Dad Day I
Tracey's responsible for running the school book fair. As a result, she asked me (four months ago) if I could take off Mon/Tue before Thanksgiving - so she wouldn't have to worry about finding sitters. Not a problem AT ALL - I've got some vacation...
So here we are - day one of my extended weekend... What to do? The first thing I thought of was to go to the new Kohl children's Museum. To you non-Chicago folks, it's an award winning kid's museum - and they JUST opened in a new site (2X as big). I mentioned this plan to Tracey and her lower lip started quivering, "But I thought we all could go some time... Maybe we can go on Wednesday." OK, scratch that idea.
Thought number two was ice skating. The preschool the girls went to was right next door to an indoor rink - so they'd been a couple times. Last winter we enrolled Melinda in a class and for 8 weeks, she shuffled around learning some of the basics. OK - that should be fun.
After breakfast (I always want to make sure to get some food in their veins before suggesting we do anything), I directed, "Go make sure you've got some warm clothes for ice skating." Woo woo! Dad's the best! I love you Dad! I love skating!
Melinda hopped into her snow pants and was ready to go. Gretchen's lower lip started quivering when she realized that Mom's ebay hunt for winter wear for her had not yes panned out. No snow pants for her. Her lower lip started violently shaking when she realized that I intended to take the two of them ice skating even if she couldn't find snow pants. Hysterics started when she realized that I wasn't joking. I told her she could sit and watch Melinda and me - we were going.
Good thing I waited until she had some food in her system.
Lip still a quiver, we arrived at the ice-skating rink. Skates for three and on the ice we got.
I wanted Gretchen to have some fun, so I offered to pull her along. Nothing doing - I'll do it myself thankyou very much. Five minutes later, I gave her a little push to give her a little excitement. I think that was the only time she fell the whole time on the ice. After 10 minutes on the ice, she skated over to me and said (no lip quiver) "I want to skate until dinner time."
It's been a while since I ice-skated. 30 years since my last lesson (see aside). Loose cartilage in my chin is a testament to my skill on 1/8'' metal runners. I did ok. At the start I was a little irate - we got there 25 minutes after the 90 minute free skating started and I wanted to get my full measure of skating. 40 minutes after I got on the ice, I decided that 90 minutes is an olympic amount of time to spend on the ice. I'd be OK with 40 mintues.
The girls enjoyed themselves.
So here we are - day one of my extended weekend... What to do? The first thing I thought of was to go to the new Kohl children's Museum. To you non-Chicago folks, it's an award winning kid's museum - and they JUST opened in a new site (2X as big). I mentioned this plan to Tracey and her lower lip started quivering, "But I thought we all could go some time... Maybe we can go on Wednesday." OK, scratch that idea.
Thought number two was ice skating. The preschool the girls went to was right next door to an indoor rink - so they'd been a couple times. Last winter we enrolled Melinda in a class and for 8 weeks, she shuffled around learning some of the basics. OK - that should be fun.
After breakfast (I always want to make sure to get some food in their veins before suggesting we do anything), I directed, "Go make sure you've got some warm clothes for ice skating." Woo woo! Dad's the best! I love you Dad! I love skating!
Melinda hopped into her snow pants and was ready to go. Gretchen's lower lip started quivering when she realized that Mom's ebay hunt for winter wear for her had not yes panned out. No snow pants for her. Her lower lip started violently shaking when she realized that I intended to take the two of them ice skating even if she couldn't find snow pants. Hysterics started when she realized that I wasn't joking. I told her she could sit and watch Melinda and me - we were going.
Good thing I waited until she had some food in her system.
Lip still a quiver, we arrived at the ice-skating rink. Skates for three and on the ice we got.
I wanted Gretchen to have some fun, so I offered to pull her along. Nothing doing - I'll do it myself thankyou very much. Five minutes later, I gave her a little push to give her a little excitement. I think that was the only time she fell the whole time on the ice. After 10 minutes on the ice, she skated over to me and said (no lip quiver) "I want to skate until dinner time."
It's been a while since I ice-skated. 30 years since my last lesson (see aside). Loose cartilage in my chin is a testament to my skill on 1/8'' metal runners. I did ok. At the start I was a little irate - we got there 25 minutes after the 90 minute free skating started and I wanted to get my full measure of skating. 40 minutes after I got on the ice, I decided that 90 minutes is an olympic amount of time to spend on the ice. I'd be OK with 40 mintues.
The girls enjoyed themselves.
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