Here is our latest adventure, and a wonderful example of why my husband is nuttier than a holiday fruitcake...
My nephew Alex recently introduced the boys to skateboarding. Well, rewind a few months to when my sister had the grand idea of buying the boys their first skateboards for their second birthay. Because a skateboard is just what every two year old needs, right? To be fair, they were Fischer Price "grow with me" skateboards that could start out with a wide wheel base and a handle that made it more of a scooter than skateboard.
About a month ago, Jon was showing the boys some clips from Flying Wild Alaska, a show about bush pilots in rural Alaska. In between the scenes of airplanes was a segment featuring John Ponts, a bush pilot and ex-professional skateboarder, while he and his skateboarding buddies built some skate ramps for the native Alaskan kids in his town. The boys fell in love, and we proceeded to watch that clip approximately 1, 914, 226 times in the next few weeks. The boys have these tiny little "tech deck" finger skateboards, curtosey of their cousin Alex, and they immediately took to standing on them and "skateboarding" around the house from morning 'til night. A few weeks ago, I returned home from work to find the boys riding these skateboards down a ramp Jon had ever so cleaverly constructed in our living room! Again, to be fair, he did strategically place pillows on the hardwood floor.
The boys quickly outgrew the makeshift living room ramp. At least for the number of pillows we had. So two weeks ago we decided to let cousin Alex take them to the skate park. Yup, two year olds at a skatepark! It was 32 degrees outside, probably even colder being that we were right next to the Detroit River, and we had to put 5 layers on each kid. But I'll be damned, they spent 2 and 1/2 hours out there!!! They were amazed by Alex and his friend Perez and by the other "big kids" at the park. The "big kids" were quite impressed with them too!! Here was their first day at the skatepark (and their third day on their boards!)
Of course, Jon couldn't just leave it at that. Its much too cold to be hitting the outdoor skatepart regularly, and the boys are apparently too young for any of the indoor ones... so what's the next logical thing to do? Yup, you got it! The most logical thing to do is to build your two year olds their very own half-pipe in the playroom upstairs! Jon started on Saturday afternoon, and by Sunday evening, we were ready to roll!!! Cousin Alex came over to help, we strapped on their helments, and the Paddock Brothers Indoor Skate Park went live! We laughed so hard we cried... for two straight hours!!! The boys took some amazing spills but got up laughing and asking for more each and every time. I'm not sure if they have no fear or no common sense. Or a good hearty combination of both.... but man are these kids TOUGH! I'd place my money on them being the only two year olds with a half-pipe in their playroom. Only when you're a Paddock :)
No comments:
Post a Comment