When I was six years old, my parents took me to a roller skating rink for the first time. It was awesome. I was enthralled by all the big people who could spin around the floor like circus performers. There were people who could go backward, forward, in circles and I wanted to be just like them.
A friend of my parents was there that night and took me on the floor, holding my hands and leading me around the floor. He skated backwards and let me get used to the feel of the wheels on my feet and how to keep my legs straight and stay off my butt.
By the end of the night, I swore this guy had taught me to skate.
I got a pair of skates for my next birthday and skated from one corner of the kitchen to the other, over and over again. It should be noted that my mom's kitchen was maybe 8'x 8'.
I thought I was one of the best skaters EVER.
Alyssa's been roller skating three times in her life. She loves it as much as I did when I was her age.
We had a roller skating party for her this weekend to celebrate her eighth birthday. We invited several friends from her school and it was a blast.
Even after only two previous visits to roller rinks, Alyssa was a natural. Sure, she fell a lot, but she kept getting up and skating on.
She's a chip off the old roller skate, I guess.
Her perserverence amazes me. She's so quick to laugh at her own falls, so fast to hop right back up and skate away, giggling at her own graceful falls.
The skating rink was quiet today during her party. It wasn't a private party but there were really only a few other people there other than the party invitees.
Most of the kids there were first or second timers and it was exhausting keeping track of which kid had just fallen, which one was tired of skating after only a half hour and which one was tired.
But I'd do it all over against next year just to see Alyssa's flushed, smiling fast after three hours of rolling around and around and around that floor.
She had a blast and I'm so grateful that life has led us to a point where we can do things like this for and with her.
A mom, a dad and two daughters. We're living ordinary lives with a twist of 5p- (Cri du Chat) for spice. But we're about so much more than our younger daughter's genetic diagnosis.
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