Conquering the Ice

Kev and I had the great experience of watching our little man grow up a little this weekend. I'm pretty sure it was our first time just letting him go and watching him figure it out.

This weekend Connor started ice skating lessons. Being a the big hockey fan that Kev is..... we decided to put Connor in some ice skating classes to see how he did and that way it could open up to playing hockey if he wants too later.

Kev helped Connor with getting his skates on. The first thing Connor asked for was his hockey stick. It was comical watching him trying to walk around with the skates on his feet. The class started and as soon as Connor got out on the ice he froze stiff with his walker. He wouldn't move. The teacher was trying to get all the kids to march their feet and push the walker. Connor would not and did not want to. You could see he was uncomfortable and wasn't sure of what was going on.

He fell.

The teacher helped him up and tried getting him to move some but he was insistent on standing still.

He fell again. Tears.

The teacher helped him off the ice to us. I gave him a little pep talk about how brave he was for getting out there on the ice and wiped away his tears. He went back to his walker. Then slowly with the help of his teacher she got his little legs marching. As she moved on to working another kid, we watched him slowly and then faster and faster moving his walker around the ice. The teacher turned around and was surprised to see how far he had gone. By the end of the class he was falling without fear and pulling himself back up without any help.

At the end of the class he was on the other side of the rink and the teacher held his hands and had him skate back to get off the ice. He was so excited with himself he wanted to go back out.

Connor has always had a sense of hesitation when it comes to doing something that could be dangerous or hurt him. He's never been one to climb on counter tops or jump off of stuff really high. He's just content at what he's got going on. Going out on the ice and slipping and sliding all over the place as a huge step for him. Watching him out there and afterward Kev and I were so happy for him. I can't put it into an exact word to describe what my heart filled up with emotion wise. It was different than anything thing I've felt before. It was a combination of pride, love, excitement, happiness and awe. It was just filled to the brim of awesomeness for him watching him conquer the ice.