Saturday, February 16. Kettler Rink in Virginia. Birthday party for Chloe's classmate Isabel.The defining feature of our ten or so ice-skating adventures the past two winters has been Chloe's ritual timidity. Meaning, she won't let go. We've certainly made progress. A year ago, I had to hold her under both of his arms. By the end of last winter, she was holding my hand, and even walking toward me as I very slowly backpedaled. This season began with more insistent hand-holding.
Until there was peer pressure.
A few weeks ago, we went to the rink on the Mall with Tim Zimmermann and Tasha, who's a bit older than Chloe, and bossy. Chloe was clearly offended when Tasha condescendingly--she would talk like an adult who knows nothing about children talking to a child--tried to "teach" Chloe how to skate. By the end of the day, Chloe had, proudly, made an unassisted lap around the rink.
Our trips also have been punctuated with complaints that her skates (size-8 hand-me-downs from cousin Mia) are too tight. This results in at least one break to loosen the laces. Falling hurts more than it rightly should. My releasing her hand meets with protestations of panic and fear.
This party started out no differently. The 20 or so kids were escorted onto the ice for a group lesson. Chloe was tentative, taking tiny steps, stepping up and down gingerly. When it was time to join the free skate, she clung to my hand as if it was the last life preserver on the Titanic. In the past I'd tried to get her to loosen her grip by telling her she was breaking my hand. This she remembered, of course. "I'm breaking your hand!" she said during one spin on Saturday.
But Isabel was skating freely. And Ben, who had skated only once before, was happy to venture off on his own and fall. And Michaela walked slowly, evenly and determinedly around the rink. And when Chloe fell on her rear and cried and wanted to stop skating, I escorted her off the ice and went off with Ben.
When she saw that, the skates immediately went back on. And Chloe, to my surprise, was back on the ice. I held Chloe with my left hand and Ben with my right (because he had a tendency to veer left). I let them go first at the endline and challenged them to skate alone to the boards. We went around again and I let go at the faceoff circle. Then the farmost ring of the circle. The the blue line.
Then they wanted to make it all the way around the ice solo. And, naturally, they did. And they did it again. And again.
She can officially skate.
