Today was Christopher's first day of "learn to play" hockey! The boy was
extremely excited. In fact, I have never seen him as excited for anything before, and that is saying a lot considering how fired up he gets for just about everything. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, seeing as we brought him to get dressed in the "Ranger" locker room but it turned out surprisingly well. There were a couple parents complaining about the "early" ice time. Sorry, but 8AM is
not early. I used to have ice time at either 5:30AM or 10:15PM. Stop complaining! Anyway, they divided the kids into three groups based on skating level. Of course, Chris is in the beginner skating group. He's the one with the white helmet...
His group worked on many basic things like standing up and holding the stick. Chris did very well considering this was the first time he wore actual hockey skates (which are much trickier than the rental/figure skates he's been in before). And there was a lot going on to distract him. He's a good listener though and will do what the instructor tells him to do so that worked to his advantage today. Here is a little video of him going from one side of the ice to, well, the other side? Kind of? A warning to all of you former players and/or hockey fans reading and watching this: It is painfully sllooooowwww...
The thing that was most exciting to see was that when Christopher fell, he got back up and kept going. It is not easy to get up to a standing position while holding a stick but he did it over and over. There was one point where the instructor brought the pucks out. Well!!! You could see Christopher's face light up from across the rink! This gave him major incentive to skate and he tried chasing the puck whenever he saw it. At one point the instructor passed it to him and he actually got it and hit it back! (Possibly my proudest moment as a mother so far--not even kidding you. I almost cried tears of joy...). He came off the ice twice to rest but told me "I'm ready to go back on Mommy." Love it! This could be the beginning of a beautiful thing for our little guy.
That we even have this option while living in Kansas is truly amazing. I never thought hockey would be on our midwest child's radar! The guy who runs the program is from Minnesota so he believes in just getting the kids right out there in the middle of it all. Throw 'em on the ice with sticks and a puck as early as possible! Chris is such a rink rat that he wanted to stay and watch the zamboni, something he could probably do all day.
It is truly a great day for hockey!
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