The girls had their first day of soccer today. We rushed through dinner and then loaded everyone into the van. I dropped Andrew and Rachel off at their field (Andrew's coaching Rachel's team again) and then headed over to Miriam's field with Miriam and Benjamin. It was a rather frenetic hour, but we made it everywhere on time.
A few girls from Rachel's team last season are on her team this season again, and her friend Callin is playing as well, though he's on a different team.
Miriam didn't know anyone on her team, though her friends Rhett, Marcella, and Alden are all at the same practice location on different teams/sports (baseball is going on right now as well).
Annie, Marian, and I were all relieved to see each other at practice because we each have two kids doing different things at different places and were wondering how things were going to work out when we didn't have two parents available on any given Thursday night...like next Thursday night when Andrew won't be around.
Annie said she'll be at that practice location next week (she's switching off with her husband when they can) so she'll keep an eye on Rachel while I take Miriam to her practice. I told her we'd be happy to take charge of either of her boys if her husband ever gets called in.
Thursdays (and Saturdays) are going to be crazy the next few weeks. Game days are going to be crazy!
It'll be worth it, though, I'm sure. Miriam had a blast today and Rachel was already in love with soccer so she had a lot of fun, too.
Benjamin had a little less fun. I made him go on a diabetes walk with me and he tripped and fell and scraped his elbow and knee. Both wounds were bleeding but he just hopped right up and took off away from me as fast as he could.
"Don't touch it, Mommy!" he cried (like, literally cried). "It's fine. Me just fine. Don't even touch it. Me just keep 'alking. Me fine. Keep going. Don't touch it."
He's a little trooper. But when we were finished with our loop I didn't make him do another one (and my blood sugar was still just fine). Instead we sat down to watch Miriam practice. She'd already learned to stop the ball with her foot, but then before kicking it she'd back up and take a running start and would miss half the time and it was hilarious.
I took out my crochet project (I'm on flower #163) to work on while I watched. This made me stick out a bit compared to the other moms who were cheering every time any child did anything. It seems like they'd already memorized all the kids names and every time a child did anything with a ball there was applause and a "Good job, so-and-so!"
And I was sitting with my crochet all, "They're doing drills. Tone down the enthusiasm."
Maybe I'm a lame mom, but I don't cheer for drills. I'll do more cheering at the games. Maybe.
Miriam's team got green jerseys and voted to call themselves The Firebirds; we left the field with jersey in hand while all her other teammates left with their jerseys on.
"Why didn't you try on your shirt, too?" I asked.
"I just didn't want to," she sighed, kicking at a clump of grass.
"That'll make a great shirt for St. Patrick's Day next year," I pointed out.
This shirt is not just green. It's electric green.
"Oh, yeah!" she said, perking up. "I guess that's one good thing about this shirt!"
She'd resigned herself to her team colour by the time we picked up Rachel and Daddy. This year Rachel's team is orange (also a rather bright colour—if we ever go anywhere I'm worried about losing the children I will have them wear their soccer jerseys); they voted to call themselves the Orange Cheetahs.
Rachel's been in the all girl league the whole time she's been playing. Her first jersey was purple, her second jersey was pink. I think Miriam was expecting one of those colours, but she's starting a bit younger than Rachel (she's still in the under-five category even though she's five-and-a-half because she's not in kindergarten yet) and they only have co-ed teams at that age (I think...?). So, of course, they reserve the pink and purple uniforms for the all girl teams.
When we tried on the jerseys at home we learned that Miriam somehow ended up with size medium of everything, which is the same size Rachel wears. We pulled out Rachel's old soccer shorts (size small) for Miriam to use, but she'll just have to drown in her jersey because they have to be in uniform on game days. Rachel was a little miffed to have to use the medium shorts because they're a little big on her as well, but there's a drawstring so she'll be fine. And it makes way more sense for her to wear size medium than it does for Miriam to!
Benjamin told Daddy all about his owies on the way home and when Andrew changed him into his pyjamas he also put bandaids on, which meant that Benjamin was even more concerned with his injuries. He was waddling around like a penguin because he couldn't bend his knees now that he had bandaids on (even though he'd been walking just fine before).
During family prayer I was asking Heavenly Father to bless everyone we know who was sick—that Daddy could feel better from his allergies or cold or whatever, that baby Zoë could keep growing nicely, that I could manage my diabetes well, that cousin Remington's doctors would know how to help him, and so forth. Benjamin, who was sitting on my lap, tapped me, pointed to his elbow and whispered, "And my elby."
"And please bless that Benjamin's elbow can feel better," I said. "And that his knee can feel better, too," I quickly added because in all honesty his knee is in worse shape than his elbow and I thought that I had a better chance of keeping him happy and quiet if I just blessed all his owies at once. But I thought wrong.
"No! Not my knee!" he cried. "Don't pray 'bout my knee! Just don't talk 'bout my knee, okay? My knee hurts so bad! Don't talk about it! It's just fine. Me fine. Don't pray 'bout my knee. Don't talk 'bout my knee. Don't touch my knee. Just leave my knee alone! Only my elby! Only pray for my elby! Not my knee! Don't talk 'bout my knee!"
The boy didn't stop yelling about his knee for a good two minutes. After he was finished with his tirade, I closed the prayer, managing to keep my giggles at bay until the very end.
And in other random Benjamin-isms, my screensaver right now is a bunch of random stock photos because I just updated my computer and my usual screensaver (family pictures) was turned off for whatever reason. Most of the pictures are of animals. Benjamin walked by and said, "Wow! Look at that whale shark!"
And—guys!—it was a whale shark.
I was like, "How do you know that's a whale shark?!"
"Octonauts," Miriam answered casually from the couch, where she had her nose in a book.
Now that Benjamin's not napping regularly he's been taking in a lot more television while I nap (doctor's orders, TV and all) and although I don't believe all shows are created equally, I must say there are some pretty good ones out there! Octonauts actually drives me crazy (that theme song...*shudder*... I'm so glad I'm usually napping when it's on)) but it has taught my little ones quite a bit about the ocean and its inhabitants.
I was pretty proactive about Rachel's preschool education—quizzing her on her numbers and alphabet very early on (she could count in English and Arabic by the time she was two, though she's since forgotten her Arabic). Colours, numbers, shapes. We did it all.
I relaxed quite a bit with Miriam because I knew she'd have an extra year before kindergarten.
With Benjamin I've mostly been like, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" and all those flashcards I used to "play" with Rachel and Miriam have sat dormant. So when Benjamin does things like spontaneously counting to ten perfectly or pointing out the letter W and "upside-down W" on the welcome mat or correctly identifying a whale shark, I find myself taken aback.
A few girls from Rachel's team last season are on her team this season again, and her friend Callin is playing as well, though he's on a different team.
Miriam didn't know anyone on her team, though her friends Rhett, Marcella, and Alden are all at the same practice location on different teams/sports (baseball is going on right now as well).
Annie, Marian, and I were all relieved to see each other at practice because we each have two kids doing different things at different places and were wondering how things were going to work out when we didn't have two parents available on any given Thursday night...like next Thursday night when Andrew won't be around.
Annie said she'll be at that practice location next week (she's switching off with her husband when they can) so she'll keep an eye on Rachel while I take Miriam to her practice. I told her we'd be happy to take charge of either of her boys if her husband ever gets called in.
Thursdays (and Saturdays) are going to be crazy the next few weeks. Game days are going to be crazy!
It'll be worth it, though, I'm sure. Miriam had a blast today and Rachel was already in love with soccer so she had a lot of fun, too.
Benjamin had a little less fun. I made him go on a diabetes walk with me and he tripped and fell and scraped his elbow and knee. Both wounds were bleeding but he just hopped right up and took off away from me as fast as he could.
"Don't touch it, Mommy!" he cried (like, literally cried). "It's fine. Me just fine. Don't even touch it. Me just keep 'alking. Me fine. Keep going. Don't touch it."
He's a little trooper. But when we were finished with our loop I didn't make him do another one (and my blood sugar was still just fine). Instead we sat down to watch Miriam practice. She'd already learned to stop the ball with her foot, but then before kicking it she'd back up and take a running start and would miss half the time and it was hilarious.
I took out my crochet project (I'm on flower #163) to work on while I watched. This made me stick out a bit compared to the other moms who were cheering every time any child did anything. It seems like they'd already memorized all the kids names and every time a child did anything with a ball there was applause and a "Good job, so-and-so!"
And I was sitting with my crochet all, "They're doing drills. Tone down the enthusiasm."
Maybe I'm a lame mom, but I don't cheer for drills. I'll do more cheering at the games. Maybe.
Miriam's team got green jerseys and voted to call themselves The Firebirds; we left the field with jersey in hand while all her other teammates left with their jerseys on.
"Why didn't you try on your shirt, too?" I asked.
"I just didn't want to," she sighed, kicking at a clump of grass.
"That'll make a great shirt for St. Patrick's Day next year," I pointed out.
This shirt is not just green. It's electric green.
"Oh, yeah!" she said, perking up. "I guess that's one good thing about this shirt!"
She'd resigned herself to her team colour by the time we picked up Rachel and Daddy. This year Rachel's team is orange (also a rather bright colour—if we ever go anywhere I'm worried about losing the children I will have them wear their soccer jerseys); they voted to call themselves the Orange Cheetahs.
Rachel's been in the all girl league the whole time she's been playing. Her first jersey was purple, her second jersey was pink. I think Miriam was expecting one of those colours, but she's starting a bit younger than Rachel (she's still in the under-five category even though she's five-and-a-half because she's not in kindergarten yet) and they only have co-ed teams at that age (I think...?). So, of course, they reserve the pink and purple uniforms for the all girl teams.
When we tried on the jerseys at home we learned that Miriam somehow ended up with size medium of everything, which is the same size Rachel wears. We pulled out Rachel's old soccer shorts (size small) for Miriam to use, but she'll just have to drown in her jersey because they have to be in uniform on game days. Rachel was a little miffed to have to use the medium shorts because they're a little big on her as well, but there's a drawstring so she'll be fine. And it makes way more sense for her to wear size medium than it does for Miriam to!
Benjamin told Daddy all about his owies on the way home and when Andrew changed him into his pyjamas he also put bandaids on, which meant that Benjamin was even more concerned with his injuries. He was waddling around like a penguin because he couldn't bend his knees now that he had bandaids on (even though he'd been walking just fine before).
During family prayer I was asking Heavenly Father to bless everyone we know who was sick—that Daddy could feel better from his allergies or cold or whatever, that baby Zoë could keep growing nicely, that I could manage my diabetes well, that cousin Remington's doctors would know how to help him, and so forth. Benjamin, who was sitting on my lap, tapped me, pointed to his elbow and whispered, "And my elby."
"And please bless that Benjamin's elbow can feel better," I said. "And that his knee can feel better, too," I quickly added because in all honesty his knee is in worse shape than his elbow and I thought that I had a better chance of keeping him happy and quiet if I just blessed all his owies at once. But I thought wrong.
"No! Not my knee!" he cried. "Don't pray 'bout my knee! Just don't talk 'bout my knee, okay? My knee hurts so bad! Don't talk about it! It's just fine. Me fine. Don't pray 'bout my knee. Don't talk 'bout my knee. Don't touch my knee. Just leave my knee alone! Only my elby! Only pray for my elby! Not my knee! Don't talk 'bout my knee!"
The boy didn't stop yelling about his knee for a good two minutes. After he was finished with his tirade, I closed the prayer, managing to keep my giggles at bay until the very end.
And in other random Benjamin-isms, my screensaver right now is a bunch of random stock photos because I just updated my computer and my usual screensaver (family pictures) was turned off for whatever reason. Most of the pictures are of animals. Benjamin walked by and said, "Wow! Look at that whale shark!"
And—guys!—it was a whale shark.
I was like, "How do you know that's a whale shark?!"
"Octonauts," Miriam answered casually from the couch, where she had her nose in a book.
Now that Benjamin's not napping regularly he's been taking in a lot more television while I nap (doctor's orders, TV and all) and although I don't believe all shows are created equally, I must say there are some pretty good ones out there! Octonauts actually drives me crazy (that theme song...*shudder*... I'm so glad I'm usually napping when it's on)) but it has taught my little ones quite a bit about the ocean and its inhabitants.
I was pretty proactive about Rachel's preschool education—quizzing her on her numbers and alphabet very early on (she could count in English and Arabic by the time she was two, though she's since forgotten her Arabic). Colours, numbers, shapes. We did it all.
I relaxed quite a bit with Miriam because I knew she'd have an extra year before kindergarten.
With Benjamin I've mostly been like, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" and all those flashcards I used to "play" with Rachel and Miriam have sat dormant. So when Benjamin does things like spontaneously counting to ten perfectly or pointing out the letter W and "upside-down W" on the welcome mat or correctly identifying a whale shark, I find myself taken aback.
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