It was an all-sport weekend for us. Hockey began yesterday for both the boy and the lass. That was the morning. Soccer then ended for the boy and the lass. That was the afternoon. There was another round of hockey for them this morning, topped off with a trip to the Providence Bruins for the afternoon, which I tweeted about during the game.
I can only conclude that peer influence is becoming substantial. The boy was actually looking forward to his hockey practices. He mentioned it a bunch of times in the context of some of his buds at school also being excited about hockey. Amazing how that works.
Unfortunately, we hit a bump in the road yesterday as the boy came off the ice. As the practice had proceeded, it became apparent that the boy’s effort level had tailed off. The Wife and I both initially figured he had just reverted to form. But when he came off the ice, he told us he had a headache from his helmet.
His head has been a saga ever since he got started with hockey because his head isn’t shaped like a normal kid’s head. It’s broader, so the helmets tend to squeeze it and that’s why he get the headaches. We spent a lot of money on an adult style helmet for him last year because it wasn’t as rigid inside so it could mold to his head a little better. It seemed to work last year. It was dispiriting to find out it wasn’t working this year.
Luckily, a friend offered the suggestion of changing the face cage on the helmet- a slightly bigger one might force the helmet open a bit more and relieve the pressure on his noodle. We were able to get a different one and I changed it out before his practice this morning. Thankfully, he didn’t have any trouble with the new change.
The lass, on the other hand, loved every second of her ice time. She even learned how to properly hold the stick while skating around and practiced her puck handling. If we could just get her to reduce the drama involved in getting her ready for practice, she’d be perfect. For hockey, that is.
And so begins the hockey season. I shouldn’t complain, as talking to some of the hockey diehards revealed that they were going from practices here to games elsewhere for other hockey organizations. That’s even more time and money spent. God bless those parents.