Roller Skating

Yesterday Austin was invited to a birthday party at a roller skate center. I didn't know kids still skated, let alone had parties at skate centers, but we were all very excited. He was of course hesitant and scared at first, and made Daddy get a pair of skates so he could help him. Brian is a self proclaimed 'master' on roller skates, but quickly found out that the no-fear, flexibility, and agility he had at 10 years old no longer applies to his 40 year old self. (He blames it on the music, he claims he can't skate to anything but disco). Anyway, Austin quickly got the hang of things and left his daddy behind to skate with his friends, and within an hour he was no longer holding on to the side wall, but was out in the middle of the floor with all of the other kids. He fell down a lot, but would not be discouraged. He has asked 100 times since yesterday when can we go back.

Being there brought back a lot of memories for me. I used to love to go skating. I could skate backwards, do fun little turns, and played all of the games such as limbo and shoot the duck. I was awesome. I owned that skate floor. Yesterday I could almost feel the skates on my feet, and just knew how easy it would be. I could almost feel the wind whipping through my hair, the speed and feeling of flying. So I rented a pair for myself, mostly to show up Brian (he strongly discouraged me to do so, knowing the day would end in an emergency room with a broken ankle). But I couldn't wait to get out there.

I did not own the floor yesterday. It didn't all come back to me the way I knew it would. I never got going fast enough to feel any wind whipping through my hair and that feeling of flying was replaced with a feeling of terror. I am proud to say I did not fall down, but I was getting passed up by 5 year olds at birthday parties who had never been on skates before. I was the oldest one out there, (besides Brian of course) and after two or three times around my legs were burning and I had a blister forming. I had forgotten about that part. It is true what they say, you can never go back. I quickly got off the floor to stand with the other parents and watched Austin for the rest of the day.

*Sigh...*

It has started already. Austin is torn between being too cool to get hugs and kisses from mommy, and still needing me by his side. I always walk Austin to his classroom in the mornings when I drop him off, and give him a hug and a kiss outside of the classroom door before leaving. Yesterday started out no differently. We got out of the car and proceeded to the doors, when Austin noticed his friends waiting for him (twin girls I might add). He took off running without so much as a goodbye look/wave/grunt. I called out to him, and he reluctantly came back and gave me a pseudo-hug and ran off again. I stood out in the cold looking after him, dejected and hurt, tears running down my face, cars honking for me to get out of the way. OK, so I wasn't quite that pitiful, but you get the idea. So this morning I offered to just drop him off and let him walk in by himself, and he started to get teary eyed and asked if I would please walk him in. I eagerly got out, a smile spreading from ear to ear (my little boy still wants me!) and skipped around the car to let him out. Then he saw the same twin girls waiting for him. I could see his eagerness to run to his friends, so I quickly hugged him and let him go. We have agreed that from now on, hugs and kisses are given before we get out of the car, but that I can still walk him in. I guess it is an ok compromise, I knew as a parent there would be a lot of that. I just didn't think it would start so soon.

Tiny Dancer

Aubrey loves to dance. And I love to watch her dance. She used to think dancing consisted of squats, because she watched mommy do excerise videos that are always set to music, and there were a lot of painful squats. She has stronger legs than mommy.

Here she is dancing, you will have to imagine the music because our little digital camera doesn't have sound capabilities with video, and the quality isn't so good, but you get the idea.

My Littlest Boxer

Halloween Part II

Land of Oz, here we come! This is the first year that Brian and I dressed up with the kids, and we had such a fun time. I have my sister to thank for the whole theme, she got Aubrey a little Dorothy costume and we ran with it. Some friends of ours joined in the fun and filled out our group as the Wizard, the Good Witch Glenda and the Tin Man. It was a gorgeous night; we had plans of walking around with hot chocolate (which might or might not have been spiked with Bailey's), but it was too hot to drink that! Here are some pictures of our fun night.

The Wicked Witch of the West with the Cowardly Lion and Dorothy.

The Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Dorothy.

"Could you point us in the direction of the yellow brick road?"

Scarecrow (daddy) is helping Dorothy get some candy. By the end of the evening she had the hang of things and didn't want to pass up any house.

My little lion posing with a spooky. Who says he is cowardly?

Dorothy and her Scarecrow.