Yesterday afternoon we went to my parents place for dinner. Before we left our house we decided that it might be a good day to introduce our 3-year-old, Grant, to skating. So we loaded up our skates and sticks and headed to my folks place.
After we arrived we sat and visited for a while, and then the 4 of us drove down to the local flooded park/rink to skate a little while. Grant did ok, his little feet were chopping all over the place and in all reality I think he had more fun on the swings with mom than on the ice with dad. He did something I thought was fairly amazing though, he actually stood up by himself on his skates. Not too bad his first time out. I don't expect him to be another Sidney Crosby.....Derek Boogaard maybe....but I digress...
So after a few more minutes of tolerating the cold, Brenda and Grant have had enough. Stanley and I aren't quite done skating around yet so I tell them to pack up and drive home since it's only a short way back to my parent's house. So then it's just my 8-year-old and I out there on the rink.
This is the park where as a child I spent many a winter afternoon with my neighborhood friends. None of us played organized hockey, hell, truthfully we could barely skate. But like many Minnesota kids, it was at frozen sheets like these where we learned to skate, fall and get up. And in many ways learned about ourselves. As kids we'd come straight out to this rink and play until either the street lights came on or until we couldn't feel most of our extremities. Most times it would be the lights that came on first.
So it's just me any my eldest on the rink. This is his 3rd year of organized hockey so he's got some ability in him, he's a student of the game and plays hard and fair. He's also spent a fair time at the rink in full gear though scrimmages and practices. Around cones, on the line, around the circles, etc.... One thing he hadn't done yet this winter was spend time alone on the rink, no gear, no drills. Just time for creativity with the puck, dreaming 8-year-old hockey dreams.
So that's what I let him do.
We skate, we pass the puck to each other, but we don't really talk too much. We just play. No pressure, no pads, no whistles. Just my kid and I on the ice hanging out. Was it magical? No, not really. Was it fun? Absolutely.
After a while we both were starting to feel the cold (more me than him) so we decided to kick off the skates and head back to my parents house. As I'm getting my skates off he says, "dad, thanks for taking me skating today. That was fun."
Yes it was.
