Skating magic in New York

Worn out after an hour's skating

Monday afternoon, the happiest mom and daughter walked home through the West Village's small streets where trees have mangled the pavement and where the narrow houses' front stair cases seem to invite for a rest. Zoe proclaimed excitedly "Mommy, today I didn't just get two new friends, I got three new friends!". It had been her first day of kindergarten and everything had been going well. She was welcomed and quickly became popular. Two days later, as I dropped her off in the morning, a girl ran over to Zoe, looking at her with admiring eyes and grabbed her hand. Her mom, introduced herself: "Kathy talks about Zoe all the time", she said and I knew we have a good situation going. Zoe was the new cool kid.

After Zoe begging me for days, today we went ice skating. It turns out that it is not necessary to pay 70+$ for access and rental at the Rockefeller center, instead you pay 30$ for two pair of skates at the free rink at Bryant Park. And you go on a weekday afternoon when it is drizzling so the rink is not crowded. The best thing was that they had little 'helper penguins' that Zoe could hold on to while skating, which made her much more confident and just when we were about to leave, she said "let me try without the penguin" (she has only been on ice skates exactly twice before). She went off and was able to skate on her own. I was in awe. She was excited and proud. I promised her to buy a pair of used skates so we can come back at least once per week before Christmas.

Flybaby is here and it is magic.