Reid's first attempt at goalie

Reid is now in Mites hockey. It is a LOT different - at least in my opinion - and I'm not all that familiar with youth hockey. The kids play full ice (as opposed to the cross ice they played 2/3 of the time in Atoms), they have offsides and icing calls, they have refs, they keep score, and they have goalies. Reid really likes to play goalie but Russ and I convinced him that he should skate for one more year and then we'd wait and see on the goalie thing. It's kind of tough to pigeon hole your kid in a position so early (and from a mom's opinion - goalie gear is EXPENSIVE)! Anyway, the goalie on our team decided (cried a lot) that he didn't really want to be goalie anymore, at least for now. They asked last week if Reid would give it a try but it was a difficult week for us with Russ out of town the whole week so we agreed that we would the following week (THIS week).

Reid had his first practice last night as a goalie. He started the day by waking up and telling Russ that he had thought about playing goalie ALL night. Then I picked him up from school and he was on and on about when is hockey practice and he gets to be goalie, etc. Reid is a pretty mellow guy but he was certainly pumped up for this!

Here are some pics of him in his gear:



He did pretty good at practice. Skated a little slower but that's a lot of heavy equipment and Russ and I thought he did REALLY good for the first time wearing pads. He fell down a lot but usually got up pretty good on his own.



Once they started "actual" goalie practice there was a coach trying to help Reid... he wasn't a goalie coach so dad stepped in.

Other coach: "Um, try this. Do This"
Russ: "Hey, thanks.. I've played goalie for 10 years, I got this"

Russ worked with Reid on positioning and how to stand in the net. Reid will play his first game this Saturday at 6:00. Russ and I had plans to get a babysitter and go to a neighbor's 40th birthday party at 6:30 so our babysitter is going to come early and watch the little two so I can go to the game and actually watch it.



Why do I need a babysitter to watch the game??? One word - Ryan. Actually, Ryan was REALLY good at practice while we hung out at the rink... but the guy is just NONSTOP. Here he is just running around by the ice rink. Please note his outfit. I had him in pants for the day that DID match his shirt but he changed into shorts when he got home. Ryan's idea of matching is blue shirt, blue shorts. Or red shirt, red shorts. Sometimes it's just not a battle I care to fight.



As I said... NONSTOP! Ever notice that every picture I try to take of Ryan is blurry? This kid can not stand still for too long.



Yes, we're in the bathroom. I don't think necessarily because he had to go to the bathroom but he's figured out that we get to move to a different spot if he says that he has to go.




UPDATE: The hat now fits!!! Ross has earned the title of the happiest baby ever! We took him to practice with us and he stayed in his stroller the entire hour as happy as could be. He even fell asleep towards the end of practice. He usually eats around 5:30 and he didn't get dinner last night until almost 7:00. Once he ate his sweet potatoes and had a bottle he took his bath and watched some Survivor with us. When the big boys went to bed around 8:20 I laid Ross in his bed to see if he would go to sleep (fully expecting that he would cry for a bottle). He put himself to sleep and STAYED asleep ALL NIGHT. He slept from 8:20 until I woke him up at 6:30 for day care...