Happy New Year, etc...

Well now that I have the pleasantries out of the way, I figured I would post today simply to tell everyone about Teresa's first skating lesson today. It seems that Teresa does not like doing new things with daddy, as her first swimming lesson ever was a disaster, she cried on the way to gymnastics and today she tried every trick in the book to get out of the skating lessons today.

Today was more of the same. I was first told that it was cold out to skate, to which I informed her that was irrelevant due to the indoor nature of the ice rink. At this point Teresa went to her more traditional method of whining and crying to avoid them. She got herself worked up about almost everything, the extra clothes, the helmet, whatever... I got Teresa into the van and she was howling, so I tried the line "This is special daddy and Teresa time, don't you like spending time with daddy?" Well, if you have children and a sensitive ego (like me), do not try this line - ever - as Teresa cried "I like MOMMY!!! Not DADDY!". I was laughing so hard I went back to the house to tell Cara and then I left anyhow. During the car ride I calmed her by doing what all good parents do - bribery!

"Teresa, you are not behaving."
More Crying
"Teresa if you want a treat after skating you need to behave, and that means no crying and whining."
Crying Slows
"Teresa the way you are acting right now you won't be getting treats for a long time."
Exeunt Crying


The lessons were neat. Teresa walked to the rink carrying her skates and she was quite wobbly walking to the gate to get on the ice. If you want to know what the next 30 minutes were like, watch the following (and Thumper she ain't):

Actually it involved the teacher having them practice over and over and over again falling on their bum and getting up. Nary a child could get up without significant help, and Teresa was highly mediocre. There was also a period where the dads (I think there was one mom, and her kid was the only one that could balance - cheater!) held the kids up and we practiced picking our feet up and taking short choppy steps. I know I will be sore tomorrow as I haven't been skating much lately and this time I had to do it crouched the entire time... Nevertheless it was fun and Teresa seemed to enjoy it (she said it hurt her bum, but she LOVED me skating as quick as I could while dragging her skates on the ice at the end) so we shall return.

Tomorrow we do swimming lessons...

Lastly, in honour of the 100th season of the world's greatest hockey team, and to harass one grandpa while making the other proud, here is a quick video of Teresa. Any stories Cara tells about the making of this video are lies.