Watching Skating

Stitch typically does not like to watch ice skating. He likes to skate. Which was why I hesitated when Coach suggested that I get IceNetwork and have him watch the Trophee de Bompard (or something), an event of the Senior Grand Prix of skating. But I did it anyway. I figured I could watch the events that we missed while I cook Thanksgiving or sew. Last night I turned on the NHK Trophy while we ate dinner.

Stitch watched between making little notebooks from a larger, preshredded notebook. "These people skate better than me," was his first line of commentary.

I said yes, but they had also been skating for many years, most of them starting right at the age he was now. And all of them started out doing swizzles.

He watched for awhile, and then some truly ridiculous costumes came on and I couldn't resist. "What is this? It looks like a box of band aids barfed all over him. Who is this guy? He looks like Ming the Merciless."

Stitch loves it when I go off like this. He was laughing and watching and not liking the slow choices of music. "Too slow, too corny," he would say. Then he came out with: "I want to win the NHK Trophy."

"Well, if you do decide to try for it, I won't dress you like a science fiction villain."

He then started asking, nay, demanding to go downstairs to jump rope and do stretches. Coach has indicated that he needs to do stretches at home. Obviously she told Stitch as well as me. When I've tried this in the past, Stitch didn't take it seriously, so I stopped. But this time, Stitch dutifully jumped rope forward and back (with limited success but he's getting better) and tolerated the stretching with a minimum of complaints. The basement was big and we echoed loudly, but as it's winter and cold out, this was the best option. We used the bike rack as a ballet barre and the stains on the floor for jumping exercises. I'll bring down some chalk next time and he can do dot drills.

We came back upstairs and watched the awards ceremony for the men. Stitch was upset that Jeremy Abbott took second and not first. I rolled my eyes and put him to bed. Dream big, Stitch.