She was comfortable, and best of all, she felt pretty stable on the ice. And to be honest, I seriously wished I had a pair to throw on my boots. I'm not a great skater, and my feet hurt in my skates even before we got on the ice.

We are lucky to be able to skate at the Olympic Oval here in Calgary. It's a wonderful facility that is very family friendly, and more importantly, it's nice and warm. A great place to take a little one skating for the first time. So, that's where we went.

We stepped out onto the ice and after a few shaky and "why-the-heck-are-my-feet-slipping-and-sliding-all-over-the-place-maybe-this-wasn't-such-a-good-idea" moments she found her footing. And our brave, brave little girl who usually finds such physical activities so difficult, discovered she loved to skate. Skating is difficult; it requires strong muscles (and feet!), stamina, and it requires a lot of balance and control. My daughter's physical therapy sessions last year focused a lot on building her core muscles so she could balance better. And it paid off. She had to use a skating aid to skate, BUT, she felt confident on the ice, and sure that she could handle herself. She would not have felt this way 6 months ago. 

So, off she went. Lap after lap after lap. One and half hours later she was ready to stop, but only because she was hungry. And as I was taking off her snow pants, I realized she was drenched in sweat. I don't think her body has ever worked so hard, and had so much fun at the same time.

 And after, even though it was 10:00 at night, we went to a restaurant and had nachos (one of her favourite foods!) She earned it.