Crazy Legs Crane

We went to a skating party today for a friend of Quinn's. In anticipation, we bought Quinn some real hockey skates, used, a junior stick, and a skate trainer (one of those chair-like things you push around when learning to skate). Today, the big day, we measured and cut off his stick and taped it up. He seemed quite keen on the whole thing, walking around the store in his skates, and keenly interested in his new stick.

As soon as his skates touched the ice his feet started going a million miles an hour, even though he was travelling zero miles an hour. A couple times I was able to get him to stand up, but the least little movement triggered ol' crazy legs again. He was game though - he had a big grin on for much of it. Bec & I had to trade off often due to the resulting back strain. He would hold his stick and whack at a hockey ball we brought while we were holding onto him. Eventually I just sat him down on his bum with his stick in his hand. We skated around him and he whacked the ball to us / near us / nowhere near us, again with huge grins.

He seemed keen to watch the other kids playing. It's the age old thing where a tiny little bit of watching is worth a ton of telling. I tried hard not to be too excited - it's a game I love so much and have had so much fun playing, but I don't want to pressure him into it. It felt so good to get my skates on again and it was so good to see his big smiles, but I was stressing about how to teach him and felt like I was doing it all wrong. Bec was really good with him though and made it all about having fun on the ice, which is all it should be right now. While I wouldn't rate the first experience on hockey skates as a rousing success, it was about as good as could be expected, and he perhaps shows some instinct with a stick.

We played a little hockey in the living room when we got home and I thought he got it a little more. Fun was had and we didn't overdo it, so I think there will be a next time. Que sera sera.