One of D and E's teachers has a frozen pond. They have invited us to skate three times but Jeff wants to go every day. Both big kids have made amazing progress on skates. We actually played a broomball game on hockey skates where each "left it all on the ice" so to speak. They each fell at least 50 times. Many very painful looking spills with legs caught underneath, impaling themselves on brooms, helmeted heads bouncing off of the ice, but they each got right back up to battle for the ball. After the first day we were smart enough to get them all geared up with full hockey equipment and they were ready to fall 1000 times without pain. The large drawback was that each had to go the bathroom multiple times. I contemplated just telling D to go ahead and pee her pants. It was about 5 degrees and she had bib snow pants with hockey pants and full shin guards over top. On ice skates in an open pond. However, they both did great so I guess we are now ready for the most dire potty emergency. As the afternoon wore on, E's confidence level soared as he ran across the ice on skates, flinging brooms and arms and legs everywhere wreaking havoc on opponents. D's positioning was inspired as she learned the art of cherry picking, calling to her Dad "Daddy, here I am!" She never stopped swatting even after she hit the ice. Many proud parental moments. The other adults present made comments like "wow, your kids are resilient". What an understatement. L slept through most of it, except for the ride across the ice in her car seat. Sledding/snowboarding on the sled hill today with Dad produced a thumbs up from D who reported, "it was so funny when I almost ran into the pole." and a thumb partially down and partially up from E who said, "I was good on the small hill on my snowboard, but I didn't like when I fell off the sled and the snow was all over my skin so I cried."

Still pumping, but almost fell off of the wagon yesterday. I envisioned smashing the pump into tiny pieces and then lopping off my searing boobs. There is a statue in Cochabamba Bolivia dedicated to the brave women of that town who fought off the Europeans with frying pans and when that didn't work, they chopped off their breasts and threw them at the invaders. I forget exactly how this ended but it couldn't have been a good outcome for the women. It was either really brave or really stupid. I think it was probably both. Brave and stupid. That's a good way to describe what I am doing to myself. Flan, I am ready for the pep talk about all of the health benefits this is going to afford to me and L.