Ice Skating!

Today, we took Nikki skating for the first time. I love skating (not that I'm very good - I can only do forwards well) and it is something that is great for balance and coordination. I just wasn't planning to teach skating barely a month after he started walking!

Amazingly, they have skates in size 5 - perfect for two pairs of socks. Nikki showed off his great balance skills by managing to walk fairly confidently in the skates straight away, though I was holding his hands. The only down side was that we went in the afternoon, and Nikki had only 20min nap so he was a bit tired and grumpy. Hence the liquorice bribe in the photo below...

The greatest thing about our local rink is that they have penguins. These are sturdy push-along toys for tots to use, which helps them find their feet much more easily! The down side is that until the kids are more independant (ie. don't need to be physically held up and propelled) it is bad news for mummy's back and thighs! I took three laps of the rink, folded over and using one foot to skate really slowly... ouch.

 

Sorry it's sideways - I don't know how to turn video round.

Once Nikki got more confident in bearing his weight, we could go faster. He decided that we had to 'zhhhhhhhhh' across the ice. It is apparently what penguins do. Shortly before Nikki had enough, he was actually balancing and moving forward alone. I simply had a hand on his back so he knew I was there. He managed maybe 20 feet! He was probably skating for about 15 minutes in total, as we took several rest stops on each lap. I think he had fun, though!