Winter Fun

Saturday was the school ice skating party for James and Matthew. Matthew reeeeeeeally wanted to go. He wanted to ice skate and his friends had said they would be there. James opted to stay home and run some Christmas errands with Bobby. 

We got there just as it started. It took a little while to get the right size skates, but that only increased his excitement. His first few laps around the rink were slow and very close to the wall. He got a little faster every time, though, and was having a lot of fun skating on his own. I chose not to skate. His friends hadn't arrived yet. 

Heading out onto the ice.

Ice skating! All those weeks roller skating in P.E. paid off :)

A lot of kids were using the skating scooter to gain confidence. Matthew gave it a go, too.

Throughout the event, there was an administrator on the ice taking pictures of everyone. I saw her skate right up to Matthew's side and say something. Later, he told me she said, "Now who's the little lady skating here?" Matthew turned to face her and she instantly recognized him. A little shocked, she cried, "Oh! It's you, Matthew!" He thought it was hilarious. 

When they give us access to those pictures, I'll see if she got any with Matthew.

We took a cocoa break and some boys from Matthew's class said hi. Matthew turned to me a little sheepishly and whispered, "I don't know what to say to kids outside of school." These kids weren't his good friends. I learned later from Matthew that these were the "cool" kids and Matthew is a "friendly" kid, so they get along nicely but don't play together routinely. When we hit the ice again, these boys aggregated around Matthew and included him in everything. They started timing their laps. They told Matthew it was his turn, and he declined. They just told the next kid it was his turn. No teasing or excessive persuasion. Eventually, Matthew decided to take a timed lap. He was obviously slower and much less experienced. Halfway through, one of the kids skated out to skate next to him. the other kid continued timing. When Matthew finally returned to the start, his time was 3x longer than the worst time of any of the other boys. I wondered what might happen. It wasn't a true test...the boys knew I was watching, even though I was standing a ways off...but their reaction surprised me all the same. 

The kid with the timer excitedly told Matthew his time. Matthew was a little embarrassed. The kid was supportive, though, and genuinely praised his efforts. The group kept timing each other and being friendly and doing silly things for fun. When Matthew went for another timed lap, he shaved off 30 seconds! They were excited for him again!

Matthew had a GREAT time at the skating party. His good friends never showed up. That didn't really matter. He skated by himself and skated with the other boys from his class. At the end, as we walked to the skate return desk, Matthew said, "NGS is a really good school for me. I'm so glad I go there."

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Later that afternoon, James and Matthew decided they wanted to go sledding. Conditions were great. I wasn't too thrilled about going, but somehow I knew it was important that it happened that day. We arrived at the sledding hill and ran into James' closest friend from school. The three of them played (carefully and well-supervised by parents) on the frozen lake. I didn't take any pictures of James' friend, and I don't think I would post them here if I did, but he was there. I promise :)

Exploring the ice by the fishing dock

Matthew on a good day...friendly, cheerful, funny, brave, and happy to lie down on a frozen lake.

James managed to dislodge a hunk of ice from the lake surface. You can't really see it here, but it's several inches thick. Maybe 3-4 inches. He. was. thrilled. They tried to use this huge, heavy, pointy piece of ice to break other ice further out, but it just bounced off the surface. Crazy.

Then the boys went sledding together. We parents just watched, laughing at the hilarious outcomes. At one point, the boys were trying to sled onto a little ramp/jump someone had built at the bottom of the hill. Matthew was the first to hit it. He flew 3 feet straight up and landed hard on his back. He got the wind knocked out of him and used the rest of his energy to warn the other boys away from it. It was a hard target to hit, thankfully, and no one else got hurt. 

James just couldn't stay on his sled for whatever reason. His hair is wet with a delightful mixture of snow spray and sweat. It's a really big climb up this hill.

Matthew loved it!