Hockey Tryouts 2.0

Remember last year when Sam had to tryout for hockey for the first time, and I was a mess, but ultimately he made a team and had a great season? Turns out, that crazy mother tryout anxiety doesn't go away just because you're pretty sure your kid is going to make the team. Sam had his tryouts for next season last Sunday. He will always be in the first session of tryouts because of our last name, and I saw more than one parent/child combo from later sessions there early to check out the drills, which is smart but annoying. We were both so much less nervous than last year, though, and I thought he had a pretty good showing at his session. There was a little too much talking on his part, I thought, but he performed the drills well and seemed to be paying attention most of the time. But the week between then and when we got his team placement email was excruciating.

Last year there were six teams, and they were ranked 1 though 6. Sam was on team 4 last year, and his big goal was to move up two spots, even though I bet he would have been happy with moving up one spot. Unfortunately, the organization decided to change things up this year and not tell us until after tryouts. This year they are having one elite team, and then the rest of the teams are sort of evened out, with a mixture of older and younger kids. All of the teams in our region are moving to this sort of system, and while I think it will be good for player development, it would have been nice to know this info ahead of time. The look on Sam's face when I tried to explain that he didn't really move up or down really bummed me out. Plus, he only has one friend from last year on his team, and I think he was really hoping that more of his old team mates would be on his new team. We had a really, really awesome group of kids and parents, and we all kind of wanted to stick together. But since they were all fairly skilled, they had to be split up to keep the teams evened out. BUT! We'll just have to bring that special awesomeness from our last team and spread it around to our new team.

No matter what, I think Sam's final season as a mite is going to be a great one!

Wrapping Up

It's that time of year again when all things are coming to an end. Tomorrow is Fred's last day of toddler class, and Maggie is finished in a week. (Side note: Sam and Lucy have to go until June 13th and they are PISSED about this.) Hockey is finished except for tryouts on Sunday morning, and music class and ice skating classes are coming to an end as well.

Maggie will mostly miss the playground and her music teacher

Lucy passed her level 2 ice skating test and declared herself ready for the olympics

Throughout the courses of these lessons and classes I have met some very nice people, and I was thinking about how to continue seeing them occasionally with them without being too weird. Because I only know them as Emily's Mom or Thalia's Mom, but they seem cool, so I want to try and maintain some sort of connection, but not come on too strong, you know? Mom dating. Luckily I have experience with these sorts of things! Some of my very best friendships were the direct result of stalking other moms who seemed fun. I gave out my number three times in the past few days, and scheduled one playground playdate, so hopefully by the fall I will have widened my circle a little more! 

Our Family On Ice

A few weeks ago I took Freddie to a 'mommy and me' stick time session at our rink, cementing his position as youngest first time ice skater in our family! To be fair, I may have been younger, but I don't remember. I'll be gracious and give him the title. Last year I took Maggie for the first time, Lucy started when she was three as well, and Sam went for the first time on his third birthday, but then didn't go again for over a year. Fred got on the ice a few weeks shy of his third birthday, and he cried most of the time. In his defense, later on that night he came down with a fever, so I think he was already feeling crummy. That first day he didn't manage to do much besides push a bucket a few feet around the door, and even that was done only through bribery with a twix bar. Last Friday, however, he did much better. He was feeling better, so that helped. And his pappy came along, which was very fun for him. He was still pushing a bucket, but he did several laps around the rink at a pretty good clip. In fact, he was comparing himself to Turbo the snail, and he kept saying 'left turn!' as we would round the corners. (If you haven't seen the movie Turbo than this means nothing to you, but be assured it was as cute as hell.) 

I usually make a video of Sam skating at the end of each hockey season, but he's too fast for me now. I tried at a public session back at the beginning of February, but he kept getting lost in the crowd because I couldn't keep up with him. He can really move when he wants to. His hockey skills have grown a lot this year, too, but I'm glad he has one more season as a mite because he needs to work on his listening skills. Plus he'll be a giant next season, and that might be fun for him. Back at Christmastime I got a quick video of him before he got away from me. He is in the orange coat...

Lucy has passed her first figure skating skills test with flying colors, which surprises me not at all! Back when she was skating regularly, she always seemed to pick things up a little faster than Sam. She hasn't been on the ice nearly as much last year and this year, but it only took a week or two for her to get right back into things! She has been asking for one of those sparkly, twirly figure skating costumes, but has no desire for her own skates. I told her she would be getting her own white skates first, because the pretty costume wouldn't look as nice with her brown rental skates. She was not happy with me. 

Maggie also graduated to the next level of ice skating class. She was in a tot prep class, also know as the bucket class, but in the next session she will be in the snowplow Sam class! She is very excited about the name of the class, but less excited about the lack of buckets used in said class. We also took her to the mommy and me stick time last week, and she was appropriately adorable. However, I don't think hockey is her thing. She was holding the stick upside down the whole time. 

SOB still has never gone skating. He is, and will always will be, the undisputed oldest first time skater in our family.

Some footage of Fred pushing a bucket with a little Maggie bonus!

Kids Who Play Hockey Have Parents Who Play Hockey

When I was a kid I was at the ice rink several days a week. My mom worked there, so we went along with her most of the time. I skated each weekend, sometimes at multiple sessions. I met one of my very best friends there when I was 11, and we still keep in touch today. Once I went to college, though, I hung up my skates. Not intentionally, but just because other things got in the way. I don't even think I took skates with me when I moved to Philly. The first time I skated after that was on Sam's third birthday, and it was shaky. Once we moved to Morgantown, I began skating more often with Lucy at her 'hockey' practice and now I'm skating several times a week with Sam's team. Add in the occasional public session with the kids, and I'm feeling pretty good about my skating ability.

My hockey ability? Now that's another story. When I'm at practice with Sam and we have to demonstrate something, I usually hang back. The other coaches on our team (we have SIX) all played or currently play hockey, so I've never been confident enough to step up. I mean, I think I can do most of the maneuvers we do in practice, but do I really want to try them out for the first time in front of a bunch of kids who think I know what I'm doing? Nope. No thanks! Not today.

What to do, then? Luckily, the answer was revealed to me in an email from our local rec center. A women's hockey clinic, for all skill levels, running for eight weeks. I ran out, bought myself a purple practice jersey (of course) and didn't sleep for days, I was so anxious. I got there extra early on my first day (of course) and began suiting up. I had put on all of my equipment the night before just to try it out. I've been dressing Sam for three years, but never myself! It was a little weird moving around in all of those pads, but I managed to get my skates on and get onto the ice without any major pratfalls.

After a few laps, I was feeling good! It was definitely weird skating with all of this stuff on, but I was glad to have it when I did a major belly flop during our scrimmage. We did some skating drills and some stick work, which was what I was the most anxious about. I yap at Sam that he should always volunteer to go first during drills, and since I didn't want to be a hypocrite, I got right in line behind the coach when he started working with pucks. And I lost that damn puck every time I had to make a turn, with all of the other ladies watching. But by then I was having so much fun I didn't care!

The next week I recruited a friend to come, too, so it was even more fun! I skated my butt off, and I felt it later on, but after only a few weeks I'm feeling a lot more comfortable playing hockey. So next week I'm joining the actual league that plays actual games. Crazy, I know, but I think I kind of love it!

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Speaking of hockey games, our team came in second place in our last tournament, and Sam got his very first trophy. He was so, so excited! Go Hornets!

My Name Is Amy and I Am Old

As I sit writing this, I have a big, old fashioned red rubber hot water bottle strapped to my low back. Why? Because last Friday I thought I'd be a good mother and take my kids ice skating. Even though she seemed to hate it last year, Maggie begged to be taken along. I hemmed and hawed over whether I should take her. I knew if it was just the big kids, we could skate around and have fun, but with Maggie there, she would have to be my main focus. Her enthusiasm won me over, though, and I suited her up in some snow pants and we headed out.

At the beginning, before we got on the ice, she was still very optimistic. But when we got out there she kind of fell apart. Learning to skate on hockey skates is tough, and she fell about a dozen times in the first five minutes. At that point, all she wanted to do was hang on me, and have me literally carry her to and fro. I was letting her hold my hands to skate her over to the bench for a rest, and she got tripped up on her own feet. All of a sudden she yanked on my hands in a weird, turn-y way, and I felt a lightening bolt of pain shoot up my back. And so now I am that lady, who is always grabbing her lower back and moaning and looking for hot water bottles and heating pads and taking ibuprofen round the clock. 

On the plus side, since there was no way in HELL Maggie was holding my hands after that point, look what she figured out: 

Was it worth the pain I am still experiencing? Not really, but watching this helps at least a little! 

Season's End

Well, another hockey season has come to a close. It's kinda weird, really, not having somewhere to be four or five days a week. Weird, but totally awesome. Hockey is fun but the season is sooooooooooooooo long, especially for little kids.

As with last year, I wanted to do a compare and contrast video. Here is Sam at the end of last season and the season before. Here is Sam a few months ago. I didn't really get a good video of him in a game at the end of the season, so that video from the public session will have to do.

Now onto the Lucy! Here is a video of her pulling along some other kid a few weeks ago:

I am amazed with her skating ability. Even more so compared to Sam at the end of his first season. The only issue is that she has almost zero interest in the game of hockey. She loves to skate, and she'll do drills until the cows come home, but try and get her involved in a scrimmage and she's done.

I'm thinking we may have a figure skater on our hands. Bring on the bedazzler!

Lucy on Ice

After Sam's successful introduction to hockey, we decided that we should get Lucy on skates as soon as possible. There is a pretty decent girls hockey league here, and there is also a figure skating club, so no matter what her inclination, she would have something to do at the ice rink. Right now we have them both in dance, and she is a little jealous that Sam gets to go to hockey also. I think as we move forward that we'll keep them in similar activities, since they like it.

I was a little concerned that her stubbornness (to put it nicely) was going to be an issue, and for a minute I was almost right. She didn't like the skates they provide with the lessons, but I realized that they were too small and then she was ok. She was the youngest kid in her class, which goes up to six year old, so they immediately gave her a sled, which looks like a walker, to push around. When Sam first began skating, he was really reluctant to give up the assistance, so I was expecting Lucy to do the same. Imagine my surprise when after about ten minutes she looked right at her instructor and clearly said, "I don't want this anymore," and skated off without it!

Maybe it's the former figure skater in me, but she seemed like a natural! She fell down occasionally, including a pretty hard head knocker at the end, but she was smiling to beat the band most of the time. When the lessons were over, they collected the name tags, and she began bawling because she thought that meant she wasn't allowed to come back. It took me almost the whole ride home to convince her otherwise, but since then she's been telling everyone about her skating adventures.

She's only had one lesson, but I'm already envisioning her in a clean pair of white boots with a twirly skirt, leaping through the air!