Skates Straight

Merry merry.

I hope you are surrounded by love and comfort. That is the extent of my Christmas cheer. Ha!

But I have a heart warming story for you.

Brady and I went to the Gipp Arena to go ice skating on Sunday. He skated at the Colusseum with his class at school last year. Other than that, I haven't skated with him for a couple years.

Who knew what we were getting into?

Well, at the Gipp, he found a pusher, a metal frame designed specifically for a small person to push and stay balanced while learning to ice skate.

But he wouldn't try it by himself.

He held on (like a walker) and I would push and steer from behind. Or I would skate backwards and pull from the front. Luckily I love to skate. Bending over in this way made it more strenuous, but he was into it, so I endured.

Now I am not a physical therapist, but I have talked with a few about different athletic sports (riding a bike, kicking a ball, jumping, etc) and the amount of micro steps that go into a therapy session to get the student to build on each step one at a time as a foundation, so they only have to think about one thing at a time, is astounding.

But I have picked up on it.

Sure, Brady liked to be on the ice, but he wasn't going very far each time because he would roll his ankles out, and a person can't skate with their blades turned out. I knew this had to be the first micro step if we were going to progress..

So we tried a new technique. Whether it was legitimate or not, I don't know. Nobody told us to stop, so we carried on.

I had him sit on the front bar of the pusher, facing forward, while I pushed from behind. In this position, I had him focus on one thing:

Skates straight, Brady. Skates straight.

I would watch his ankles to make sure his feet were in that upright position and not turned out like he was melting.

We went around and around and around that rink, and he loved it. All the other parents and kids on the rink were sweet to him, helping with his pusher once he fell off -- they would push it back to him.

It was quite endearing. The vibe on the rink was really friendly and inclusive. I felt awesome helping my little guy learn there. Other kids were using pushers too, so we weren't that different.

When he was riding around on the front, however, well, we were the only ones really doing that. I think most of the other kids didn't need the "skates straight" training, but he did. So we continued.

Now I had the thought that people could be judging us. "Oh, he's just riding around on the front. That's not skating."

But I was okay with that becuase I kept watching his feet. "Skates staight, bud! Yes, great job!" He needed to get that engrained before we could move forward, and he was thoroughly enjoying the ride around the rink, and I was enjoying the exercise, so I figured it was all going to be okay.

Then one of his little buddies came on the ice. This little guy is a good skater -- he's even working on his stops and backwards skating! I figured that would be good inspiration for Brady as well.

I won't lie, though. I was getting tired. I was hunched over that kid-sized pusher for over an hour wondering if it was going to amount to anything. Open skating time ended in 20 minutes when I told Brady we had to go soon. He didn't want to leave.

"Five minutes, Mom."

Okay. I could push him around for five more minutes. As long as he got off the ice when we were supposed to, everything would be fine..

After three of his five minutes went by, and his little buddy was at his side, he said, "Okay, I'm going to do it by myself.'

"Wait, what? You don't want me to hang on? You're going to stand up and push it yourself?" I had no idea what just happened to prompt that.

"Yes mom. I can do it."

I held the pusher while he moved from sitting on the front to standing behind it -- proper use. "Okay, then. Here you go!"

And there he went! He pushed it all by himself! With skates straight!

I cheered so loud! The other parents cheered for us too! It was a triumphant moment on the rink! What a great day!

When he "fell" and did his dramatic dismount slide, I crawled on top of him, half in tears of Mama Bear pride. "You did it! Brady, you did it! I'm so proud of you!"

And then he got up and did it again! Here's a picture for proof.

Look! That one skate is a little blurry because he was going so fast! What a guy!

After a couple more solo attempts, he looked at the clock on the wall and said, "Okay, it's time to go."

And that was that.

We celebrated with a juice box while we put our boots on. We can't wait to go back again!