Schwaiger Skating Follies!

This last Sunday, during all of those very important football games, we took the kids to the local ice-skating rink. They had been asking to go and I like ice-skating so we headed over there much to Hottie Husband's undeclared chagrin.

He is not a big fan of ice-skating so refuses to put skates on and instead opted to hang out with Little Bear and watch us and the TV broadcasting the football game. 

We hadn't thought to bring helmets because we had never ice skated on a real rink, only at a cool outdoor one in Downtown LA in Pershing Square at Christmastime. The older boys said they didn't want helmets, but I insisted that Toots wear one.

My back was delighted to see that they had these very cool contraptions to help new skaters.

We snatched one up for Toots right away.

He looked kind of like an old man with a walker on skates.

This cute guy was trying really hard to "get it"

but kept falling a lot and getting back up and trying again.

Very persistent.

Mister Luke tends to be a little more cautious like me and took his time, first hanging onto the wall, then using one of the skate walkers for a while and had his own share of falls.

We were planning on going to a movie afterward, so I told the kids to take one more lap around and then we would leave. Toots was tired and headed out to dad right then. Mister Luke and Jackie Boy opted to ditch the skate walkers and see how "good" they had gotten.

Do you suspect something is coming?

Oh, I am so adept at foreshadowing. 

I was about five feet behind Jackie Boy when he suddenly fell and I heard his face smack hard on the ice. He was screaming and as I turned him over, I expected to see a bloody mouth with no teeth. However, when I saw his face, there was no blood. I tried to hoist him up to move him off the ice, but he hung his head back and his eyes started to roll up into his head.

He briefly did not respond.

This was now much too reminiscent of when Jackie Boy had a seizure and I began to panic.

Panic for me involves becoming a very serious, problem solver.

At this point, solving the problem is getting my husband.

In those seconds, Mister Luke came up to check on him and I yelled, "Go get your dad."

He turned to go to the exit which was about ten feet from us.

Then, I heard screaming and looked up to see that Mister Luke was almost to the exit, but now laying on the ice screaming.

Two Down!

Good thing the one with the helmet left early!

Now, people are surrounding us and I am saying-

That one over there is mine too. Can you help him?

Then, an adorable girl who works there came up and helped us to the side and out a door to where HH and Luke are standing.

I still don't know how Mister Luke got out there.

Jackie Boy is now coherent and we discover that he took uppercut to the chin and a smack to his mouth and cheek from that concrete-like ice.

His tooth hurts.

Then, I look at Mister Luke. I lift up those luscious locks of his and discover that he has a HUGE bump on the side of his head. It was bright purple and sticking out about an inch.

Poor Guy! He looked worse than his brother who he had been trying to rescue.

They ended up with ice packs, an accident report and some gatorade.

HH checked them over and said he thought they would be fine.

I worried the whole night and checked them multiple times while they slept and vowed that they would now wear helmets no matter what sport they were playing.

I am a helmet nazi when it comes to biking and skiing and skateboarding...

and now ice-skating!

But, through the worry, there was one thing that kept making me smile and cry a little too.

That boy with the long hair who oftentimes fights with the guy next to him who is sixteen months his junior, was trying to get to his dad because he knew I was worried that something serious was wrong. In the process, he fell, hit his head hard, screamed, had people try to help him, got up on his own, went out into the lobby, fell again, got up again and made his way to his dad.

When HH saw him, and he said-Jack is hurt, HH couldn't figure out why he was crying. It wasn't until I lifted his hair that we discovered how hard he had hit his own head.

He really does love that little brother of his after all.