Never Give Up

Taris never ceases to amaze me. This year Taris will be in skating lessons. As a part of being in the Skating Club all members were asked to take part in the annual Skate-a-Thon. Each participant collects pledges as a fundraisier for the club. Seeing as Taris hadn't skated this year we thought it best to take her out Friday for her first skate before the Skate-a-Thon, which was today (Sunday).

So Friday morning off we went, skates in tow, to the rink. Larrie and Taris laced them up while Darcie and I were to be the cheering section. Now, a little background, by the end of last year Taris could in fact skate by herself. Fast forward to this year, she's only three, and she seemed to forget that she could do this. She's very funny in the fact that her mood went from estatic "I'm doing it!", to absolutely miserable..."I hate skating, I'm never doing this again."...this being when she would fall. We explained over and over that EVERYONE falls when they are learning to skate, yes, even Dad falls sometimes. By the end of the skate she could make it a little way to her dad without holding on. The only problem that arose was that her ankle hurt. Thinking it was just her sock, we called it a morning. Turns out she aquired a nasty blister on the inside of her ankle.

This morning Larrie doctored up her blister with second skin and band-aids in preparation for the big event. Today was my turn to skate with her, so we got our skates on and headed onto the ice. Right away she complained that her ankle hurt. I basically told her to suck it up, it couldn't be that bad, right? After about 5 minutes of whining I finally relented and siad that she didn't have to skate. Well, apparantly that was not an option, she was going to skate. We went down to the dressing room to make a little cushion of kleenex for her ankle. You might say I felt pretty bad when I took her skate off and her tights were soaked through with blood. Taris, being the determined little thing she is, still wanted to skate, so we stuffed some kleenex in there and back to the ice we went. She made it another 10 or so minutes (even without holding on for a bit) before she said it was 'kind of' starting to hurt again. I told her she could stop now and I got the reply...."No, I can do it, I won't give up" So after 5 more minutes or I finally conviced her that we could go get a hotdog and slushy and just watch. She finally relented and after removing the now bloodied kleenex up we went for snacks.

I have no doubt in my mind that this little girl will be skating in no time. As she watched the bigger kids skate she said "Look at those kids, they don't fall" and pushed away the little bar she was holding so she could skate by herself. I think she's one of those kids that will be stubborn enough that when she puts her mind to something, she will do it!

As a bonus Taris also received a prize for third highest pledges raised!

So it ended up being a good day, but we definitely have to magic up something for her ankle as lessons begin tomorrow! (I think new skates may be in order...and I have a sneaky suspicion she's going to want white skates, not the black ones her mom wants her to get!)