Saturday, August 27, 2005

I'll Skate, But I Won't Play Hockey...

Believe it or not, today was the first practice of the ice hockey season. R was so excited that he had a "fuzzy stomach" last night and couldn't sleep. T wasn't quite as excited....as a matter of fact, he wasn't sure if he wanted to participate at all. He said, "okay, I'll learn to skate, but I'm not going to play hockey." Okay, we thought, at least he would go for it....

Until he had been on the ice for 20 minutes and was hot.

"Mom, I'm so hot I have water dripping down my back." He yelled to me from the ice with his little head bobbing up and down in his hockey helmet and face mask (and the rest of his body hidden in full hockey gear, including a teeny tiny cup to "protect my boys.")

"That's okay, honey. That's what happens when you play a sport. You'll cool off when you're all done. Now go back out there for another 15 minutes and then you can have juice and animal crackers," I said as a teeny tiny bribe.

Big tears start rolling down his face and major crying ensued. Hmmm... If he had wanted to do this to begin with I would give him the you've-got-to-finish-what-you-start speech. But, he didn't even want this so much. So, we took him off the ice, took off his pads and equipment, and he sat with me in the stands for the rest of the lesson.

R, in the mean time, had a blast.

He was graduated from the Learn to Skate class into the Learn to Play class. This means that he's going to actually play 3-on-3 hockey at some point in the season. He's the wobbliest out there, but has an awesome I Can Do It and Put Me In Coach attitude. The coach complimented him afterwards and says that he's going to be a great hockey player some day. With a big, sweaty grin, R took a sip of his apple juice and said, "thanks coach."

3 comments:

jennavar said...

It sounds like this is going to be "R"'s thing and "T" will find something different. How nice it would be "taxi" wise to have them love the same sport. At least he gave it a good ole' try and who knows it may become enjoyable.

I can't wait to see "R" in his gear. That has to be adorable and his go get em' attitude is great!

CaliforniaGrammy said...

I love this story. My favorite parts is thinking about my four-year-old grandson has to "protect my boys!" in raising two girls I never thought about having to "protect boys" . . . usually it's protecting girls FROM boys! And then R's fabulous "I can do it" attitude and of course his reply "Thanks coach!" - Oh Mid-America-Mom . . . you have two great kids, that's for sure! But I bet, someday, maybe not this year, T will be on that ice, skating to his heart's content!

Aunt Patty said...

Sounds like R will end up being quite the hockey player someday soon. What a cutie he will be out there, especially with that attitude. Guess lil T isn't quite ready yet, maybe someday, and maybe not. Will be fun following along to see what happens. He sure doesn't like "sweat" very much that's for sure! Great story S!