deann forgetting her bow and arrow during a hunting session with her husband reminded me of a story about big j, who forgets things about 100 times a day.

we show up at drop hockey sunday night and he is in full gear, ready to hit the ice, when he realizes he left his helmet and gloves on the kitchen counter at home. he looks at me, expecting me to rush out the door to go get them. in his mind, it' MY fault he left them there.

sigh. in yet another tough love moment between big j and i, i tell him that he's on his own. i am not coming to the rescue. he either has to figure out where and how to get a borrowed helmet and gloves or sit on the bench and watch for the next 1.5 hours.

he gets up the guts to ask the arena director if there are any extra gloves or helmets. the director says he's got some gloves but no helmet. however, he does happen to have the marlin mascot helmet. he winks at me and i go with it. i tell big j that it's either the mascot helmet or no hockey at all. (in the meantime, a mom at the rink has already told me she's got an extra helmet in the car. i decide not to expose this little tidbit quite yet.)

with tears in his eyes, big j puts on the helmet with the giant stuffed marlin head velcroed all around it. he sadly snaps it and begins to walk toward the rink, head down.

i let him twist in the wind just until he gets to the door leading to the ice, and then i tell him about the extra helmet. i tell him he either has to ask the mom if he can borrow it, or wear the marlin. i swear for about a minute he was going to stick it out with the marlin head rather than ask a stranger for a favor. he finally walked over, red faced, and told her the whole story. she gave him the helmet and his relieved smile lit up the entire room. when big j smiles like that, it seriously melts ice.

fortunately, it didn't. he went on to practice with borrowed gear and a lesson that will hopefully keep us from forgetting sticks, guards, pads,jerseys, gloves or helmets ever again. hey, a mom can dream, right?