My goodness, is the season for a giant hockey bag in front of my dryer upon us already? Nobody told me to budget another 1000 square feet for sporting equipment when we were buying a house!
But there you have it. Hockey started yesterday and now I need to hoist a bag that’s bigger than all three of my children around the laundry/mud room in order to fish clean underwear out of the dryer in the mornings. Stop judging! I know you’ve done it too.
Hockey started yesterday morning, the same morning Ed was slotted to read an excerpt from his upcoming book at the Word on the Street festival. Huh, this was going to be tricky. We somehow had to get Ed and Colum off the ice and changed into street clothes and downtown in half an hour. Or I could just bring Colum to hockey myself with the two girls in tow.
SO, as I was saying, Ed had to figure out how to get downtown stat. Listen, hockey is their thing and far be it from me to come between them. Also, you don’t want the poor boy sent out with his athletic cup on upside down again, do you?
They cut out of the practice early and I met them at the arena with the two girls and we all drove downtown together. The idea was that Ed would check in at the tent where he was reading and I would find parking and then bring the kids down to watch. We’d hang out after until Ed’s scheduled radio interview and then head home.
That’s what I thought the plan was. Instead, we found parking at the far north end of the festival while Ed was reading at the far south end. (Bloor to College Streets, if you know Toronto. It was SPRAWLING this year.) So we set off on foot, passing the giant TVO stage and all the awesome children’s publishers as soon as we entered the festival. Sorry kids, we’re going to listen to Dad read first. We kept walking, past a row of port-a-potties, past all the food stands, right down to the foot of Queen’s Park. We were just … about …
“Emergency!” Colum was hopping around. “Bathroom emergency! Can’t hold it! Can’t hold it!”
I look at the time: 11: 27. We would have been just on time. So I drag all three kids back up past all the food stands to where there was a row of port-a-potties. Let’s pretend this went smoothly and I never once tried to guilt trip my kid for having to use the bathroom right when his dad was about to read. Because that would have been wrong.
We finally make it back down to the bottom of Queen’s Park … and then keep on going. This is when I realize I don’t actually know where Ed is reading after all. By the time we make it to the very bottom-most tent, the reading is over and he’s taking questions from the audience. “This must be for grown ups,” Irene notes, “Because it’s BORING.” “What do kids care about the mayor?!” Colum chimed in.
I let the kids run around a statue of John A. Macdonald for half an hour before Ed and I realize there won’t be time to hang out with him before his next engagement after all. So then we start making the trek all the way BACK up to Bloor St. But not so fast with the TVO Stage, kids!
Bonus detour! We need to feed the parking metre first.
Eventually we do make it to the stage and Colum and Irene made their way to the front just in time for the show to end. We all sat patiently for 15 minutes waiting for the next show (because at this point in our day 15 minutes is nothing). The sun was coming down so strong and hard during that wait in the middle of the road with nary a leaf for shade that I pulled off all the kids’ sweaters and tried not to break into a sweat trying to contain a 12 month old in a crowd.
Then the kids from Pop It! came on and taught the kids some dance moves. That was fun. Then there was an author interview. That was less fun, but we were staying firmly planted. I opened the front of my button down shirt and started nursing Mary, hoping maybe she’d drift off to sleep. And that’s the exact moment the sky opened up and it started pouring.
I was left scrambling around in a downpour, trying to keep Colum and Irene from running off in different directions, trying to get sweaters back on and pick up my purse, and oh god, my shirt is still open and oh no! Not my fancy, new HTC! Keep the tech dry!
So we found shelter under a tree, Ed came and met us, it stopped raining, the kids really enjoyed the next TVO stage show, they got to meet Polkaroo and we went home with an armful of Chirp, Chickadee and Owl back issues.
It was a good day, all in all, and I would totally recommend taking your kids to Word On the Street if you’re in Toronto.
Has anyone else ever been? Did your kids have fun?
