Saturday, September 19th - the first hockey practice. Dad's in charge of hockey... and mom doesn't go. So, when Matthew came off the ice seconds after going on (and falling down) he went in the opposite direction of where Mark was watching the 150 kids out on the ice. Our friend Jaime found poor hysterical Matthew who was asking for hims mommy. Once dad showed up, he was able to calm him down, but nothing would convince him to go back out on the ice. Unlike Daniel, who would have stayed out there all day if they'd let him. Our coach friend Chris said that Daniel was all smiles, laughter and excitement.
The next day we took the boys to open skate in hopes of cajoling/bribing/forcing Matthew to face his fear of the ice. Daniel went out first, and Matthew got to the ice and freaked out. No big surprise, once I saw that the rink comes up above his knees. So, I just kinda threw him up there and kinda pushed him away from the door. The next 20 minutes involved some tears (both me and Matthew) some dirty looks from other skaters, and finally success. He really, really wanted to get off the ice, and I had him over mid-way point. I told him if he could crawl to the door he could get off the ice. He did, and once he was off with dad, was completely fascinated by the skaters out on the ice, including me and (amazingly!) his brother Daniel. Daniel was ALL OVER the ice, by himself, taking small steps, falling down and getting back up all by himself. It was great to skate beside Daniel and not have to hold him up. Matthew noticed people skating backwards, which was very interesting, and dad kept working on him some, and pulled out the ultimate Matthew bribe. Ice Cream. He promised Matthew some ice cream if he went back out on the ice. The deal became ice cream for crawling over to the blue 'goal' space, around, and back to the door. Once completed, Mark and I felt like he had faced some of his fears, and had some hope for the next practice. More to follow.
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