Henry's first ice skating lesson

Last night was Henry's first ice skating lesson. Henry was excited, but I was a little nervous. Henry didn't know there wouldn't be a parent out on the ice with him. Whenever I have skated with him before I always had a strong grip on him and never let him fall. I doubted this would happen again.

On our way to the ice rink, Henry fell sound asleep. We woke him up and he was a little disoriented and passive. I thought that was what he would be the whole night. He skipped the off-ice exercise, but willingly went out on the ice with the teacher. The first thing the instructor had the kids do was fall down on the ice so they could learn how to get back up. Henry plopped down like he was supposed to, but when he reached his hands out on the ice to get up, he realised the ice was pretty cold. I saw him take his hands off the ice. Immediately I thought "we should have brought gloves." After touching the ice once, he tried to avoid it the rest of the session. The instructor had everyone put their arms out to the side and take baby steps. Incredibly, Henry started doing it and actually inched his way forward. He was a bit slower than the other kids and had the habit of turning, but he still did good. Eventually he fell to the ice and then just waited for the instructor to pick him up. Once the instructor started helping him, the more he relied on her. It seemed like the rest of the lesson Henry was either holding her hand or standing still waiting for her to hold her hand. I wanted Henry to try again to skate alone, but he never did.

The picture above is toward the end of the lesson. He has a worried look on his face that we saw quite a bit at the end. After the lesson was over he got a sticker and got off the ice. We asked him if he had fun, and surprisingly he said he did and wanted to come back next week.

So, all and all a success. Can't wait until next week, and this time I'll bring gloves.