The playoffs wrapped up this weekend. We won our game Saturday afternoon, which had us returning to the rink for another game at 9:00 Saturday night. We lost the second game in a shootout, which was fairly exciting in itself. It gave a true playoff flavour to the weekend. I'm pretty pleased with how I played overall; actually, the last part of this season was really good and I think in part it was due to my new positive thinking exercises. My defensive partner and I really gelled; we were solid at the blue line and kept the opponents to the outside in our end. Awesome!
For the afternoon game, I did pack up the whole family and brought them to the arena. My four-year-old daughter came with a knapsack full of noisemakers, and a pair of snowpants to keep warm. She was pretty excited to see me play. With each passing month she understands more of the game. The baby came mostly because that would avoid the hassle of pumping milk for him. Well, and obviously we couldn't leave him home alone!
The conversation in the car was mostly centred around the logistics of nursing the baby (who did not cooperate by nursing when we were getting ready to leave, and was therefore going to be hungry during the game) when we arrived at the arena. And getting my bag in (no wheels!) and my sticks and my daughter and two knapsacks and the stroller. The arena is one of those huge four-plexes with a correspondingly big lot, and it was busy because playoffs attract more spectators than usual.
We settled on dropping me and the baby off near the door, with him in the stroller and me carrying my bag and two sticks AND pushing the nearly-unsteerable stroller. My husband and daughter would park the car and find our changeroom and meet us. At least the doors at this new arena are automatic and WIDE, because I was quite the sight, laden down with hockey gear and steering a cute baby in a bear suit toward our changeroom.
So, yeah, very Mom hockey-ish, I nursed him in the changeroom before the game. Though, since he is a terrible public nurser - he has the attention span of a gnat - he didn't get a whole lot of milk in. My daughter eventually joined us and then I passed them off to their dad so I could actually get dressed. I'll admit it threw my pre-game rituals off a bit!
My daughter reportedly watched whole game, sitting still, cheering in her tiny voice, jingling the jingle bells she had brought, and hanging out with the mom of a teammate of mine, while my husband jiggled the baby and kept him in the warmer viewing area. Of course, he ran into people he knew, because this is Nova Scotia and the women's hockey community is tiny. I played a great game, we won, and a good time was had by all.
I returned to the arena later that evening for the second game, blissfully alone in the car. Hockey is the only thing I do alone, just for me, so it was a bit hard giving that up so that the family could come in the afternoon. It was definitely the right choice, and with the win we got one more game so that I could get some solo time before the season ended. And at least before the second game I wasn't nursing in the changeroom!
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