My Girl (Jonathan Toews)

13

Jon

With a rare off day during this lockout shortened season I find myself back at the ice rink. But not for myself, no, I had Kimberly with me this time and we were going to watch Alexis practice. Her coach signed her up for a small competition before she would go compete at the National competition in April. But before that she has to place at this first competition in order to even qualify for nationals.

So I grab her sister and go sit in the seats with her as we watch the practice. I put Kim in my lap as she happily looks on. She had on a Toews jersey I got her and she loved the thing, she wore it everywhere. I watch Lexi stretch out on the ice as her coach Frank sits there and talks her through some things.

"When can we play with sissy" Kimmy asks. She obviously loves her sister a lot and always wants to hang out with her. I don't really blame her, I did too.

"When she's done with practice we can go to the park by the apartment and mess around" I promise her.

"Is sissy ice skating again" she asks and I nod.

"Yup" I assure her. This is the first time she's seen her do a routine live after asking about it almost her whole life from watching it on tape. She was only 3 when Alexis got hurt so she doesn't really remember seeing her skating.

"Oh yay" she cheers as she claps her hands together ready to see what's she's seen on tv in real life now.

They get started and she tries out some spins and turns and stuff. It wasn't as draw dropping as the jumps but they were pretty entertaining too. She was freakishly flexible and could bring her leg so high in front of her that her knee touched her ear. And when she got to turning... man, I would hate to have to slow that down. I don't see how she doesn't get dizzy and can still do tricks after all of that.

I've been trying to teach myself more about figure skating to help her out. Although I don't have it all down I was learning. She was going to try out for both the short program and the long one which means she needed two routines. Right now she was working on the skills to put in both of them.

She moves on to the jumps and I couldn't keep the smile off my face. She got so high in the air it looked like someone launched her. Kimmy gasps from my lap as she watches her sister do some crazy things out there.

"Woah" she nearly yells as Alexis lands another trick.

"She's pretty great" I admit.

"Can you do that" she asks me and I laugh really loud. I didn't mean to but the thought of me even trying that stuff... never.

"Never in a million years" I shake my head.

"But you're on the ice too" she says.

"Yeah. But there's two things I for sure don't have, and that's balance and grace" I insist.

"And talent" she adds on making me smile.

"Not for this at least" I agree.

"Well I want to be able to do what Lexi can do. I want to fly" she cheers and I smile. With her asthma she will never be able to seriously compete figure skating, but that doesn't mean she can't learn.

"You will. You're going to fly so high that people won't be able to find you" I promise.

"You think so" she questions with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"I know so" I wink.

We continue to watch her practice and she starts to learn her routine. While she was the best at what she does, the times have changed so she has to change with them. She continues to go and go until I thought she couldn't anymore, but then she keeps going.