King of the Ice

As much as is reasonable we let F pick his own activities. Sometimes there's a veto if it's not age appropriate or budget and schedule friendly, but overall he gets to do the extracurricular stuff he wants to do.

Back in preschool F's class went ice skating once a month. He. Loved. It. I checked out ice skating classes at the time and we had a schedule conflict. This fall there was a new schedule and since he's a little older he qualifies for more classes ergo more available time slots. He started in November and is now into his first full session of skating lessons.

F's a hoot on ice. From my perch outside the rink it appears his two favorite things are skating backwards and running into the boards. Perhaps he'll opt for hockey soon.

This afternoon we got a flier from school for the local youth baseball and volleyball leagues. F's expressed interest in playing these sports so I offered him up a choice. Skating, baseball, OR volleyball. After trying to talk me into letting him do them all, then "...maybe just two of them, Mommy?" he quickly opted for skating. I was a bit surprised, the pull of baseball has been strong.

After lessons I let him free skate for a while and that kiddo boogied around the ice chock full of confidence. He may choose alternative sports and activities, but dang it he's having a really good time.

Busy Boy

Before school started Travis and I had some lengthy dicussions about the volume of activities FFM wanted to do. This child would be happy if he were in some organized group activity every day. However, we parents opt for at least a couple days off.

Swimming is going well.  After seeing the swimmers at the Olympics this summer FFM 'borrowed' my swim cap and now wears it for every lesson. He's refining his strokes and hopes to be on a summer league swim team next summer.

Piano is where he really excels. I'm constantly stunned at his skill and persistence for practice. He gets frustrated when he can't learn a piece in a couple of reads; this semester of piano he's been challenged by longer and more complicated pieces and he's learning to keep going instead of just quitting if it's too hard the first time. This fall FFM inherited my grandma's piano and it was barely in the door when he started playing it.

Somewhere FFM learned about choir and Sunday School so we've become pretty regular church goers. He sings at least once a month in service-our church is very musical with several choirs, bells, 3 piece combos, orchestra, and more. This weekend he sang in the angel choir for the Annual Advent Pageant. He loves choir and manages to be in the front row AND wear a tie for every performance. Notice he is surrounded by girls...perhaps one reason he likes choir so much?

Right before Thanksgiving FFM started 6 weeks of ice skating lessons. I really like this activity because it's on Saturday morning and Travis gets to take him. I tag along occasionally and try to stay warm while we watch him master basic skills like gliding, going backwards, and making tiny jumps. Soon we'll trade ice skating for ski school, just as soon as some snow arrives.

Even after all this FFM wants to go to more.  The school sends home fliers for after school activites every couple of weeks and the latest one was for a ceramics class. FFM asked to do it, and after even more discussion we said OK. Last Tuesday was the first day of class and as I stood in front of the school at 5pm waiting to pick him up I thought about how strange it was to be at school in the dark. When we got all loaded into the car FFM admitted, "Mom, I had a really great day today but it was LONG!" I was concerned it was too long a day but he was adamant about continuing. Mr. Social Butterfly had a grand time and can't wait to go back.