Let's Play HAWK-EY

Have I ever mentioned that I love hockey? Oh sure, I had the usual snooty attitude of the uninitiated, those peaceniks who believe that hockey isn't so much a sport but rather another form of barbarism, not unlike the WWF or American Gladiators.


How wrong I was--hockey is nothing short of poetry on ice. It has all the qualities of a great sport--speed, agility, strength, strategy, sneaky plays--and you get to hit a little rubber nugget with a stick! The best part is that most of the time the players are skating BACKWARDS extremely fast. Each team has a goon, that is a player who engages in fisticuffs in order to teach the other team a lesson. This isn't an "official" position on the roster, but after the first few games of the season it becomes apparent who that person is. If the game isn't going well, he is the player to watch.


Friday was the first game of Western Hockey League (WHL) season. Our team is the Portland Winter Hawks...read the title of this blog again...and they play in the Memorial Coliseum. We took the kids and Hilary, as we've done many times before, but this game was different. For one thing, the Coliseum finally has booster seats available for the littler fannies. That would be Suzanne. I was walking around the concourse with Suzanne (because she doesn't like the opening ceremonies where they skate in to loud music and flashing lights) and she stopped to chat with the nice lady at the guest services booth. It was then that I noticed the stack of red plastic boxes and asked if those might indeed be booster seats. Voila! Suzanne could now sit in her own little seat and actually see over the bald man in front of her, enabling me to actually watch the game without getting wapped in the nose every time she decided to cheer. Here is the interesting part--Suzanne really likes to watch the game. She follows the players, yells when it is appropriate, and generally has a really nice time. In fact, she lasted almost the entire game before she pooped out and had to sit with me.


Which brings me back to the goon. My beloved niece, Hilary, comes to a lot of the games with us, and she's really starting to learn the rules. So much nicer to follow a game when you actually know what's going on. This particular game was more "active" than usual, probably because the Hawks were playing last year's Memorial Cup champions. They hung in there, but ultimately lost, and as the game went on it became apparent that the scuffles were going to be numerous. This really brought out the dark side of Hilary. Every time it looked like the gloves were going to come off, she'd jump to her feet and yell something totally goofy like "They're going to fight!" or "hit 'em again, hit 'em again!" I watched her with a bemused grin on my face, knowing that she had crossed over from the more gentlemanly sports and had become one of us.

Lest you think we are all barbarians, please understand that hockey players are dressed in full pads, much like the Michelin Man, and have to take their punches while on slippery ice. It's really hard to get in a good swing on skates. They are in more danger of getting hurt during the actual game when the pucks are flying around than when they are rolling around on the ice like those guys in the fake sumo wrestler suits.

Hilary was so excited to be there that she actually bought a lovely hooded sweatshirt in bright red with the Winter Hawks logo--for FULL PRICE! Did she wait, like her cheapskate auntie, until after the holidays when things go on sale? No, she didn't want to take a chance that they might run out of her size. Poor Hilary, she thinks stores run out of smalls and mediums. I'm here to tell you that the only size they run out of is my size, the Big Whopper. The skinny girls can always find something to wear.

I'm sure that Hilary will quickly figure out who the goon designee is. She's already learning the names of the players. There are the Canadian guys and the guys whose names end in "ski" "ov" or "uk." What a bummer that Robin Big Snake is no longer with the team--his name looked great on the back of a jersey!

Not a baby anymore

Suzanne is officially a school girl. At 9:15 a.m. on Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri she gets on the bus to go to Hathaway Elementary Preschool. At 12:40 p.m. she comes home. So, for 3 hours I can do stuff. Get a pedicure, go shopping, read a book. I haven't actually done any of those things, but I could...I suppose.

In fact, during Suzanne's first 4 days, I went to the dentist twice, grabbed breakfast with a friend, and had one morning to myself. That was a little weird because Suzanne is either with me, with Greg, or a family member. To have her be with little kids who are (there's no way to say this gracefully) not like her is strange. She has been going to the PRIDE Center for 2 years, but that is a pre-preschool for kids like her. At PRIDE the playing field is even and all kids are nurtured, protected, and given the opportunity to grow by teams of specially-trained, caring professionals. I can see the benefit of her being in a regular school, but it's hard to not want to keep her in a protected environment. She's my baby, after all...

On the bright side (it's all bright for Suzanne), she loves the bus. She thinks the bus is the best part of the day. Since she is so small, I had them put a car seat in for her. She gets to sit right up front and high enough to see out of the window. The bus drivers can't help but smile when they see her dash for the bus door--she likes to be first. The neighbor girl, Karissa, goes to the same preschool and they are so cute together. To give you an idea of how small Suzanne is, she and Karissa have birthdays only 2 weeks apart. Karissa is 3 inches taller. I've got a beanstalk and a peanut for kids...

If you are interested in why we have Suzanne so deeply entrenched on the education trail, click on this link... Karen Gaffney Foundation She is Suzanne's role model and a great example of why parents should be their child's best advocate. We believe so fiercely in this young woman's purpose that we invited her to speak at the Camas-Washougal Rotary Club and then meet the superintendent of Washougal Schools. I'm a matchmaker at heart!

Now, all we have to do is get Suzanne to keep her shoes on while she's in the bus. I've got to find a shoe that she can't take off. Any suggestions?

The Shortest Miss America!

Today I got to see just how far my little Suzanne has come in 3 short years. This morning we went to her preschool Open House for a little meet-n-greet and it was quite amusing. Let me just say that I am so proud of Suzanne that I'm all a twitter...

Suzanne just turned 3 in June, which makes her the youngest child in her class. She is also the smallest by far. To look at her, you might think that she was more immature and less able to handle the rigors of a classroom. You would be, however, completely wrong and in for a big surprise.

From the first second that we arrived, Suzanne owned the room. I mean OWNED. Sarah, Tammy, Ryan, you know what I mean. She sailed through the door in her little mini backpack, looked over the various work and play stations, found an appropriate baby doll to drag around, and proceeded to show those other kids how it's done. For those of you who thought she would never be able to sit still and complete a task, she worked at a table for 20 minutes today. She drank juice without dumping it on the table. She did not eat any crayons. And she took pity on one of her poor classmates who was bawling his little blue eyes out and gave him a big hug and a pat on the back. When we had to leave, she did her pageant wave to all her subjects and sailed out the door.

My kids spoil me sometimes. I have never known what it's like to have a shy or fearful child. Both of mine are so gregarious and outgoing, completely at ease in most social situations (although Kirk is getting a little squirrly about girls).

I can hardly wait for tomorrow to see how she likes the bus. I may actually follow them in the car, not because I'm fearful of the bus, but because I want to see her when she gets off and marches into her classroom. Washougal School District--look out, here comes Suzanne!!

Mighty OR-EE-GUN!

Subtitle: The Day Suzanne Tried to Kill Grammy and Bampa...

My folks are great. Any time I need them, they are right there for me. Like Saturday. Greg & Kirk wanted to go a University of Oregon football and I actually got invited this year. Normally they do a father/son sort of a deal, but Greg is getting the idea that I need to get out more. Anyway, he worked it out with Mom & Dad so that they would come up for Labor Day weekend and stay with Suzanne while we went to the UofO game on Saturday.

This was an absolutely great idea...quality time with the grandparents, blah blah...until you really started to look at the logistics. My parents are in their 70s (not decrepit of course, but the warranty is starting to wear out). I have a house with stairs and Mom has bad knees. And Suzanne is...well...Suzanne!

To show you how desperate I am, I thought through all of this and then erased it from my mind the second we got in the car to leave that morning. The idea of spending a sunny day at Autzen Stadium with my son and his rather intense Duck alum father was just more than I could pass up. So off we went, with the legions of UofO fans who reside in the Portland metro area, down to Eugene to watch PAC 10 football.

My apologies to Barbara--the Ducks beat the University of Houston 48 to 27. Your guys probably played a better game, but this was game of quantity over quality.

Anyway, there is nothing like college football to bring out the crazies. This guy for example. Kirk took this picture from the backseat of the truck--you only see the front of his RV, the back has a backside shot of Donald and a few other choice words.

The problem with having green and yellow school colors is that you get a whole lotta ugly going on at the pregame party. Mr. Tie-Dye was the worst I think. Not only was it the standard yellow and green, he was obviously a Eugene resident as he had the hippie thing going on as well. I thought my eyes were going to start bleeding...

I managed to make it through with the help of a lovely pregame libation (or two). See, you have to get a buzz on before you go into the stadium, just in case the Ducks do their Jekyll and Hyde thing and win the game for the other team.

All in all it was a fine day and when we got home my parents were still amongst the living, although just barely. Suzanne did her best to run them ragged, but in the end it was still two against one. I have to hand it to Dad, he did something that he rarely does. He danced with Suzanne all day long. He danced more on Saturday than he has in his entire life and he's finally found someone who can deal with his...uh, quirky...sense of rhythm. I think he knows all the words to "Wheels on the Bus" now, too! Gotta love a guy like that!

They left this morning to go home. They didn't exactly run out of the door (who can run after the weekend they've had) but they did hustle a bit. Mom said it was because they needed to get to the dog kennel to get Albert, but I'm pretty sure they wanted to go home and rest up before Thanksgiving. We're coming...with Suzanne...and she'll have new tricks to pull by then!