Fiasco on ice

Well, we at least made it through one full period of AJ's first hockey game. It was painful. Literally. The temperature when the puck dropped was a whopping goose egg. Zip. Zero. Nada.

To try and make the chilling temperature a little more bearable for AJ, I picked up some foot warmers that could fit in his skates. Little did I know, I was making the real problem worse.

How can a child with the impressive verbal skills that AJ has, not be able to say, "Hey, these skates are way too small."? He's told us numerous times that his feet hurt, but he's always said it was because they were cold.


AJ toughed it out through the first period and a half. Then, just about the time his line was set to take the ice again, I noticed as the gate opened, that Jeff was coming through with AJ. And AJ was sobbing. Uncontrollably.

We brought him into the warming house where he continued crying longer and harder than I have ever seen him do before. And he continued to say it was because his feet were cold. Jeff pulled off the skates and we each peeled off a sock. One toe felt slightly cool, but other than that, his feet felt warm. The warmer inserts had done what they're supposed to do. Of course, they'd also created even more cramped conditions inside those too small skates.

It was then that I picked up the skates. The skates Jeff had bought for AJ last year. The skates Jeff had assured me at the start of the season still fit AJ just fine. And that's when I noticed the size 9 printed on the inside. That's three sizes smaller than what he currently wears.

"AJ, do your toes get crunched up inside your skates," I asked, "Is that why they hurt?"

Aha! Breakthrough at last!

We didn't make him finish the game. It was well into the third period by that point, anyway. Though he did want to put his boots on and go back outside, "I want to cheer for my team," he insisted. "I want to help them win."

As we headed out the door, several parents gave us sympathetic smiles as one commented, "Welcome to first year hockey."