The latest with the boys is their new-found love-affair with rollerblading. I swear, if it isn’t one sport, it’s another. No sooner was their winter obsession with basketball waning that these rollerblades were appearing. Appearing over, and over, and over again. These things seem to come and go with the seasons. It is as if the boys — on cue — switch sports right in tune with Mother Nature. The craziest (and scariest) part of this early-spring-rollerblading-thing is that the rollerblades they are using are Braydon’s and mine from years back when we lived in Boston. They had been sitting quietly unused in the basement for all of these years… until K & O discovered them. Inspired by the Olympics (ice hockey, speed skating, ice dancing & luge, ski jumping, and snowboarding too), the boys thought they had just hit the jackpot when they realized that these rollerblades were just ready and waiting. So, not only are these rollerblades really old and outdated (like, over a dozen years old and outdated), but they are way way way too big for the boys’ feet. No matter (at least not to them). The boys could not care any less. They love them and have been rollerblading for long stretches of time every single day. They play hockey on them in the garage. They play “speed skating” on a chalk-drawn “course” that they drew in the driveway (they *are* Apolo Anton Ohno!). They do “tricks” (i.e., figure skating), and they race at crazy-fast (scary scary scary) speeds down the hill of our neighbor Emily’s driveway (i.e., some sort of creative blend of short track speed skating / luge / ski jumping / snowboard cross. At first I had hoped that this was just a passing phase (rolling around like madmen on the waaaaay oversized rollerblades), but it seems to be sticking. Sticking hard. I seriously foresee this being their activity of choice for the next six months of spring and summer. And because it is just so incredibly dangerous for them to be riding around on these things (ankles flopping around, feet sliding forward and backward, rollerblades way too heavy for their 50-pound bodies), Braydon and I are probably going to have to bite the bullet and buy them their own (i.e., safe) properly-fitting, updated for this millennium, rollerblades. We talked about maybe trying to wait until their birthday (‘we could give them rollerblades as their birthday present this year!?’), but we don’t think we can wait that long. We’ve already had one broken bone this year (Owen, collar bone) and I do not want to have any others. I see a trip to the sports’ store in our future. Our near future.
Watch out, they might be the next Shani Davis!!!