The Magic of Maia and Cecily!: Ice Skating

I loved winter as a kid. (This was pretty much a necessity growing up in Rochester, NY!) Skiing, sledding, and skating all made the winter months fly by. There was a lovely outdoor ice rink a few blocks from the house where we lived until I was 12. In my memory we went there pretty much every day after school (weather permitting, of course) and many weekend days. I think it was $.25 to skate as long as we wanted. And we wanted to skate a lot! I remember the thrill of rushing around the ice, chasing and being chased, learning new tricks such as backwards crossover. Occasionally following our skating adventures, we were treated to our favorite lunch: grilled cheese, french fries, and hot chocolate piled ludicrously high with whipped cream at The Golden Fox, a lovely diner also a few blocks from our house. (Grilled Cheese and Fries is still my favorite meal ever!)

Winter lost quite a bit of its charm once I became a mom. Not being able to escape to a playground, constantly battling colds and flus and whatever, spending 30 minutes getting everyone into winter gear before we can finally make it out the door... it's a lot more work than the fun in the snow I remember. I would love, however, for our girls to remember the fun in the snow and not harried Mommy! And so, with Grammy and Grampy visiting, we took them ice skating over the weekend. Well, we took Maia ice skating. Grampy and Cec cheered us on from the bleachers.

Here is Maia, her first time balancing on ice skates:

Grammy decided to give it a whirl:

Grampy and Cec:

Here she goes (the milk crates were brilliant):

Taking a spin with Daddy:

Mommy's turn:

Daddy recovering on the couch:

We had a great visit with Grammy and Grampy. After skating we ordered some yummy pizza and then put the kids down for an early bedtime (they were tired from all the excitement!). Mommy and Daddy skipped the pizza and went our for a wonderful dinner at an amazing new restaurant. Thanks Grammy and Grampy! Sunday morning we visited another restaurant for a delicious breakfast. Cec got to try her first pancake, it was a huge hit. And Maia must be starting yet another growth spurt- she ate the biggest pancake (positively dripping in Maple Syrup!) I've ever seen. Grammy and Grampy played for a little while after breakfast, and then headed home.

We needed a fun activity for the afternoon, so we decided to take the kids swimming at our Y. Maia was in heaven. She has come such a long way in her swimming ability, and is now totally at ease in the water. She wears a bubble, and swims all around, even putting her head completely under and jumping in from the side (big progress!). Cecily thought the temperature was a little too cool (they lowered it a bit for a swim meet being held on the other side of the pool) and pretty much held onto me for dear life the entire time. She did relax towards the end and splash a bit. She loves the water! All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. I'm sure we'll have many more skating and swimming adventures to get us through until playground season!

The weekend made up for some of the difficulties we had last week. It was a bit... rough. Maia is not getting enough sleep, and we're having a hard time figuring out how to fix this. Generally we eat at 5:00, start bedtime around 5:45, and she's asleep between 6 and 6:15. There's nothing I can do to get her to take a nap, so that's not an option for adding in some sleep. We're now eating dinner at 4:30, starting bed at 5:15, and hopefully getting to sleep by 5:45. (If Maia is asleep anytime before 7 pm she'll sleep until around 6 am. If she falls asleep after 7pm, she's always up before 5. It's not pretty.) My fingers are crossed that this extra sleep will make a difference! I'm also taking her for an acupuncture treatment on Wednesday. In the past it's been incredibly helpful at rebalancing her emotionally and physically, and improving her sleep immediately. We'll hope this holds true. Anyhow, we had a few long afternoons last week. And by Friday, we were in need of some fun and special connect time. So... Cec and I picked Maia up from school and we went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch. It was such a treat to just get to sit and chat and enjoy each other. It was exactly what we all needed!

Maia is ready for lunch!