Competition

I love that Baby and I have competitions on who had the hardest workout the night before. He is taking Karate and is only two belts away from a Black Belt! I'm in Roller Derby.

Baby: We had to do 25 push-ups

Me: We had to do the push-ups while slapping our neighbors hand, then walk 5 steps(?) one directions and start all over again going the other way.

Baby: We had to do a bunch of squats.

Me: So did we, 30 seconds and 45 seconds with our butt against the wall. (as you can see I don't get down nearly far enough yet)

Me: And then we had to do group squats while we went around the circle saying different things.

Baby: Huh?

Baby: We had to do 50 sit ups.

Me: We had to do a ton of sit ups and push ups and jumping jacks. We started by doing 30, skating a bit, then we went down by 5 every time we finished skating til we got to 1 and then we went back up to 30.

Baby: We had to do a ton of jumping jacks too!

Me: I had to do it all on Roller Skates.

Baby: What! That's hard!! You win!!!

Baseball in Spanish Fork

Baseball in Spanish Fork is a little crazy. People here are fanatical about this sport. And it's known the whole county over. Baby has enjoyed his first year of Little League. And it's been fun to watch their team improve over the season.

They have a great coach who's worked hard with the kids and tried to teach them all the basics. He even taught them how to 'take a knee.' But regardless Baby's team was last in their division. This week they started City Tournament. Those of us Mom's who have watched a few painful games were willing to let them lose both games and be done for the year.

Such was not our fate. The team has finally started to Shine! They won their first game by a landslide. To begin with we were all annoyed that it was another 8:30 pm game. By this time of night the 3rd and 4th graders are just tired. And to make matters worse this game didn't start until 9 pm. So we were there until almost 11 pm. So it came as a shock when we won!

We moved on down the bracket. We played the next day. And we won again! This team was pretty good and already assured a spot on the State Tournament which we sure weren't. It was kind of fun.

One of the fun parts of the baseball season is getting to know the other families of the team members and watching each of the boys improve. Or break bones. Not our child this year. Baby has really improved and now that the season is almost over he kind of knows what he's doing. That's usually how it works. But he has had a lot of fun and been quite entertaining for the parents in the stands.

For instance. The last game we played. Baby got a run. He loves it when he gets to slide into home base. He loves getting his pants all dirty. But for some reason he didn't slide into home this time. I'm not sure if something got in his way or if he was just entertaining all the adults. But he Rolled over home base! As everyone in our team's stand laughed and cheered I got several comments from different parents:

"He's my favorite to watch!"

"I LOVE him!"

"Only your boy!"

"He's always so much fun!"

Apparently most of the parents enjoy watching my child, thankfully even the Coach. He may not be the best hitter or outfielder, but he's the best entertainer on the team. And he's always got a smile on his face, whether they're winning or losing.

For All Those Women Who Don't Love Football

I love watching my kids play football, flag or tackle. But that's about as far as it goes. I have never figured that dang game out! It is so complicated and it lasts eternally long. And to actually go to a game you have to brave the elements which always try to make you wish you weren't there. It's always hot and sunny or cold and wet, whether that be rain or snow. But I still love watching my kids play football. It's not nearly as complicated and even though I don't understand it when they get older it's fun to cheer for my boy and his team.

While the family was in Idaho for The Wedding of my Littlest Brother and his Fiance my other Brother discovered he has a Friend in Sports with his Brother-in-Law, Sister Homemaker's Hubby. I'm not sure if he totally understood how much they had in common until this weekend. While most of us were filling our time with family and wedding, my Brother and Brother-in-Law were spending it bonding over sports. They even went to the local Sports Bar to catch some early games before the wedding reception.

Later in the day as most people had left to help set up for the Wedding Reception I was home with Olaf and these two Sports-Loving Men. They were all sitting around watching some football game. I decided to clean up the basement since Sister Homemaker was due to have a baby at any minute and couldn't bend over to save her life. I was eavesdropping on their football conversation, amazed that Olaf knew what they were talking about and could discuss football somewhat intelligently. (We don't watch sports at this house)

While they were talking about the Quarterback I interjected, "Isn't he the one that runs the ball?"

"No, they hike the ball to him and he throws it to someone else, maybe occasionally he runs it, but not often." And I may not even remember this conversation accurately.

"So he doesn't have to run, he mainly throws the ball."

"Correct."

"So he's one of the bigger guys."

"What?"

"Well, it seems like all the football players are big, venturing on fat, except the runners aren't quite as fat."

Chuckles and laughter all around at my knowledge of football. "So, you're saying football players are lumped in two categories; 1) Big and Fat, and 2) Just Big."

"Yep, that's pretty much how I see it."

And that summarizes My Knowledge of Football.

Baby Owns This

Baby came home from school a couple of weeks ago and PROUDLY announced:
"I am the second-shortest kid in the class!"

Baby got back from Basketball tonight:
"I made two baskets! But I'm still afraid of the ball. I'm afraid of the soccer ball too. But I'm not afraid of the football!"

Randomly:
"I LOVE Froggy!" and he takes him places all the time.

And all the time:
"I Love Star Wars! I wish I could be Commander Cody!"

The child is all about the fun things in life. We should all take a lesson and be proud of all our accomplishments.

Are You Sure We're Playing Soccer?

For decades I have eschewed video cameras. Remember when our parents would drag out the old reel to reel camera, set up the collapsible screen and make everyone watch pictures of them as children, or on vacation in Mexico, or at some special party. Well, I don't cuz my parents never had a camera, THANK GOODNESS, but have heard nary a many horror story of someone being stuck all night somewhere watching old movies. Seriously, who wants to watch old films of themselves? I have seen so many parents filming WHOLE games, and not one but all of them! My high school graduation was videotaped in its entirety by several parents. I found it boring enough the first time to never want to go to another one much less watch it again. I, personally, would much rather flip through a photo album.

Recently, though, I have found a use for the videocamera. Baby's soccer games are quite interesting. He rarely pays attention to the ball. He's good for about a quarter of the game, the rest of the time he's on the field playing a different game.

One week it had quit raining minutes before his game. His field was nice and wet. And in a few bare patches there was DIRT! I don't know a boy who isn't attracted to dirt. I'd be a little worried if the boy was clean for more than 10 minutes, under the age of 10, and not at church/wedding/pictures/etc. As he was positioned perfectly over the dirt spot he noticed that if he kicked it just right with his cleats he could make a nice, pliable dirt clod! As he picked up the dirt clod he studied that thing like a scientist with an alien amoeba. He was useless for the rest of the game! I have never ever seen anyone so interested in one dirt clod.

When Baby was three we were visiting cousins for Thanksgiving. They only had girls at the time. By the second day Baby was tearing pieces of paper into triangularish shapes and shooting them at things. Olaf had to go to Walmart and buy him a gun. The desire to shoot things, imaginary or not, has never left the child. Several times on the soccer field he will be bored and start holding his hands out in the rifle shooting position, not the pistol position that most kids demonstrate on a regular basis, but the rifle shooting position. This entails putting one of his whole arms out, cocking his head to the side, closing one eye, and pulling the trigger with his other arm closer to the body. When in shooting mode at the soccer games he takes to shooting the kids on the other team. Thank goodness our town is red-necked enough that no one takes offense to the 'guns' on the field. Thank goodnes no one takes their children away in disgust or even approaches me to remark on my failings as a mother. I get enough phone calls as it is!

The most common occurrence is his attacks on the members of the other team. After playing for a while he gets bored kicking the ball and wants to take his aggression out on the other team members. He'll put his arm around them and try to put them in a headlock. Usually the other kid can wrestle away before it gets anywhere near the headlock position. He will also be running alongside someone and stick his foot out in an effort to trip the other teammate. He will even 'bump into' the other kids, trying to see if he's tough enough to knock anyone down. At least he's not that tough yet!

I'm seriously thinking of putting him in football next year. That seems to fit his tendencies better. Unfortunately he is afraid of the ball. He can handle kicking it as long as no one big is near. But when you throw a ball at the kid he cringes! Poor kid, maybe sports isn't for him after all.