3/14/07 Motivating Julian

Skating Day! Julian picked up where he left off last week, both in skating and in whining and complaining. I backed off trying to get him to skate on his own, as he seems to need the security of holding my hand, or even just my finger. So mostly I tried to just keep him moving and skating to get more comfortable.

And, I found the key -- then another one! One key was to make songs up, such as the "march march march" song, to which we pick up our feet (and as a result, skate) as we sing. "The Snail and The Mouse" from Music Together was also a great song game ("slowwwly slowwlly...quicklyquickly!").

The other major key to Julian was the plastic balls the teachers spread out on the ice to chase and kick, which he loved to do. It's not easy to kick a ball from an ice skates, as my tailbone discovered painfully today!! But Julian was pretty good at it, and after kicking a ball, he'd instinctively chase after it, forgetting about the skating part. He was actually gliding for several feet at a time in his pursuit of the ball, which is more than Gabriel ever did in 6 classes.

I tried to capture a video, but it was pretty hard since he wouldn't let me let go of his hand, and because after he kicks the ball, he scrambles after it!


The balls gave me a pang of guilt that we were doing what I wanted to do (skate), not what he loves to do (soccer). Nevertheless, I'm having far more fun with Julian in skating than I did with Gabriel, whose resistance was a lot harder to chip away with distracting games.

Toward the end of the class, Julian got tired and started complaining a lot, so I got him to sit on a bench for a few minutes while I skated upright to work the kinks out of my back, which had been leaning over for almost an hour helping him skate.

After skating, I dropped Julian back off at Tonya's. Katrina was napping, so I left her with Tonya for the remaining hour. Perfect! I zipped off to the Y and did some treadmill time and a curtailed workout before zooming back to Tonya's to pick up Julian and Katrina, then Gabriel. I am so loving the Y, especially that it's just minutes away from everything.

I arrived home tired, sweaty, hungry, and completely overloaded with all three of them needing something from me. It's amazing how we lower our standards as moms. In the old days, I wouldn't have dreamed of getting changed into regular clothes without taking a shower first. Nowadays, I'm grateful just to get changed at all!

I'm sorry to say that hard afternoons have become a trend I dread. Thankfully Katrina took a decent nap this afternoon, allowing me to get a few little things done, but come dinner-making bath-bedtime, it was all hard labor. She's not quite ready for bed, but is also grouchy enough that I either have to carry her or listen to her cry, which is intensely stressful. I had to either carry her, or quickly rush around packing all two-handed chores into the few minutes I might have before she starts to fuss.

At least the boys were pretty good tonight. Dave had to work late again, so it was the third night in a row of putting all three to bed single-handedly. I've got to do something differently, that shouldn't be such a heavy load.

Weird kid comment of the day: Gabriel: "Mommy, I wish I had four ears!"

Funny kid comment of the day: Gabriel again, echoing me, said laughingly to Katrina, who'd started to fuss after a long period of being happy, "Do you have something in your diaper I should know about?!"

3/14/07