Sunday, January 9, 2011
and now for something completely different....
in what he probably thought was a devilish and excellently evil move, today Tuckerton barfed in....one of the dog's dishes! I discovered it when I went to feed the dogs this morning. As I squinted down at the unidentifiable blob in the dog's dish I started laughing my butt off. Heck, if the cats' gonna barf, this is the best place of all to do it...all I had to do was pick up the dish and dump the vom in the garbage, give the dish a rinse and it was all cleaned up. Tuckerton was probably lurking in the corner thinking "Drat. Skunked again." I know that cat is trying to drive me crazy. But. It. Just. Won't. Work.
One down, four to go
Milo and I started ice skating lessons yesterday. Hopefully he is not too emotionally scarred by the experience. We thought they were going to be fun, which they were, but the events surrounding the actual lesson, not so much.
We got there early, and got our skates and our id tags and were ready to go out on the ice. Someone somewhere was making unintelligible announcements over the loudspeaker system so we just went on the rink, and asked where to go for our lesson. We were unceremoniously told to get off the ice, that it was figure skating freestyle time ONLY and to go wait inside. We did that and then it seemed like people were grouping up (again with no real direction, it was just sort of people congregating) so I asked more questions. I found out where Milo had to go and took him to that area, and then went and found out where I was supposed to be. My group of adults was rather large and the woman giving the instructions was not loudspoken so I couldn't hear a damn thing...except I heard my kid crying. I left my group and went looking for him; somehow Milo had wandered away from his group and didn't know where to go. I got him re-situated and went back to my peeps. I had no idea what was going on but followed them out onto the ice, and checked on my way to make sure that Milo was where he belonged, which he was. Whew.
Our lessons were for half an hour, in which I learned how to stop (yay! this is a useful skill that I did not previously possess. my method just involved running into the wall) and go backward, and the right way to push off. When we were done, I expected that the teachers that were with the younger kids would stay with the little kids until a parent showed up to collect them. No dice. They just turned the kids loose. By the time I got to him, Milo was freaking out because he had no idea where I was among all the people that were mobbing up the joint. That was a bit traumatic for both of us. I got him calmed down and we discussed what to do next time so he doesn't panic, now that we know there isn't going to be any help from the teachers. (First of all, I couldn't believe how irresponsible & dangerous of the teachers, to just let four, five and six year olds go unsupervised into the mass of grownups that were around the rink. And second, the release of the group lessons was so frickin disorganized. I would have gotten to Milo a LOT faster if they let the classes go one at a time, instead of all at once so we bottle necked up at the door to the ice. There were at least 75 kids on Milo's half of the ice, and 40 or more adults on my half, so you have all of us trying to get off at once, plus all the people coming out to get us. It was rather awful.)
While Milo & I were sitting down and calming down, we talked about what he learned, which was amazing. The kid went into the lesson not knowing how to skate at all, and came out skating on his own. They showed him how to get moving and how to stop, how to fall and how to get up (quite useful, at this stage) and even how to bunny hop on his skates. Aside from the emotional distress of being lost twice in the crowd, Milo lost all of his fear of being on ice skates. So the lessons are valuable, if only they were handled better organizationally.
Milo also told me that his toes ached and he didn't want to skate anymore. I had rented skates for him that were the same as his sneaker size, which was evidently the wrong thing to do. His feet were all smashed up in the skates; no wonder his feet were killing him. I traded up to the next bigger size and talked Milo into going back out onto the ice to show me what he could do. (Our lessons include an extra hour of practice time.) I was blown away when we "raced" across the rink and Milo got all the way across without falling down till the end. He said it was a lot easier to skate when his toes weren't crunched. I'll bet.
Unfortunately, we couldn't get going fast or for long distances because apparently our "practice hour" also includes other people's lessons so they had half the rink roped off. We could cross the lesson area at our own risk, but it made for a lot more crowded conditions. This sort of pisses me off, considering that the freestyle figure skaters have the whole rink to themselves, while us untalented dweebs are forced to be all clogged together and in each other's way when it's our turn to practice. How are we supposed to practice if we can't even frickin move?? I suppose it's good practice if you're learning to dodge a zillion falling down little kids and wobbly adults.
So, on the upside, the lessons are worth it for both of us, in terms of learning new things, both about ice skating and what to do in a crowd if we get separated. On the downside, the atmosphere and organization of the situation could be improved 100% just by simply giving people some direction of where to go and what to do when lessons are beginning and when they're over. Milo and I came up with our own solution to the issue and found a place to meet that he is to go to immediately and wait for me. He knows now that I will be there within five minutes to get him, because I'm getting off the ice the same time he is. Argh. Who would think that something so fun could be so much work??
To top it all off, after we got home yesterday, Milo was playing with Tuckerton and Tuckerton chomped Milo's nose. No blood, just fang marks, but it was just the cherry topping on Milo's day!
We got there early, and got our skates and our id tags and were ready to go out on the ice. Someone somewhere was making unintelligible announcements over the loudspeaker system so we just went on the rink, and asked where to go for our lesson. We were unceremoniously told to get off the ice, that it was figure skating freestyle time ONLY and to go wait inside. We did that and then it seemed like people were grouping up (again with no real direction, it was just sort of people congregating) so I asked more questions. I found out where Milo had to go and took him to that area, and then went and found out where I was supposed to be. My group of adults was rather large and the woman giving the instructions was not loudspoken so I couldn't hear a damn thing...except I heard my kid crying. I left my group and went looking for him; somehow Milo had wandered away from his group and didn't know where to go. I got him re-situated and went back to my peeps. I had no idea what was going on but followed them out onto the ice, and checked on my way to make sure that Milo was where he belonged, which he was. Whew.
Our lessons were for half an hour, in which I learned how to stop (yay! this is a useful skill that I did not previously possess. my method just involved running into the wall) and go backward, and the right way to push off. When we were done, I expected that the teachers that were with the younger kids would stay with the little kids until a parent showed up to collect them. No dice. They just turned the kids loose. By the time I got to him, Milo was freaking out because he had no idea where I was among all the people that were mobbing up the joint. That was a bit traumatic for both of us. I got him calmed down and we discussed what to do next time so he doesn't panic, now that we know there isn't going to be any help from the teachers. (First of all, I couldn't believe how irresponsible & dangerous of the teachers, to just let four, five and six year olds go unsupervised into the mass of grownups that were around the rink. And second, the release of the group lessons was so frickin disorganized. I would have gotten to Milo a LOT faster if they let the classes go one at a time, instead of all at once so we bottle necked up at the door to the ice. There were at least 75 kids on Milo's half of the ice, and 40 or more adults on my half, so you have all of us trying to get off at once, plus all the people coming out to get us. It was rather awful.)
While Milo & I were sitting down and calming down, we talked about what he learned, which was amazing. The kid went into the lesson not knowing how to skate at all, and came out skating on his own. They showed him how to get moving and how to stop, how to fall and how to get up (quite useful, at this stage) and even how to bunny hop on his skates. Aside from the emotional distress of being lost twice in the crowd, Milo lost all of his fear of being on ice skates. So the lessons are valuable, if only they were handled better organizationally.
Milo also told me that his toes ached and he didn't want to skate anymore. I had rented skates for him that were the same as his sneaker size, which was evidently the wrong thing to do. His feet were all smashed up in the skates; no wonder his feet were killing him. I traded up to the next bigger size and talked Milo into going back out onto the ice to show me what he could do. (Our lessons include an extra hour of practice time.) I was blown away when we "raced" across the rink and Milo got all the way across without falling down till the end. He said it was a lot easier to skate when his toes weren't crunched. I'll bet.
Unfortunately, we couldn't get going fast or for long distances because apparently our "practice hour" also includes other people's lessons so they had half the rink roped off. We could cross the lesson area at our own risk, but it made for a lot more crowded conditions. This sort of pisses me off, considering that the freestyle figure skaters have the whole rink to themselves, while us untalented dweebs are forced to be all clogged together and in each other's way when it's our turn to practice. How are we supposed to practice if we can't even frickin move?? I suppose it's good practice if you're learning to dodge a zillion falling down little kids and wobbly adults.
So, on the upside, the lessons are worth it for both of us, in terms of learning new things, both about ice skating and what to do in a crowd if we get separated. On the downside, the atmosphere and organization of the situation could be improved 100% just by simply giving people some direction of where to go and what to do when lessons are beginning and when they're over. Milo and I came up with our own solution to the issue and found a place to meet that he is to go to immediately and wait for me. He knows now that I will be there within five minutes to get him, because I'm getting off the ice the same time he is. Argh. Who would think that something so fun could be so much work??
To top it all off, after we got home yesterday, Milo was playing with Tuckerton and Tuckerton chomped Milo's nose. No blood, just fang marks, but it was just the cherry topping on Milo's day!
Other people seem to have helpful elves
yet all the spiteful ones live at our house. Seriously, do three people really make that much laundry? Get the bathroom that dirty? Use that many dishes? Do we really have that many shoes that need to be put away? Do two dogs really make that much poop on a daily basis? Do two cats really fill up their litterbox within 12 hours? Do those animals really shed that much hair?
Why can't we have nice, cheerful elves like the ones that work for the shoemaker? Instead we get the ones that are sadistic. It figures.
Why can't we have nice, cheerful elves like the ones that work for the shoemaker? Instead we get the ones that are sadistic. It figures.
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