The big fellas are still playing. The mini-fellas are finished with their season. All that’s left for them is the end of year banquet…
Mini-mites don’t worry about trades or head injuries. Parents tend to mind their manners (still) when a hockey player is this young (I mean, they’re still babies…) and the coolness and thrill of putting on all the gear and (your Mom, Dad or coach) lacing up your skates is strong. There are snacks after practice and words printed upside down on the inside of your jersey…you get a free milk at Tim Horton’s just for doing something you love: Playing Hockey.
It’s only been a season…since the Fall and he’s already out-growing his gear. He’ll need new skates come hockey season and I’m not magic or anything, but I think I see a new helmet in the lad’s future, because he has an October birthday… And the number 11…all the numbers were being snapped up fast (and he wanted Methot’s number “3” or Umby’s…really, he was just happy to play…) and when Ethan got to the (gold) jersey pile, 11 was left…fast-forward to Matt Calvert coming to town and the number 11 suddenly becoming all kinds of awesome…”Matt Calvert wears MY number…” And he wears 17 with the green jersey, his “Andrew Murray” shirt…So having two different jersey numbers isn’t such a bad thing…
There’s still season left in the NHL, championships to be decided. This is our first season as a “hockey family” and I’ve loved every minute of it. Figuring out what to do with my little mini-mite over the summer may prove difficult, as he orbits near depression when the NHL season ends and now his own season ending. I foresee plenty of day trips to The Chiller ice rinks…
So, he’s got his off-season “work” to do: he needs to work on “edging” and building up his speed skating backwards. You call this work, he muses?! Private to-do list includes eating his weight in Donatos pizza and putting in lots of hours by the pool…
My first official year as a Hockey Mom is done. We’ve had no injuries. We’ve made great friends…we’re looking forward to next season. I get my Sundays back. But I will miss everyone. I’ll miss mini-mite hockey. It’s a breath of fresh air (even with all the sour gear…yes, even the little dudes get a bad case of the gear-funk…) I love what I do here on this site. But over in the mini-mite world I don’t worry about players being traded or head injuries or business…I don’t have to worry about deadlines or people dropping me on Twitter because I “talk to much” (huh?! ) Shoot, I don’t have to worry about any damn thing…we go to the rink, he skates, we go to the Steak n Shake after and talk about what a sweet back-handed shot he has or if the Jackets are playing later in the day…We talk about buying real Under Armor instead of old pajamas…we hit the Tim Horton’s going out of town for the free milk and giggle when we do it again coming into our town…( we live more than an hour away from any ice rink…)
This is the good stuff. Here’s to many more with me and my Sweet Ethan. Long live the EHL…
I’m still working on the “I boarded the kid because I wanted to” issue, but other than that…