ok, i finally have a moment to write about ava's skate competition. approximately 3 weeks ago, ava had her fist skating competition. the weeks that led up to it were filled with an unbelievable amount of parental stress that we tried desperately to hide from ava--between figuring out how to transfer a family of 5 one of whom was a newborn, plus a coach, plus assorted gear approximately 5 hours south for 3 days, and making sure ava was ready to actually compete, and trying to figure out for ourselves exactly what this would entail (not to mention fretting about the hotel room reservation, what the exact color of ava's tights should be, and remembering to buy bobby pins and hair nets, and worrying if ava would pull it off) we were sort of nervous. however, ava was not. she dutifully went to practice every day, and did her routine over and over and over again. the prep was rather intense for her, yet she never batted an eye. towards the end several of her peers atarted saying "i hope you win!...i hope you get a gold medal!...etc" and this created a bit of a snafu when ava internalized this and started pressuring herself. so we very quickly did some emergency sports psychology and intervened with our own mantras: this is supposed to be fun--that is the most important part--if you go out there, have fun, do everything you have been taught, then it will be a success. winning is not the point, and so on.

on the thursday before the competition, ava stayed home from school, and while carter was at pre-k, we loaded up our stuff. the kids and i left lake placid at 11 am, and moseyed on down to darien, ct, on the way picking up her coach at the albany airport. at 8 pm we arrived at the hotel. the 5-hour drive took us 9 hours, but it was accomplished without any major meltdowns. after a mandatory swim and dinner, the kids crashed at 10 pm. very late for them. like 3 hours late. and then at 6 am we were up, because the only practice ice was at 7 am. ava grumbled about it, but once she was on the ice, she was focused. she was out there with 25 other very big, very advanced skaters and she held her own, doing her spiral right through all of their spins nad jumps, never flinching. i, on the other hand, cannot watch that chaos. at least with riding, there is a set protocol as to who goes where--who takes the outside line, etc. here it is just a free for all. after about 20 minutes she was ready for swimming and breakfast so we headed home and got the most bizzare roomservice and nearly blinded the kids with the chlorine in the pool. it was a beautiful day so we went to the norwalk aquarium which was generally a success, but since the kids were so incredibly tired we had a few meltdowns here and there. nothing ice cream and chicken tenders couldn't fix. that afternoon nana arrived, and so we then had 3 adults for 3 children. a beautiful ratio. peter arrived later, after the kids had fallen asleep

early to bed and early to rise the next morning, and ava awoke with a very obvious sense of purpose. i did not have to ask her to do anything--we just got ready for the competition. we got to the arena, and ava and lorna headed off to get ready and get on the practice ice. ava never wavered--it was like she had done it a billion times before. carter, anna, peter and i went to the snack bar, where peter's nerves were obviously influencing him--he was an absolute bundle of tension, so i made every effort to find things to do. i figured leaving him alone was for the best. ava finished her practice, came off the ice, ate breakfast and got ready for the start of her first event. she was in the first event of the day, and ended up being the first skater too. they have a 5-minute warm up where the competitors all go out together, then they come off the ice and the first skater stays on to do her program. so, ava was literally the first skater on the new ice--as they announce the warm up, they announce the kids, and so ava was the first to step out, leading her group around the perimeter of the rink. here she was, at least 10 inches smaller than any of the other girls in her official lake placid jacket, leading the pack around. then they all dispersed to do their thing, and then it was time for ava to go. i was truly shaking with nerves. they announced her and she went to her spot in the rink, her music started and she did one of the most beautiful programs i have yet to see her do. and lo and behold, the audience clapped for her too! she hit every element, and was poised and beautiful. at the very end, right before her final spin she sat down, and yet she got right up again, finished her spin and her routine, curtseyed and was done. i could not believe how well she had done. she did not forget anything, she did everything very well, and was like a tiny professional. it was pretty obvious that the other skaters were more advanced than she was and that she would probably not place in the top 3, so we did not make a big deal out of results and just whisked everyone to the hotel to jump in the pool. after a long swim, a change of outfits and some lunch at wendy's, we went back to the competition. while she and lorna were getting ready, i snuck a peek at the results. she came in 6th, however, one of the judges had ranked her 1st. (how they figure out the final rankings is very confusing). i was beside myself with pride. so i ran off to tell lorna and let her tell ava--i was sure it would confuse her that she got a 1st from 1 judge but still did not get a medal. this really energized both of them, and they finished getting ready for ava's second event, "interpretive" -- this is a clever event, where the coaches are not allowed anywhere near the kids--all of the kids go on the ice and are presented with a piece of music chosen by the event staff. they hear it 2ce, and then they are all ushered off the ice. then they are put somewhere where they cannot see or hear the competition (in this case outside) and each skater comes in one by one and hears the music one more time before they go out on the ice and make up a routine to it. it is judged not on how many jumps etc the skater does, but how well they interpret the music. ava sat all the way on the other side of the rink, all by herself, and when she went on the ice for the first listen the song ended up being one that she had practiced to at home. this was superb. as she listened the first time, she did not skate--she just watched the other girls. then she started to put some stuff together for the second listen. then when it was her turn, she went out there and skated beautifully, doing one of the best spirals i have ever seen her do. she included all of the things lorna told her that she had to do (change of direction etc), and ended it exactly at the same time as the music. we erupted in cheers. 20 minutes later, they posted the results, and ava got 2nd place. so she medaled, got to stand on the podium, and was beside herself with pride.

by 4 pm, we loaded everyone into the cars, and by 10 pm we were home. with the help of several disney dvds...

it was a smashing success. when i asked her how she liked competing, she said "I LOVE IT."