Owen's ice skating adventures

Daddy took Owen skating on Saturday and again, they both had a blast! Owen seems to be getting better and more comfortable out there on the ice now. It probably helps that his skates are now sharpened. We assumed that his skates were sharp right out of the box (they even seemed pretty sharp, even to Randy's "trained" eyes). But, it wasn't until Randy had to get a new pair of skates that we realized they probably were not sharp. The first time Randy tried to play hockey after getting his new skates, he said he stepped on the ice and almost busted his tail because he "had no edge" with the unsharpened skates. So, that is when he realized that maybe this was the reason Owen wasn't gliding when we had taken him in the past and instead was "walking" on the ice. So, Randy took both pair of their skates to be sharpened and voila!, Owen is gliding on the ice more! Good job, Daddy! We hope that we will be able to get Owen into skating lessons soon...there is a session starting in March that he actually isn't old enough for, but one of Randy's old hockey buddies is going to try to get him in. I personally think that Owen's Daddy is doing a good job of teaching him all on his own ;)

As a scary funny side note...when the boys returned from their skating adventure, I took one look at Owen and said, "Wow, you must have had a really good time, you are all sweaty!" To which, Randy replied, "No, I am not really sure what that is in his hair!" I immediately rubbed my hand through his hair and realized it was definitely not water or sweat, but more of a greasy-like substance. So, like any mother would do, I smelled it to try to figure out what in the world it could be. I said, "Oh my goodness, this smells like gasoline!!" Randy looked puzzled, but then it came to him and he had an "ah-ha" moment. Apparently, Owen's helmet had been hanging in the garage under the gas can for the lawn mower and the gas can was leaking...right into the helmet!! Well, Daddy had no idea and proceeded to let Owen wear the helmet while they skated. It wasn't until we realized this that Randy figured out that must have been what was all over his shirt and jeans, too! So, Randy immediately stripped and tried to damage control on his clothes while I ran Owen upstairs for a bath. It took about 5 hair washings for me to get the smell out of his hair, but it did go away! And, with FIVE doses of stain remover and cycles in the washing machine, the gasoline came out of Randy's clothes, too. Phew, that was certainly an unexpected outcome of ice skating!!