Happy days. Cold enough for ice and snow, but not cold enough for frostbite and human hybernation. Yeah! Yesterday morning, Aidan and I got the entire brood dressed for the snow and headed outside, all before the ripe hour of 8:00 a.m. Caelah burrowed (...into an elaborate "fort" co-built during bus waits by she and daddy.) Elijah shoveled. And Gabriel sat. He seemed pleased just to be there.
We went out under the guise of "seeing Caelah off." But really, we had big plans. The moment we saw her little pink hat disappear from view on the big yellow bus, we strapped the boys into the stroller and headed to the canal for our first skate together of the season. Had Caelah known we were going skating, she never would have stepped onto that bus. These tactics will grow stale soon. She's too bright.
Perfect skating conditions: warm enough for light dressing, few people sharing the ice with us, smooth ice, and big fat snowflakes falling from the sky. The kind that land in perfect condition--tiny little ice stars clinging to our clothes. It also marked an initiation-- Gabriel's first "skate." Just another link in the chain of our canal saga. Aidan and I LOVE the place.
We courted on the ice. At the beginning, we skated hand-in-hand over and over and over again. Often, Aidan would skate backwards for ten minutes at a time so he could look me in the face as we skated, and it felt like we were dancing. We would speak about our plans and hopes between glides, and continue the chats over beer at a pub nearby, our cheeks rosy, and our hair all amess.
The canal was to be the site of our engagement. Aidan had wanted to lead me to Patterson Creek-- a tiny alcove of ice off the main canal. A perfect place. But I, not knowing his intentions, and deeply upset by the day's events, obstinately refused to go skating that evening. So he settled for a bench across from the Parliament buildings. No putting him off.
Since then, we have not lived more than four blocks from the canal. Caelah was bundled into a stroller at two weeks of age and taken onto the ice. Then came Elijah, and the push to buy a double stroller so that he too could join our skates. And now, with Gabriel, we must be more creative.
Soon, we will move away. Far beyond our comfortable four block canal radius. But we'll be back. And our little fledglings will be skating on their own, discovering the joys of ice for themselves.
