Brooks had a HUGE surprise at the last UMD hockey game. His Opa set up a special experience and found a way for him to ride ON THE ZAMBONI! We didn't tell Brooks until right before because we knew the excitement would end up ruining the rest of the game for him.

When we told him (right before he got to ride), his face lit up like we've never seen before, his entire body shook and he squealed with enthusiasm. It was so precious. He grabbed Opa's hand and couldn't get to ice level quick enough.

Brooks loves his Opa and we think the feeling is mutual.

Brooks got the crowd going. He started by waving with one hand, then he started to wave with two hands, then he decided it would be a great idea to blow the crowd kisses. We could hear some of the UMD band members saying, "Look at that little boy! Oh, did you see that? He's so cute." He was so sweet up there on that huge machine.

Since the game he has worn his UMD jersey every day and every night. He wears pajama pants to bed and pairs them with his UMD jersey. When he wakes up, he takes off his jersey for a bath, but it is back on before he starts his day.

He announced to us last night, "I want to wear this jersey every day."

Really Brooks? We hadn't noticed!

To be perfectly honest we don't really want to be hockey parents. We don't enjoy being cold (unless we are skiing) and have LOTS of other stuff we'd enjoy filling our weekends with. We want to give Brooks freedom to decide who he is and what he wants to do, but we might steer him towards basketball or running when he gets older.

Although, as we thought about that we realized that a little boy might not be as excited to have his Daddy say to him, "Guess what? We bought you a brand new pair of running shoes!"

Oh, well...We still have lots of time.