Another round of skating lessons. Ginny is counting down until she gets to join in.
Ethan does the hockey skating. He learns hockey stops (where he sprays people with ice) and skating on one leg (because they're always doing that, those hockey players).
There's a funny duality to Ethan. He has plenty of fears. He's nervous about monsters and hates to be alone and likes a light on when he sleeps and every noise makes him jump and shout "what was that!?" But he has no fear of bodily harm. The kind of fear that, as his mother, I wish he had. He doesn't think twice about jumping from somewhere high up, he rides his bike like a crazy man, and when he skates, it's as fast as he possibly can. Which is frighteningly fast. When he gets close to the wall, does he slow down? No. He gives himself an extra push and braces for impact.
It was Joanna's first time on skates. She thought she should be able to skate like an Olympian from the get go, and bravely slid out onto the ice. She promptly landed on her rump. Hard. After the tears abated, she decided to take it a little more carefully. She slowly migrated from clutching to wall
to clutching her teacher
to almost skating by herself.
By the end she was able to go it alone. Very slowly. And she got used to the inevitable fall.
Good thing she has an awesome older brother who saw it as his personal duty to cheer his sister up and get her back on her feet.
