I thought this year was going to be the one where I really struggled to buy a Christmas gift for Seth as he never wants anything. Thankfully though he saved me any panic buying and told me exactly what he wanted, rollerblades! when he said it, it instantly took me back to a Christmas when I was roughly his age and asked for the exact same thing. I couldn't wait to get them on my feet and as soon as all the presents were opened I put them on and awkwardly walked over the road to knock on my friends door. Unfortunately there were some steps going down to his front door which I handled with minimal grace and hit his back fence as I lost my control and ended up in a heap.
It didn't put me off though and although I didn't keep it up for long, the time I did have skating with friends was a lot of fun. So... I decided that if Seth was learning to skate then it would be a fun thing for all of us to do together. Becci already had a pair of skates that she'd not been on for years, so I went looking for some for me and Opeie. As a nice little bit of Christmas build up excitement, when I did find some, I decided to give them him early, so we headed to a park we love with a big open basketball court and got those wheels on our feet.
I may have jumped the gun a little as I was yet to get him any pads, but I figured he was going to be holding on to us anyway for his first few tries (and he was in very safe hands). It was amazing watching how quickly he went from sheer panic as he got up on his feet for the first time, to excited smiles as he went from one end of the court to the other. I love any activity that builds confidence and this one is clearly going to be a winner. Becci and I took it in turns to help the little dude out while we had a skate ourselves too.
Opeie's excitement was so moorish but the smiles on this cuties face was contagious. It had been me and Opeie for some time, adventuring and filling our days with spontaneous fun but its so lovely now to have someone in our life that genuinely wants to be a part of everything we do. She never says no, which is a real breath of fresh air. She was all smiles helping Opeie and skating about too, until....
... she was the first (and only one) to hit the floor (and hard). But, despite hurting her wrist and having to get a support for it, she's still up for getting those skates on again, and that's the kind PMA we need in our life, it's great for Opeie to see that (and proper does it for me... but shhhhhh...).
It turns out that I'm not anywhere near as bad as I anticipated being and ended up feeling pretty confident skating about, so I think its going to be a fun few months of skating for us. I can't wait to get Seth on his too and hopefully come summer we can all hit up somewhere like Bournemouth, with a nice long promenade to go skating along and we should be playing some interesting street hockey over the holidays, exciting times.