Tag: Elliot

Handling Sweater

Elliot is sure picking up on the skating with his hockey camp. This week they were working on puck handling, so they got to skate around with a puck quite a bit more than the other sessions.

One drill had them skate the length of the ice with the puck, then the next drill was to skate backwards the length of the ice with the puck.

Elliot sure has picked up the speed with his skating too. He can fly around the rink no problems.

I see some of his tumbles though and cringe. The landings look awkward and painful, but he always gets up and has never complained.

I think the kids’ favorite drill is the one where they skate from one end of the ice to the other as fast as they can, but do a superman slide at the far blue line. They always put the most effort into that one.

Elliot is the one on the far side of the ice in the red sweater.

Once the session is done and Elliot comes off the ice, he can’t wait to start stripping the gear off. He heats up so quickly, and he is only wearing shorts and a t-shirt under everything.

If you know Elliot, then you know how quickly he would have fixed his hair. 🙂

Amy very much enjoys coming to the rink to watch her brother play. I spend more of my time entertaining her, rather than watching him. Sometimes I enjoy that, other times I’d rather be watching them play.

Weekend Common

I knew going in that having kids would mean the end of the weekend sleepins for Sue and I. When Elliot was young, he was an early riser. 5am was the norm. Since sue got up in the middle of the night to feed him, it was I who got up with him in the morning.

When Amy came along, this tradition continued. Amy slept in a little more, but her usual time to get up was 6am.

As the years progressed and the kids got older, sue and I started taking weekend mornings to sleep in. Saturday mornings were mine to sleep in on, and I sometimes got up early to go riding. This was especially true when I trained for the Tour de Victoria. 

I noticed that once Elliot was in school he slept more. It was harder to wake him on school mornings and we usually let him sleep as long as we can. It’s now common for him to get up past 7. This is only doable because he can now get ready for school and eat breakfast quicker than he used to. When Elliot was young he would do untimely take 45 minutes to eat breakfast. Now he can rip through breakfast in 15 minutes or less.

Amy also sleeps in more now, and on daycare days she wakes around 7. In the mornings she is a much lighter sleeper that Elliot, and this is very much like me. On the weekends, when we remind her that it is a sleepin day, she can go back to sleep and 7:30 or even 8 are possible.

This brings me back to the beginning. Sue and I have our sleeping in, relaxing weekend mornings back. Amy got up at 7:30 this morning and came into our bed to snuggle. I got up at 8 and sue got to sleep some more. I drank my coffee, ate breakfast, read some news, got caught up on twitter all the while thoroughly enjoying it. Elliot got out of his bed around 8:30. The kids are now in bed with Sue and she is reading to them.

Ahead ago I couldn’t imagine a Saturday morning like this. Now it is becoming regular, and I must say that I think I appreciate it more. I used to take it for granted.

Time to get ready for a ride.

Hockey Watching

Today was Elliot’s first hockey session. We signed him up for a once a week season that teaches hockey skills. There are a couple games throughout the season, as well as a couple of parent nights, but it is mostly about learning skills.

I was very impressed with how hard Elliot worked at it tonight. Sure he fell a lot, but he always got up quickly and tried again. It’s no surprise, but he also listened really well to the instructors and did everything they asked. They did lots of skating drills, and ended the night with a scrimmage. At the end he was very hot, had very rosy cheeks, and was pooped. He also had a huge grin on his face and loved it.

Here are some pictures:


All geared up and ready


Ferocious face


Two beautiful spectators.


Making sure we were still watching.


Doing a drill


Another drill


Water break.


One tired boy

Tooth Grounds

Two weeks ago, Elliot’s front tooth was getting, very wiggly. Like no resistance wiggly. So wiggly, that one time when he was moving it around, it got stuck in position and I had to put it back in it’s socket. Below is what it looked like.

He didn’t want me to pull it out so I let it be. Well, we went out for sushi one night, and while I was talking to someone, he reached over and handed me what I thought was a grain of rice. A little confused I looked over at him, and he exclaimed that his tooth had come out!

He is growing up.

He was proud of losing that tooth, and didn’t want the tooth fairy to take it. He left a note for her, and she obliged and still left a some money behind for him.

Today I picked him up after school right before hockey. He didn’t remember right away, but when he did he got a huge smile on his face and told me that his second tooth came out while he was eating lunch. While chewing his food, he felt something hard in his mouth, and when he spat it out, there was his tooth. I’m not sure why, but during the lunch recess he ended up going to the office because of the lost tooth, and they gave him a tooth shaped necklace to hold his it in. Unfortunately the lid wasn’t on all the way and he actually lost the tooth somewhere on the school grounds. We assured him that the tooth fairy still knows he lost his tooth.

I am proud of my boy for growing up and being such an amazing son.