A Parents First Reaction...

...is to never believe their child was making the "right" choice.  I have been told this by other parents about their own kids many times, but I have never fully appreciated it until last Monday.  I will get to that later in the post, but first the back story.  Kendall and I had the day off Monday for MLK day.  Sidney, of course, has every day off.  In the morning, I took Kendall to her 7 year check up.  Her and the doctor have very elaborate conversations at these wellness checks.  During this particular visit, Sidney and I were joking about our family phrase to Kendall, "We cannot take you anywhere."  Kendall is VERY accident prone.  She trips over imaginary objects, falls down stairs daily and spills drinks constantly.  Sometimes we get upset, but mostly we have learned to laugh at this trait.  The doctor mentioned that he has one of those kids in his house as well.  He turned to Kendall and said, "The trick is to never fill your glass full to the top.  Always fill it half way."  I am not sure that is the ultimate solution, but she has embraced it and has taken to meticulously measuring half way as she pours her drinks.

After the doctor's appointment, I took the girls to my favorite restaurant for lunch - Andrade's.  Going to a restaurant with young children can be tricky.  One thing you can always count on is that you can NEVER count on anything.  I got lucky on Monday.  It was me and my two daughters.  We had a fantastic lunch.  They were so well behaved.  Good food and good company!

If that was not enough, I decided to really press my luck.  We picked up Hannah and headed to the ice rink.  Here are the girls stepping onto the ice.

Sidney is ready to go.

First, let's pose for a picture.  Oops, we were not quite steady on our skates yet...

Okay, now we have it.

We skated for 3 hours!  I believe the girls could have kept on going, but I was pooped.  I did not even feel like I was skating that hard, but I was tired and sore the next day.  Granted, I had tried a new Jillian Michael's workout, so I am not sure what the exact root cause of the soreness was. 

Now to the beginning of the post.  When we first got to the rink, Sidney had asked for a walker to help her skate.  I told her no, because she knows how to skate.  She skated around once holding my hand then she let go and literally said, "I do not need you anymore mom."  Nearly broke my heart, but I was happy to skate with both my hands free!  About 30 minutes before we were leaving, Sidney must have found an abandoned walker.  I spotted her skating around the rink like a mad woman.  Ten minutes after that, I saw her conversing with a man and two young boys, and she turned the walker over to the man.  Of course, I assumed the worst that she had stolen his walker and he was asking for it back.  Later that afternoon as we were driving home, I started to tease her about getting "busted" for stealing the walker.  Kendall, Hannah and Sidney simultaneously corrected me.  Sidney did not get busted at all.  She saw this man with two little boys.  The little boys did not know how to skate and were hanging on their dad.  In Sidney's words. she "figured the dad was getting very frustrated having two boys hanging on him" so she asked him if he wanted to have the walker.  What a good egg she is!  Hopefully, I have learned my lesson and will not be so quick to think the worst!