Ice Skating

During the holiday break we went ice skating with the Brower siblings and all of the cousins. It was so much fun. I think that Devin has been dreaming about this day since the day Mathias was born. Devin is really into hockey, played some himself through high school plus a little college and can't wait to get Mathias into it. I will say that taking Mathias was better than I thought it would be. I thought that Mathias would get frustrated because he is so determined to do everything by himself and I though that if he would not be able to do it quickly by himself then he would get upset. He actually did alright and seemed to enjoy it.

Here is a quick snap shot of us about half way through. I am trying to get better about pictures. Most of the ones I have are of Mathias or Dev and Mathias so I am trying to get in there more as well as get the whole family in them. Thanks for taking this for us Melissa, I think it turned out great.

Mathias pretty much does not sit still long enough to take a picture and when he does he REFUSES to look at the camera, so after 100 tries Dev just grabbed Mathias' face and we called it good.

When we started to put on Mathias' skates, I don't think he had any idea what was going on. Dev was really having a hard time getting them on and it ended up that we needed to go up three sizes. Ice skates must run really tight but we finally found the pair that worked just right.

I thought for sure that Mathias would not be able to walk around in the ice skates and Dev was pretty sure that he would be a pretty quick learner and that it would not take him long. He was right. The first couple steps were pretty wobbly but towards the end he was actually running around in them. He loved the extra height it gave him as well, he was able to reach the water fountain all by himself, although still making a mess of it.

When they first got on the ice, it was pretty funny. Mathias just kinda hung there and let Dev push him around. Mathias kept chewing on his sleeves or his mittens, I think this was a nervous habit or something because I have never seen him do it before.

They had these cones out there that kids could push around the rink to help them skate better. Mathias found one of the smaller ones and just wanted to hold it. Like I am holding something so I won't fall, I dunno, I just thought it was cute.

Then, thanks to another friend's blog, we learned that if you teach the kids to march that it helps them to skate a little on their own. So towards the end of the evening we told Mathias to march from one person to another. I love the middle bottom picture, he was telling me that I needed to get further back from him for him to want to come to me and I was already almost to the other side if the ice rink. He did not get to attempt that huge distance though because it was time for everyone to get off of the rink. I think he liked this the best because he is my Mr. Independent and has to do everything for himself.

We had so much fun spending some time with the family and are happy they were all there with us. I am sure that Dev, Mathias, and I will be making a few more trips make to the ice arena.