Roller Skating

As any good Mom of the 80's would do, I took the kids roller skating today. They have a nice little class for 2 to 6 year olds on Fridays at our local rink, Skate City. I was worried how the kids would do since neither of them has been on a pair of shoes with wheels before today. How many times would their feet slip out from under them... causing them to fall flat on their bottom? Well... never fear... the back inside wheel is locked in place by the rental skate attendant so it doesn't spin. This helps the kids maneuver around the rink without too much slipping. As they progress in their abilities, you can ask the attendant to free the wheel and off they go. Some of the kids were really fast, but most of them were at the ability level of Sanjay and Priya so it was going well.

About 1/3 of the way into it Priya told me she was done and a little while after that I look out at the group of kids in line for the limbo and I see Sanjay crying, but trying to hold back his tears. When I went out to get him he said he was crying because he couldn't find me. Once he was sure I wasn't leaving, he was back out there skating around and again was fighting back tears. This time Priya noticed, so she went over grabbed his hand and skated with him to the edge of the rink to meet me. He was finished... said it was too hard for him and since the class was almost over we removed the skates and got ready to leave.

From both of them, I was getting the vibe that this wasn't as much fun for them as it was for me. My dreams of reliving those days at Skatehaven as a schoolgirl with my kids more than 20 years later... down the drain. How fun would it be for us to all go skating together on Hannah Montana night next weekend?? I even got out my skates (yes, I still have my roller skates from 8th grade) and dusted them off hoping for a little time on the rink today. Well, perhaps all is not lost... as we were walking out of Skate City, Sanjay says to me, "Mom, that was so fun be'cept I cried a little bit"... and Priya concurred asking when we're going back and when I was going to skate with them.



This is what it looked like in motion...

Hat and Lunch Day

Today is hat and lunch day at preschool. Almost exactly 3 years ago, Priya was celebrating this for the first time too and I remembered taking a picture of her in the driveway. So we decided that despite the couple of inches of snow on the ground and the cold temperatures, we would still go outside and take a picture to commemorate it in the same way.



Sanjay looked so cute in this size 24 month hat that was clearly too small for his size 39 month head. When I dropped him at school, he and his friends were showing off lunch boxes and their fancy, silly, sporty and simple hats.

Nightmares

The other night I had a nightmare and I wish I could remember more of the details. You see, they were present when I awoke the next morning but over the past days they have faded. But, the gist of it was this... I was at an event with my kids and there were only 10 shots left on my camera because the memory card was just about full. I had to creatively figure out a way to take only 5 pictures of each of the kids. Those that know me well will seriously appreciate how terrifying this must have been for me. In fact... it was so disturbing that it actually jostled me from my deep sleep.

Tonight though... the camera dream will be trumped by something equally as horrifying... this "Sailboat With 14 Eyes" that Priya drew this evening.

So many eyes... so large in size... and that pink one on top... all staring at me... if this vision pops into my head tonight, I'm in trouble. Hopefully, if it does, I will think of that sweet orange heart on the top, which must signify that this creature is harmless and loving, and that'll put me right back into lullaby land.

The First S'more of the Season

Last year our neighbors built a really neat backyard feature... the firepit. With the weather leaning more towards spring today, they spontaneously called us over for dinner cooked in the pit and s'mores afterwards. So we spent the evening outside drinking wine, eating yummy food and generally enjoying the warmth of the flames as the night turned crisp. As a great bonus, our kids actually think they are each other's brothers and sisters so they play together nicely and allow us to enjoy the company of adults without too many interruptions. What a great start to the warm weather seasons! Next time we'll bring the S'more supplies... just let us know when.


























Note: Faces blurred to protect the firepit family since I didn't ask permission to post them all over the internet... besides that, V is making a really goofy face in this photo. :)