So the other day you read about my hubby’s pain in the ass and his surgery. (If you missed that post be sure to check it out – hubby comes home to knife). But you didn’t get to hear about the ball hockey tournament – you know the one we had to race to after dropping the hubby off at the emergency dept.
I don’t typically take all 8 children with me everywhere, but I guess given the fact that his game was to start in less than an hour and the hubby was detained, I really had no other option. All I could do was thank the heavens that this was a ball hockey tournament and not ice hockey!
The children of course were ecstatic that they had to join me and so the more excited they got the more nervous I became. When we arrived at the arena I tried to give the mean mommy stare as I laid down the rules. I got to the third rule before they all blew me off and ran into the arena to grab seats. Of course they chose seats in the mid section smack dab in the middle. It would have been perfect except I had a stroller holding 2 babies in 2 car seats! I decided my best option was to take the babies out and have one of the older children hold one and I the other.
We started out okay. I bought them all slushies thinking this would keep them distracted for at least a little while – sure it did for a whole 10 minutes and then it started. As the teams started to warm up on the arena, Ryley ran down to the bottom row of seats and somehow managed to sneak onto the arena. He knew I had a baby and wouldn’t be able to chase him so he decided to really play it up. He looked out into the audience and started chanting “Oh yeah! Oh yeah!” Many of the spectators thought he was cute. I was annoyed, and didn’t care if other parents thought me to be a bitch when I yelled at him to get off. You didn’t expect him to listen to me did you? Well you’re right – he didn’t. Instead he started to dance and scream out that everyone had better watch out because he was Batman!
Thankfully my son’s friend’s father was there and was able to get him off. I wish I could say everything was fine after that but really that was just a warm up! I then had to deal with an assortment of issues such as…
Ryley trying to climb every type of vertical pole he could find believing himself to be either Fireman Sam or Batman – I wasn’t really sure which one at that point.
Arielle complaining that everyone was bugging her.
Joshua complaining that Ryley was sooooo annoying, and begging me to sell him.
Whining from both Zachary and Arielle that their stomach’s hurt. Geez – could it have anything to do with the slushies they just guzzled in 5 minutes flat?
Ryley dancing on the seats.
Marie yelling at Joshua that is was his turn to hold Tanner because he was getting too heavy.
Oh and did I mention this was before the game started?
Once the game started my children cheered and screamed so loud I thought they would kick us out. There really wasn’t any need for an audience because the noise my children made filled the entire arena!
Poor Zachary couldn’t handle the noise anymore so he covered his ears, started to rock and lash out at me. The noise was pretty intense for even a typical child – for an aspergers child it must have been seriously intolerable, so I allowed him to go out by the vending machines where I could see him spinning around and around in the special way that only he can. It is as though he is doing a twirly dance and he is so cute!
Thankfully the game was only an hour long and my son’s team won the gold. They were Provincial champions! My other children went crazy and ran onto the arena to be with their brother. They were so proud, and so was I. I was proud that Sebastian had done so well and had scored 2 goals, but I was even more proud of the fact that despite their ability to fight, squabble, and torture each other, they also have the ability to be a team and support each other when it counts. There is nothing like the sibling bond and lucky for my children they have 8 ties that can be treasured forever.
What types of things do your children do to support each other? Do your children get jealous of a siblings talent or special skill?
until next time,
Chantel Momof8crazymonkeys
Thats awesome that your oldest offers to go to appointments for support! He obviously loves his siblings. Typically I can’t take Zachary to any places that are loud because he just freaks out – this time I got lucky, however I think if we had been there any longer it would have been disaster because he was getting to that point:)
My oldest plays rep hockey and my husband coaches.
Unfortunately the arena is NOT somewhere that Cuyler wants to be so I rarely take the younger 2 to games. It makes me sad when I see the other rinkrats and siblings running around and playing. Bonding the families on the teams. But it just does not work for us. We’ve tried.
My oldest is very good about supporting the younger 2 in their gymnastics and swimming by way of never complaining when he has to come with me and watch and telling them what a great job they are doing.
He also offers to come to his brothers appointments for “comfort” knowing that Cuyler does not enjoy them.