Skating Take 4

Charlie loves his hockey stick so much that he no longer even wants to consider the red skating helper bar. This is the second time without Eileen there and for me second time I get to play around on the ice with him.

Charlie loves to watch the other boys and girls. They were going from one end of the ice to the other with 3 or 4 still on bars. Charlie was too slow to keep up so we just did our own thing to the side.

He could do from red line to red line with about 3 falls. He was very excited when he was gliding on the ice and would make sure that I was looking when he got a bit of speed. He could feel it and liked it. Of course, too fast means he'd fall unless he was distracted. He loved it with pucks around and usually with a slapshot he'd hit the ice as well.

He left the boards alone though and kept both hands on his hockey stick. Also, at this point he could get up off the ice in seconds really and it was pretty easy.

Before I jumped on the ice one of the other coaches was working with Charlie and when I was on the side putting on my skates I saw him come off the ice and was wondering what he was doing. Turns out that Charlie got off the ice at a door on the other end of the rink and walked over to me to see when I was coming on the ice to be with him. Funny.

This was the first time they grouped the two classes into one. Coach Katie, one of the 2 coaches wasn't here this week. For some unknown reason though putting the 2 seperate classes together they had 3 coaches working the crowds. There is all various levels of skating going on and typically they have the two seperate classes to keep the super beginners together with coach katie and coach charlie and the other two coaches (don't know their names) with the kids that could do skating exercies.

Charlie really is doing well and the milestone now is that he's quite able to stand on his own and "walk" skate around without falling at all. When he starts to "glide" skate is when his feet seperate or he falls to slow down. All in all though I'd say a few more hours of work and he'll be whipping around with the rest of the older kids.

This class is technically for 4 years and older but when we registered they said 3 was fine so in actual fact he's almost the smallest kid there (3 girls are smaller).

There's one teanager as well whose following along the class and he's a beginner as well and seems to follow with the kids but of course tripple their size. Strange he's there but he must be a coaches friend. He loves to hit the puck around mainly when not doing the exercises to the side of the rest of the kids.

Wednesdays between 5:45pm to 6:45pm is a bit late for Charlie but its not too bad. We are also now in the habit to go to Potbelly's afterwards for a sandwich and salad and milkshake.

Of course, on his salad he always asks to remove the artichokes (don't think he knows what they are but he's repeated Eileen) and today was was first time he had strawberry shake (he's a vanilla guy at heart).