Roo Enjoys Soccer...He Loves Swimming

Roo has been having a fantastic soccer season, especially if you compare it to last fall.  The league changed the format to 3 v 3 for U6 so there is much more focus on skill development this season.  The coach is good at moving the kids from one activity to the next and they're required to keep their ball with them the entire time. The concept of "keeping your puppy on a leash" has worked really well and Roo understands that he should keep the ball closer to him when he dribbles rather than kicking it as hard as possible and sprinting after it.  They've had another coach come and help with the team once in a while, he's the travel team coach for our area, and this has given the kids on Roo's team an almost unfair advantage in the coaching arena.  I love that Roo is learning all these skills and he's even learned to turn with the ball, a pretty advanced skill, but it would be even more awesome if this coach provided a little help to all the teams to help improve the skills of all the kids.  Regardless, it is so much fun watching Roo play in games this year.  He's fast, has pretty good ball control, loves scoring goals and is suprisingly competitive and physical, plus he's really receptive to our guidance.  He's enjoying playing which is fun for us since we both played and Bug can't wait to join in the fun!

Roo's real love right now is swimming. We switched him from group lessons to private lessons and the instructor really pushes him. This has been working out great and he is turning into a really good swimmer. Whenever I take him to lessons he comments that he wants to swim every day of the week.  We've asked the instructor to get him ready for swim team.  I would be by the fall he'll be ready to join in the fun.  I'm not sure if we're ready to be at the pool every day of the week but the benefit is that we can exercise at the gym so it's good for all of us.  Now we just need to get that little Bug in the pool and swimming!

Why No Blog Updates?

There haven't been any blog updates in over a month. So much has been going on and it just wasn't going to happen. So here's the latest.

1. We've declared Roo to be the messiest eater; just like Uncle Matt when he was younger. Roo is very proud of this honor. When I cleaned the car out, his side was much much messier than Bug's.

2. Bug is too short for the potty. Bug is fully potty trained except at night. Most mornings Bug wakes up totally dry. I have to help him on and off of the toilet each time. No biggie at home, major yuck in a public bathroom. He's so short that he really needs his shoes and pants off to be able to go. We'll have to start stretching him so he can go potty more easily.

3. Roo has asthma. This was really hard for us to come to terms with. After coughing since October and being on oral steroids 3 different times, a useless trip to the allergist and great help from our ped, we met with an awesome pulmonologist who has us on the right track. It was heartbreaking hearing Roo cough each night when he went to bed and not being able to stop it. The prednisolone helped but that's in no way a long term solution. He's doing so much better now and it seems to only be mild asthma, which is good. If you had told me earlier this year that Roo would have any medical issues, I'd have told you you were insane. But, he's got a great supporting family history that somehow skipped me, and so he's got asthma. He's so much happier now and doesn't mind taking the medicine at all.

4. Bug loves soccer. He's been to soccer on and off this entire fall at the field house. He loves it.

5. Roo is doing great with swimming. He loves swim lessons or "swim school" as he calls it. He seems to naturally be able to swim more than his ability for some other sports. He's excited to continue swim lessons.

6. The kids had their holiday musical at school. Bug's class was adorable and he sang along. I had high hopes that Roo would sing but alas he stood there and looked pained the entire time. When asked why he didn't sing, he said that he doesn't like singing, mind you you can find him singing all the time at home!

7. Both boys are doing well at school and enjoying the change. Bug adjusted great and got all check pluses on his little report card. He's ready to move up to the next class, which is good and sad. We really love his teachers and his buddy Logan is in his class. But he really absorbs everything he's taught so moving up will be good. Roo's report card was good as well and he's really enjoying school. The change has been great for him and he is thriving with the structure.

8. Roo's playing basketball. He just started smart start basketball and he looked super cute the first night in his new basketball shoes. Daddy said they had a lot of fun.

9. We have taught the kids well. They know on Sunday's to say "Go Patriots!"

10. I'm sure there are things I forgot but this is it for now!

First Busy Fall

This fall will be a little different than our autumn's of the past. We have scheduled ourselves to be pretty busy. Roo started at his new preschool last week and has enjoyed it so far, they start their actual preschool portion of the day this week. I'm hoping he continues to build on what he learned last year and gets even more confident with his hand writing. Oh, and that he includes the number 13 when he counts.

We also have both boys in sports. Roo is in soccer for the first time in a couple of years and is on his friend Connor's soccer team. So far he really enjoys it. His practices are on Thursday's with games on Saturday mornings.

I took Bug to Roo's last practice and couldn't keep him off the field. The only soccer available to kids under 3 is the tots soccer at the field house. So I signed him up and he had his first session this past Saturday. He loved it! He absolutely loves kicking and dribbling the ball and had fun participating in each of the different activities. The kids were all worn out by the end and I thought for sure he wanted to go home but instead wanted to continue with our normal Saturday trip to Wegman's. He took a good nap that afternoon!

And today Roo had his first swim lesson. He was so funny in the car on the way there asking me to stay with him the entire time because he's shy. We got there and they were put into groups based on their swimming ability so he and one other little girl were with one instructor and life guard. I left and exercised a little and then came back his his instructor nodded to me that he was doing great. He was so happy, smile on his face the entire time he was in the pool. It was great and hopefully it'll continue to go well!

I'm excited for our busy fall, it's great to have the kids learning new things and participating in group activities. Stay tuned for pictures from these fun times!

Roo's 1st Soccer Practice

We signed Roo up for soccer this fall. We decided to put him on a 5-6 year old team rather than the 4-5 year old smart start program so he could be on his friend Connor's team. Roo's really shy so we figured having a friend on the team would help get him out on the field. Connor wasn't able to go to the first practice because of the earthquake. Roo went and was very reluctant to go out on the field. I finally convinced him to go out there and he did what I expected. He stood around a lot on the field during the scrimmage portions but did follow the coaches instructions when they were doing a few drills. We need to practice basic skills with Roo so he can better know what he's doing on the field. He's actually not very aggressive at all, which isn't a bad thing, and after a little coaching I was able to get him to chase and kick the ball on a few occassions during their scrimmage portion.

His favorite part of practice was probably running to and from the field for water breaks. If Roo lacks a sense of competition in a scrimmage environment, he for sure showed it running to and from the field to the bench. He was always trying to be the first to get his water and fastest back to the field.

He's enrolled in swimming too, and that starts later this month. We're curious how he's going to do once he learns to swim. Is he going to be an individual team sport sort of kid who wants to be his own score but still have a team of friends? Only time will tell.

And finally, the next day after practice Roo noted that he had bumped into another player and they both fell and was that ok. He had fallen a couple of times either from bumping into or being bumped and got up well on his own, no crying or that sort of thing. I told him that sometimes you bump into people in soccer and it's ok as long as you're not trying to hurt the and you say sorry and help them up. He seem relieved. Can't wait to see how the season progresses!

Soccer is Fun?

We signed Roo up to play soccer at 1200 on Sunday's.  We had tried soccer when he was 18 months old and he just didn't dig it so we decided to wait a while before signing him up again.  He's been acting like he's really interested in soccer recently and has been talking about playing soccer, so we signed him up for one of the winter sessions.  He missed last Sunday because of the flu but this week he and I went and he seemed to look forward to it.  The 3 year olds group doesn't require parental assistance, but Roo seemed really shy so I was on the field most of the time.  I love soccer so I didn't mind, but I also wanted to make sure he was comfortable.  I wonder if his shyness was worse because I was there and if I had dropped him off and pretended to leave if it would have been better or if daddy had been there instead of me if it would have been better. He loved running around and kicking the ball but didn't do great following instructions.  Again, not sure if that's part of his stubbornness, as daddy and I can both be very very stubborn.  I didn't force him to play when he indicated he was done.  I want him to enjoy it and not feel forced to play.  When it was done, I told him what a great job he did and how much fun I had playing with him and gave him a lollipop.  He's really into lollipops.  He sounded like he was interested in going again this weekend.  The instructor seemed to think that by the end of the season he'd be just fine.  We'll see, I'm not going to push him too hard because this is supposed to be fun for him.  Hopefully he'll like it better as each week comes along but it's a sunk cost so if he's just not happy, we'll just play in the yard!