I have missed a few of Thomas' hockey practices, but I wanted to be sure to make it to the last one for this session. Matt has told me that he has actually made some progress and I wanted to be sure to get some photos to show him what a great job he has done these past few weeks.
He was all smiles while Matt was getting him geared up, he is stoked for practice today! And we weren't running late, so we weren't having to speed dress him - always a good thing!
Henry is obsessed with the soda vending machine as usual. So many colorful drinks all lit up - way more exciting than watching your dadda strap hockey pads on your brother...!
Practice time! Thomas got out on the ice like a champ! Ok, he is hugging close to the wall, but he is moving and not falling - so I'm calling it a win!
Coach Allen was there today and still willing to spend extra effort on Thomas. You can see Thomas hasn't quite made it over to the pack of players. Coach Allen is trying to get Thomas to focus because all the other kids just dropped to the ice and got back up again while Thomas stayed standing. Sigh...
Speaking of focus - it really is Thomas' biggest issue with hockey practice. Right now, he is supposed to be following his coach and classmates down the ice.
Instead he is shuffling about 1' an hour and looking all over the place.
Left. Right. Up. Down.
Pretty much every direction except where he is supposed to be looking.
Matt and I were saying "Thomas - pay attention to your coach!" from the sidelines, so he turned to look at us - which totally made him lose his balance and fall to the ice. Unlike Coach Allen, Coach Newell makes Thomas get up on his own. He struggled a little bit at first because he was using the wrong foot, but as soon as he got his left leg steady and his right knee under him...
He popped up like a champ! Go Thomas!
The coaches then started a game of chase where they try to get the kids to tag them. The older kids actually have to work pretty hard to catch their agile coaches, but the beginner side the coaches move slow enough to be easily caught. And you can see a smile on Thomas' face - what is that doing there during hockey practice??
I swear he is like a different kid as soon as he gets engaged - he went from shuffling around like an old man to skating all over the place!
He was picking up balls like a champ and putting them in the bucket before skating off to find new ones to retrieve!
It was at this point that younger brother got a little bored and decided he needed to stretch his legs. He kept running toward Subway, then running back. He's such a cutie-patootie, even when he is being a toot. :)
By the time I got back to taking pictures, Thomas was skating across the rink using the hockey goal to steady himself. I honestly couldn't find him at first because he was doing so well. Go Thomas!
He skated over for a little cheerleading from his dad before they all skated in for one final "Go Team!". It has certainly been frustrating for us on the sidelines, but it does look like he's made some great progress. We're probably going back to soccer for the summer, but one of the coaches actually told us the two sports are very complimentary to each other. It's certainly a lot easier to practice hockey outside in the winter while the ponds are all frozen...! :)