Party Trauma

This weekend, Elijah was invited to a skating party for a friend of his in class. Her name is Eliza. Much of the year, he's kind of had a crush on her, but not so much of late. Or he's been talkig about her less of late. But they are still friends, and he decided to go and be one of only 2 boys at the party. The issue was that Elijah had never been skating. And compounding that issue is the fact that Elijah is not a small, petite little man. With his skates on, he was as tall as I was and weighs as much as an adult - a skinny short adult, but an adult. So, though the spirit was willing, the body was weak. And like most adults, Elijah suffered from the "Oh my god! it really hurts to fall." When you learn to skate when you're little, you don't have that same problem, but for sure it's an issue when you're older. Jose and I went skating once when we first got married. And by skating i mean we paid for skates and then walked around on the carpet for about 40 minutes, looked at how slick the rink looked and then decide that it wasn't worth the long term disability that would invariably be the result of any real fall. After trying for a bit, and watching all of his friends zip by, and having 2 pretty hard falls where he really wanted to cry but couldn't because there were like 4 gazillion people there (including, in case you forgot Eliza and his friends from school) he decided to take his skates off and sit and watch. And then it happened, the flash back. Suddenly Elijah was me at any and every social event that I had ever attended -- especially the ones in which I had no transportation. And his head got lower and his face longer. So, we left, me with tears in his eyes and Elijah wondering why Eliza wasn't more upset that he was leaving... I mean she wasn't upset at all, did you see that mom? She didn't even say goodbye really. The important part is that he was happier when we were walking out than when he was sitting there. And I so remembered that sense of relief of finally being able to leave a place where I didn't feel like I fit in and was embarrassed or unhappy. And even though it was a little awkward, in the long run, I'd do it every time. And then we invited his friend Riley over to spend the night, and all of it was cast aside and forgotten...by Elijah at least. And Isaiah. He spent most of his time pretending to fall, because when you are only 2 inches off the ground, falling is a bit like riding a roller coaster. Or maybe he was trying to help Elijah feel less awkward. But when he really fell, hard, on his butt, he crawled right on over to me to rub it and was ready to go when we were.