I can skate!!

On this sunny Sunday afternoon, outdoor skating at Robson Square in downtown Vancouver is the perfect thing to do for the family!

DH can't really skate, so he put on cleats. I'm not that much better but someone's gotta show the kids... OO skated once when she was 3, but she was so fearful and tense the whole time I pretty much had to force her to try it. Needless to say it totally traumatized her. As a result we left her alone for a couple years before attempting it again.

This time around she is super interested and motivated. I showed her a few things, but she insisted on figuring things out on her own. She took this very seriously and practiced hard. She learned fairly quickly but her form isn't good and she is still quite unstable. The scary thing is when she has support, she would go rather fast, thinking she's mastered it...

On the other hand, we have our fearless little A. It took her a while to warm up as her nap was cut short and she was a tad cranky. Once she got into it, she picked it up just like that. Everything looks so effortless with her, and in no time she was sliding and gliding away on ice. At the end she even let go of the support and took a few steps on her own. She fell many times (faceplant!!), but every time she fell, she'd giggle really hard and then she would pick herself up and try again.

I know I'm really not supposed to compare them, but their remarkable difference constantly amazes me. It's not so much a comparison in the sense of who's better than who, but is an attempt to observe, analyze and understand these radically different individuals, so I can love and raise them in the best possible way.