Mite 1 * Year 3

When Alex started hockey, I brought my camera to just about every practice and certainly to every game. I took dozens of pictures each time showing Alex's progress learning to skate and the fundamentals of the game.

Last year, I still did a pretty good job in the role of proud hockey mom. Not quite as many pictures, but still plenty.

Now it's year three. We're about halfway through the season. And I finally remembered to bring the camera.

 

Here he is at practice. He's the one in the white helmet. It seems like just yesterday he was one of the boys in the middle of the rink, pushing a chair for balance. And now he's the tallest kid on his team, skating faster and more comfortably than I can. (Can I use that as my excuse for the lack of photos? It's tough to get a clear shot of him now that he's so fast. Almost as tough as it is to take a picture when you forget the camera at home for two months.)

The biggest thing Alex needs to work on is his aggresiveness. More specifically - his lack there of. He skates fast and shoots well, but if there's a group of kids swarming for a puck, Alex is much happier waiting back in hopes his team gets the puck and passes it to him. Among the shouts I hear from his coaches: "Get in there! Fight for it, AJ! We don't have goalies in this game." (The coaches still call him AJ, most of the time. They've figured out, as I have, that while he prefers to be called Alex, he responds more quickly to AJ.)

Next year, when he advances to Mite 2s, which uses goalies, guess what position Alex hopes to play. I wonder if he realizes he'll have to confront all kinds of skaters in that position?

Last Saturday, he played in his first tournament. We missed three of the four games due to family Christmas events. (Who thought it'd be a good idea to schedule a tournament on the weekend before Christmas? That's such a calm weekend. Nobody has anything better to do that weekend like shopping, wrapping presents, baking, Christmas programs, Christmas parties, etc. Brilliant!)

Anyway... here's a look at how he's doing. Sorry for the blurry video. My camera's not used to having to focus in cold ice arenas.

In theory, practice moves to the outdoor rink right after the New Year. As warm as the weather has been, we'll have to see how that goes. But I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures. Maybe not of Alex, but of Sydney, who will be starting in the Learn to Skate program.

Such a blessing!

I wonder if I could get away with a look like this: wide-eyed, unblinking daze with small bubbles of saliva on the verge of running down the cheeks. 

The next time I have to sit through a meeting that's running way too long, or listen to a client who clearly doesn't understand what's in their best interest, I think I'll give it a try. Wish me luck. I'll let you know if it works for me.

It's a look that definitely works for my sweet and adorable nephew Finn. Though I suspect he was trying to communicate something as well. Perhaps he was suggesting that he'd had his picture taken one too many times. Or maybe he was just tired of well-intentioned family members showering him with a little too much affection on his baptism day.

I have to say, Finn was wonderfully behaved and made the event go much more easily than perhaps we deserved. You see, there's a little history here. And if Karma were to play a role, then Jeff and I should have been stuck in front of hundreds of people holding a screaming baby.

Because that's what Sydney did to Eric and Sarah, her godparents, when she was baptised.

But as it turned out, Finn's baptism took place in a side room after church, with his parents - not his godparents - holding him as holy water trickled over his head. And he remained happy throughout.

My kids thought the whole thing was great. They got a front row spot to watch it all. Alex thought it was quite funny to hear the story of his sister's baptism melt-down. (To call it a "crying fit" seems too gentle of a description. "Exorcism screams" might be more accurate.) I wonder if enough time has passed that Eric and Sarah might find humor in it too? When we got home Sunday night, Alex asked to hear more about his own baptism, and was excited to look through an old photo album at pictures of himself as a baby.

God bless you, Finn. Jeff and I are honored to be your godparents.

The hockey practice/lost tooth incident

Alex came home from hockey practice with a special souvenir Monday. And I'm not talking about the trophy he belatedly received from playing in a tournament in Two Harbors last weekend.

Baby tooth #5 has departed from his jaw.

Before I could congratulate him on becoming a real hockey player - Wow! That must have been some practice if he got a tooth knocked out!?! - Alex explained the tooth had been really loose and he'd been wiggling it with his tongue while waiting for practice to start. One bump as he put in his mouth guard was all it took for the tooth to come out.

I credit one of his coaches with quick and resourceful thinking. Do you see the tooth?

Look closely at the tag. "Coach Bob" apparently grabbed a piece of hockey tape and stuck the tooth to Alex's bag. Hooray! The tooth made it home safely to be presented to the tooth fairy.

Alex didn't seem to fully appreciate or comprehend all that Coach Bob did for him. He was too focused on one small detail.

"I had to play hockey with blood in my mouth," Alex told me.

Oh. My. Goodness! I bet he's the only hockey player ever to have that experience. (If I'm remembering correctly, I believe Jeff's comment was, "Join the club.")

This morning, Alex actually seemed disappointed to find a dollar under his pillow.

"Some of my friends get $2, and Hannah once got a $20!" He told me.

I pointed out that I used to get a dime for each tooth.

So here are my newest tooth fairy rules:

• Unless a parent is totally out of smaller bills and is desperate, there's absolutely no excuse for giving your child a $20. You're simply setting unreasonable expectations for the rest of us. 
• If you're organized enough to have a stash of $2 bills on hand for such occasions, I like you even less. 
• And most important rule of all... the tooth fairy should not be expected to put in an appearance during the same week as Santa Claus.

Picture perfect family gatherings

It's a good thing I'm not the family historian. Sunday afternoon we spent several very enjoyable hours with the uncles, aunts and cousins on my dad's branch of the family tree. And when all was said and done (and uploaded), I'd taken exactly... count 'em... (or should I say count it)... one photo. 

At least I can make an argument about quality is more important than quantity, because I captured an awesome, unstaged moment.

My cousin Joy's daughter, who is just a few weeks younger than Alex, had been given an early Christmas present - a Squinkies toy. It just so happens that Squinkies are one of about 23,000 toys on my daughter's wish list this year. And Lily was gracious enough to allow Sydney to play with her and the new toy.

Note the look of concentration on the girls' faces as they tried to figure out how to get the little toy-filled balls to come rolling out of the house/dispenser. Even better, note how Lily has sweetly wrapped her hand over Sydney's. Too precious! (Assuming that's a friendly, gentle hand-holding moment and not Lily's subtle attempt to keep Sydney's hands off her new toys. Yes, I like the sweet/precious interpretation much better!) 

So never mind that I have absolutely no pictures of the rest of the family. No shots of Jeff in the basement where we'd smuggled Gus for the afternoon. No pictures of my brother's two adorable boys. No photos of my cousin's 19-month-old son Sawyer who'd just had yet another surgery and was as happy as could be. No recorded images of Alex yelling "you're the headless horseman!" at his cousin Jonathon who patiently continued playing with him anyway.

The Squinkies shot is it. At least it was a moment of peace and harmony. Perfect for Christmas.

The Christmas magic begins

We don't quite get 12 days of Christmas, but if you add up all the holiday gatherings we attend each year, it seems we get pretty close.

Saturday night was the first of those events - the annual LeVahn family Christmas. The adults may look at the evening as a time to visit with family and savor their Swedish heritage. But for the kids, this gathering has always been about one thing - Santa. 

This year was no different. We'd barely set foot inside the church when my kids started asking when Santa was going to get there. "After dinner," I told them.

They snarfed down their food in record time. "Now is Santa coming?"

"Not yet. I'm sure it will be soon," I said, staring around the room at the adults still busy talking.

At last, dishes were cleared and the singing began. That's always a good sign that Santa must be on his way. My little entertainers, happy to have an audience, were more than willing to sing along.

Pardon the blurry video at the beginning, and the laughter-inducing shakiness midway through. Sydney's reaction is simply too awesome...

My kids came prepared to charm old St. Nick. Each had created a craft project just for him, and eagerly presented him with their art work.

At last came the moment they'd been waiting for. Santa opened his sack and started calling names. Oh, the excitement! I question if Sydney even remembered what she had asked for. But she was thrilled to rip off the wrapping paper and find Barbie from Princess Charm School.

AJ, meanwhile, was almost shaking with excitement. A Lego police boat. And it was his!

Amazingly, 24 hours after opening their gifts, all the pieces are still present and accounted for. It's a Christmas miracle!

The best homework ever

In the history of homework assignments, not to mention all that are to come, none will ever be more perfect than what Sydney was supposed to do last night. It started with cutting out pictures from catalogs and magazines of things she'd like and then gluing them to a piece of paper.

After that, we headed downstairs to "play holiday music and dance."

It just so happened that Sydney had been at dance class earlier in the evening and so was already wearing the perfect outfit, and was more than happy to teach Mommy some of her moves. Though sometimes she prefered, instead of dancing, to pretend she was a beautiful skater.

On a side note, Jeff deserves credit for getting her ready for dance class, and not doing anything ridiculously silly or wrong. Leotard, tights, leg warmers and even a hair band (the necklace was a treat from preschool that she has yet to take off) - Jeff did good.

Alex of course had to again complain about the absolute unfairness of the homework assignments. He had to write all of his spelling words. Five times. And that was way too hard. A little hockey in the basement was the perfect incentive for him to stop whining and get his work done.

Basement hockey is the winter equivalent of front yard football in the fall, I've decided. It's one of those things that I tell myself I don't have the energy to do. And then when I finally start playing, I discover myself having fun and becoming more energized than I was at the beginning.

Alex time

In some ways, my children are so different, and in other ways they share universal priorities. After spending a few hours Christmas shopping with Sydney last Friday, I repeated the one-on-one shopping adventures with Alex the next day.

My son was fine with skipping the stores featuring Christmas decorations. It was much more fun to visit stores with Legos.

Of course the high point of the day, as had been the case with his sister, was stopping for lunch at a restaurant. I talked him out of McDonald's since that's where I'd dined with Sydney the day before. He picked Taco John's at the mall food court, but at the last minute, as we turned into the mall parking lot, he spotted Culver's, and so we quickly changed course. Potato Olés are wonderful, but they just can't compete with frozen custard.

We at last reached the mall, where we first focused on finding a gift for Alex to give to his sister. After that, we picked up a few more items on my list. "Am I the hero?" he asked after successfully spotting a shirt we'd been seeking in the right size hanging on a display.

The last of our stops was at JCPenney. I found the gift I needed and then, because I still had a coupon left, suggested we look at clothes for Alex. I figured he could use one more sweater to get him through the many family gatherings we'll be attending in the next few weeks.

Alex wasn't interested in a sweater, however. My six-year-old instead chose...

Your eyes are not deceiving you. Alex was beyond excited to have his very own dress shirt, tie and pin-striped pants. The only disappointment for him was that we didn't pick up a suit coat at the same time.

Of course, once you're dressed for success, you must accessorize. "I need that thing you carry to work. A briefcase."

(Never mind that neither Jeff nor I carry a briefcase to work.) I dug out Jeff's old one from his insurance-selling days and told Alex to be careful not to get dust on his new pants.

He's not ready to give up on his dreams of being a soldier and a cop. But if this is his preferred style of dress, I might have to suggest he become a detective.