The Supers

The Supers
Our growing superfamily

Saturday, May 1, 2010

I’ve Got a Brand-New Pair of Roller-skates, You’ve Got a Brand-New Key

Marcus is enrolled in gymnastics, and it’s his first time without parent participation. Instead they have a balcony that the parents can sit on and adore their little prize gymnasts from afar. The first time up the stairs I noticed a sign that warned: “PARENTS—do not call out to your child on the gym floor. This could result in a fall and/or injury!” I thought they must have put that sign up because the adoring parents must be calling encouragement and blowing kisses to their kids. HAHAHAHA! I get it now.

At this time, I’d like to openly apologize to all the other gym participants. Watching your child behave like you’re not around when you ARE around is torturous. They have the kids go through this series of stations in a circuit, and Marcus just by-passes any of the stations he doesn’t deem interesting. He’ll run past a station and cut right in front of some kid to get on the trampoline. I can actually lip-read the kid going, “HEEEYYYYYY!” and I see him with his hands out, palms up, as if what he’s really thinking is “WTF?!” I saw Marcus go running past a kid and he pat the kid on the head as he went by. I’m pretty sure he was patronizing the poor little dude. Seriously, if that sign had not been there, I’d be up on the balcony screeching, “MARCUS! GET BACK IN LINE! Stop BUDGING!!!!” But no. Parents are strongly encouraged to not parent while in the gymnastics studio. It’s like some Twilight Zone experiment where parents are shown what kind of little turkeys their kids are when they’re not being over-parented. The sign doesn’t say anything about chucking paper balls at their heads...

The little rock star has been expressing an interest in roller skates for the past couple of months. As in, “Mommy, how old will I be when I get roller skates?” and “(big sigh) I sure would real would like some roller skates.”

David had dropped by Liquidation World last week and saw they had some of those great old-school roller skates that strap on to the outside of running shoes for $8. Sold! On Thursday I picked up a pair for each of the kids, thinking ‘how hard could it be?’ Winnie Pooh-Pooh ones for Skyler, and for Marcus: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He’s never seen the show, but I was pretty sure he’d love the idea, and I was right. He spends an inordinate amount of time bent over the skates, studying the characters. Today he was staring intently at his toes and then says, “But Mommy, I don’t know any of their names!” My poor, poor, underprivileged son. How could I have been so neglectful?!

The roller skates seemed like such a good idea, but I didn’t realize how much negotiation or work would be involved. First, he was upset that he wasn’t allowed to bring them inside to sleep with them. Then, he came into our bed at 7am and suggested we head outside. 7. In the morning. So I talked him down to 9am, and for the next two hours listened to him ask about it EVERY FOUR MINUTES. As in, “I’m pretty sure the clock says 9 now, Mommy,” (7:45) and “I think the little hand is on the 9 now! Yep, it’s on the 9!” (8:35). Then the ordeal of getting on the elbow and knee pads, skates and helmet. Oh, and of COURSE if Marcus is wearing his roller-skates, Skyler simply MUST wear hers as well. And, if Skyler is wearing her roller-skates, she has to cling desperately to both my hands so she doesn’t splay herself out on the driveway. Marcus falls so many times, hard, on his bum, but he LOVES it. Interestingly enough, he does much better with a hockey stick in his hand. There ya go, Daddy. It does run in your blood.

Marcus felt that it would be a really great idea to wear his skates to the park. The park he suggested has a little bike path around the exterior, which is what I thought he had in mind, but clearly we were not on the same page. When we got to the park, he started heading towards the playground equipment wearing his roller-skates. Hmmm. I have to admit, there was a tiny little part of me that for one moment considered it (how cool would it have been if he could have managed to go down a slide, standing, with roller-skates?!), but I quickly came to my senses and talked him out of his skates. The park was not a big hit that day.

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad you have this blog. These stories are so great. Your kids are going to have such a hoot when (and if) you allow them to read this when they're older.

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