One thing that comes with winter though is hockey season. Friday night I went to the BlueJackets game with some of our MGC members and stopped at the Top on the way back for some steak sandwiches and cold gin before bed. We resisted the urge to do more and stay longer, as most of us had to take kids to soccer the next morning.
Tonight Patti has gotten tickets for both Leo and myself. Leo has been asking to go see hockey, so I'm glad to finally take him. Last year I took him along on a couple of hockey games. He went back and forth from being enthusiastic to feeling stressed. Often he would get freaked out when the cannon went off and want to go home. Just as often he would cry and complain when we had to leave. It will be interesting to see how much difference a year makes, now that he is almost 5 years old.
Emily has long since abandoned hockey games because the whole experience is too loud and overwhelming for her. When she was younger, she couldn't even stand fireworks. I remember thinking she had probably outgrown this aversion when she was five and I took her to an Indians game with fireworks afterward. She hated them, and we had to sprint from the ballpark with crying the whole way as the sky erupted above us. These days she doesn't have the fear so much as the distaste for loud experiences in general. She is happy to avoid BlueJackets games, especially if I promise to bring her a bag of the cotton candy from the street vendors outside on my way home.
