The Mighty Silas
Anyone that knows me, should know that I am a huge hockey fan. So naturally, we thought it would be cute to get Silas ice skating and maybe play someday. There is a local ice rink that has a hockey league with what looks like boys as young as about 5 years old playing. As soon as Silas was big enough to fit into skates, we tried taking him to the rink. Boy was that ever an experience. We could barely get the skates on him. He pretty much screamed the entire time and was so traumatized afterwards the only way we could calm him down was to buy him a snack and a soda at the vending machine. After finally calming down and drying his tears, eventually we got him to at least touch the skates.
Here he is giving us the skates back.
We managed to get the skates next to him.
Here he is with Pappy on the ice.
So in any case, we decided that he was too young and we would try again later. Fast forward to about 6 months ago. Pappy bought Silas some really nice hockey skates while he was visiting Canada for a work trip. Again, we took Silas down to the ice rink and attempted to get him on the ice. He freaked out when we put the skates on him and was pretty much screaming the entire time. However, we thought we should at least get him out on the ice to see if he liked it. Silas is the type of personality that doesn't like to try new things. But once he tries something, typically we find that he likes it. After several minutes of "skating" around the ice with daddy and Pappy, he decided he was done. He was very proud of himself after the fact, but still wanted to take the skates off and go home. At that point I thought, well, maybe this just isn't for him. And that's certainly okay! I don't ever want to force my kids to do something they don't enjoy, but I would at least like them to give it a try first.
Fast forward to last night.
Dusty turned on "The Mighty Ducks" while I was back in the boy's room putting Eli to bed. When I came out about 15 minutes later, Silas had his hockey stick and was "practicing". He pretty much thought it was the greatest movie he'd ever seen. It was supposed to be his bed-time, but he pleaded with me, "mommy, can I please just watch the movie??" Since it was a Friday night, I decided it would be okay for him to stay up a little later. {But please note, I made sure to show him MY favorite part of the movie, where Mike Modano makes an appearance. I couldn't let this important opportunity pass - afterall, he is practically the greatest hockey player ever, in my book anyway} Since he was watching the movie, I thought I'd go get his hockey skates for him to just see. As soon as he saw them, he begged me to put them on. It was incredible! Not only did he put them on, but got right up and started walking in them like a pro. I did have to make him take them off, so he wouldn't scratch the wood floor - but couldn't believe he even let me put them on. So, we continued watching the movie and he kept saying over and over, "mommy, I just want to skate. Can you make the floor into ice?" He didn't quite understand why I could not magically transform the floor, but I kept telling him we could take him to the ice rink.
Then came the part in the movie where the Ducks are playing the Hawks and the score is tied 4-4. I told him, "Silas, it's a tie! The Ducks have to score." He said to me, "Mommy, the Ducks have to tie up the black team". He thought I literally meant, tie them up!
So anyhow, Charlie is about to shoot a penalty shot. Silas grabs his hockey stick and stands right in front of the TV. Charlie begins skating in circles around the puck. Silas gets into a perfect stance and starts circling the floor with his hockey stick. Charlie begins to skate down towards the net, with his stick handling the puck as he makes his way down the ice. Silas perfectly imitates. Charlie pulls his stick back, swings - and SCORE! Silas swings his stick back - shoots - and SCORES!!! "Mommy, I DID IT!!! I did it! Mommy, high-five!!"
How great and wonderful is this imaginary stage?! Everything is so real and bigger than life. It was so adorable, I couldn't help but just sit there and smile at his sweetness. Now, he is determined that he is going to play hockey. I finally got him to bed and the first thing he wanted to do this morning was skate. I had to give him a haircut and he told me he needed a "hockey haircut". He kept asking me if we could go skate and I told him that we couldn't today because we have a big Christmas party and he is going to see Santa and get a present. "But momma, I just want to skate".
So, we will see how it goes when we make it to the rink this week. Was "The Mighty Ducks" just the thing to transform Silas into a hockey player? Only time will tell. Stay tuned for pictures and updates :)
2 Comments
Oh that is soooo cute! I know two people that were in that movie and it cracks me up every time I see it!
ReplyDeleteThose pictures bring back memories of my sweet little blonde grandson:)
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