smacky and bucky

Saturday, January 12, began cool and drizzly. Sigh. Henry was getting stir-crazy, and when Henry goes crazy, we all go a little crazy too.

                “Wanna go see some hockey?” I asked him.

                “Yeah!” he replied.

                We bundled up, climbed in the car, and drove up to Kettler Ice Complex, which is perched atop the parking garage at Ballston Mall. We walked into the stands at the rink and he sat on my lap, watching the players in an impromptu scrimmage, blue jerseys vs. white. We were on one end, down near the goal, so half the time they were at the far end of the rink. Each time they would go down there, Henry would crane his neck to see and ask, “What is hockey doing?” (Hockey players are also called “hockey” by Henry; when John Carlson and Karl Alzner were chatting down at our end of the ice Henry pointed and said, “Look Daddy, two hockeys!”

                I posted a pic of the action on the ice on Facebook, and seconds later our friend down the street asked if we wanted to meet up with his daughter. I said “sure,” and as the practice was winding down and the stands were clearing out, Henry sat beside me on a bench. Between us was a bag of Goldfish crackers. He would reach in and take a couple and then I would reach in and take a couple. He took a drink from his sippy cup of water then wordlessly handed it to me. He figured since I didn’t have anything to drink, the crackers were probably making me as thirsty as they made him. Sense of empathy forming nicely at 28 months! 

                We met our friend and his daughter outside the rink and he suggested a walk around the adjoining mall. This mall is the place time forgot, generally, but since the objective was to let the kids visit, the mall was warm and dry.

                Within minutes, the kids were holding hands while we strolled. We rode the escalator down a level and finished another lap before the kids started to get cranky due to hunger/fatigue. We found the elevator and started to ride up to the levels where we were parked (we were on 7, they were on 8). By this point, the girl had grown tired of holding hands and rejected Henry’s offer of his hand again (Henry is big on holding hands!). As our floor neared, Henry took two steps to the girl and embraced her in a hug. To my surprise, and the “awwws” of all the adults in the elevator, the girl then took two steps to Henry and gave him a hug in return. The UPS man watching said, “You need a picture of that!”

                Of course he fell asleep on the five-minute drive home and I carried him inside to his bed.