Pictures

Just some pictures this time. The top two pictures are Kaori's and the bottom two are Cole's. The tiger is laying beside a lake by the way. In the bottom picture you can see Hiroo with his new haircut. He's resting nicely after getting snipped last week.

What A Difference A Week Makes

Kaori was nervous on the car ride and once again had tears in her eyes as she skated out on the ice. She was still moving very slowly, kind of a shuffling walk on the ice. All the other kids would skate across to the other side and then back. She would make it about 1/4 the way across and then turn around and go back when they would get to her. But slowly she stopped crying. Then she made it all the way across the rink. And then class was over. When she got out she was so happy to say that she only fell one time. She joined Cole to skate during the entire half-hour practice period after the lesson. Now she just says that she wants to go skating all the time. Hopefully she'll remember this lesson once I try to get those training wheels off.

Hiroo is getting trimmed today, I'll have to put up pictures of him. Also, after art class this afternoon I'll have a few pictures to post.

An Icy Blast

Yes it was an icy blast and we were even indoors. Cole and Kaori were very excited and just a little nervous for their very first ice skating lesson. I think they've only been on skates one previous time each. Both seemed to quickly settle into the last place position in their respective groups. It seems that in Minnesota beginner ice skating means being only mildly proficient and I'm sure I'd wind up in the last place position if I were brave enough to join an adult beginner class.

I could only cringe and peek out over the top of my magazine when trying to watch Kaori. Being the slowest and repeated falls brought tears to her eyes and longing looks to Robyn and me in the stands. Robyn continually gave her big smiles and "thumbs up" in hopeless attempts to cheer her from afar. I finally quit trying to watch, seeing her fall was just too much, and took my cue on how she was doing by Robyn's constant updates. Cole on the other hand was getting the hang of it and was able to skate back and forth across the ice with only minor incident.

Finally the lesson part of the session was over and just the practice, free skate part was left. Cole quickly went to the end of the rink and started skating while Kaori was escorted to the door. I hustled over to give her a big hug and try to make her feel better. She just said "it was so hard!" through her tears. I told her how much of a trooper she was for always getting back up again and keeping at it. We watched Cole skate around and through the precariously balanced beginner skaters, back and forth, back and forth. Then a surprising thing happened, with Robyn's encouragement Kaori got back out on the ice. She didn't go far but she did go. She'll be back again next week.

Today's post script is that Kaori has a sore bottom from falling. This too shall pass.