flea

Born: Teagan (a girl). Big brothers are Declan and Eoin (pronounced, basically, "Owen.") No, they aren't Welsh, but Canadian of mixed Anglo-Celtic descent (as far as I know).

On Casper's soccer team, ages 3-preK, which in practice seems mostly like older 3s and 4s. Names have only been heard aloud
Girls: Jessica, Caitlin, Ny, and Casper.
Boys: Amir, Ali, Scotty, Jimmy, Grady, Santana.

Casper is kind of one of the Special Snowflakes of the team. But a big percentage of the kids have had some sort of crying meltdown or playing strike at one point or another (Caitlin, Jimmy, Ali (although only after getting accidentally hit in the face with a ball)). Casper has not cried, but does have a strong tendency to wander off the field, sit down, climb into the net, and approach the coach with irrelevant questions and informative statements. Grady is also somewhat prone to distraction. Amir and Jessica are probably the best players (Jessica's dad is the coach, and Amir seems to be one of the older ones).

We need to try and hit the sporting good store and maybe get a little practicing in before Saturday's 9am game. I tried explaining the concept of the game in the car on the way home. I forsee more right field wanderings on Saturday.

We had our first experience with Youth Sports last night; Casper is starting soccer at the YMCA, with one-hour practices once a week and "games" on Saturday mornings. Her team is 3-PreK, about 12 kids, about evenly divided by gender. (Though, sadly, there were a couple of 2nd-3rd grade teams playing nearby, and both were about 85% male, so it looks like it doesn't stick.) Her coach seems good; he's a father of 4 and has been coaching for 10 years, and his youngest daughter is on the team. They did some dribbling - chasing the coach while dribbling, then chasing one of the kids in turn. They alternated with practicing taking shots on goal (with the coach defending). They also spend some time cheering and creating team spirit. Their color will be green, so they decided to name themselves the Monsters; when it started raining lightly they decided they would be the Rain Monsters.

Casper was adorable. She was shy at first and also trying to eat some dinner, since there was no time between when we picked her up from after school and the start of soccer. She got freaked out when the team yelled "Hello Casper!". She tended to get frustrated and discouraged when "her" ball got taken by someone else (after a shot on goal, or in the mixup of dribbling) and would put her hands on her hips and pout. She runs like a girl and isn't very coordinated, but then, she's my kid, the tallest on the team and hency gawky looking, and we have never done any sports with her. She kept up okay. Other kids had issues too, and came to sit with parents on the benches at various points, and the coach was good at noticing who needed encouragement and letting them score on him. He gave out lots of stickers, too.

So, we will be shopping for shin guards (the built in to socks kind are recommended, and are $4 at Target) and a size 3 soccer ball.

Dillo loved soccer more than Casper, if anything. He sometimes got into the mix but held his own. I cleverly brought ball-ball, so he'd have a ball of his own to play with.

In other milestones, Casper brought home a Junie B. Jones book from the school library, and mr. flea has been reading it to her. It seems to be providing a good opportunity to discuss social issues at school, and how to be a good friend and classroom citizen. mr. flea also finds it hilarious at times.

Dillo has been so consistently interested in watching us use the toilet that I have encouraged him to start playing with and "using" the potty we have. He sits on it fully clothed, with the lid down only. Opening the lid scares him a bit, and when he is naked and I suggest he sit on it, he is not interested. But he says poo-poo and pee-pee when we talk about the potty, and I tell him that when he is a big boy he will do these things on the potty. I am hoping to avoid the mistake we made with Casper, which I think was waiting too late and turning potty-training into somewhat of a battle of wills.