Sunday, April 30, 2006

What a difference a season makes...

Liam and Maddie are playing soccer again this spring with the same non-competitive league as in the fall. It's amazing how much difference there is in their confidence and skill in their second season. Maddie is playing with the same coach and several of the same players as last season. Liam is on a new team with a great coach who really helps him focus in practice and get excited about learning to play better.


This is their second week. We left the memory card for the camera at home last week. Amateurs. Johnny is in Orlando this weekend for the national meeting for work, so I was a one-woman cheering squad.

Maddie played first. She threw a huge fit and didn't want to play (she didn't want to play last week either). After pouting all through their 20 minute warmup, she finally decided she was good and ready and got in the game. Last week, she scored 4 goals and had one assist. This week, she scored 2 goals and had at least 3 assists. She gets so excited when she scores! When she runs down the field, it's like she is going at a different speed than everyone else. She is SO fast! Liam's coach has a daughter on Maddie's team also and he is trying to recruit Maddie for his team next season!


Liam's team has really been working on passing and teamwork. It's amazing to see these kids playing real soccer! Liam has played right wing mostly (offense). Last week, he had real trouble staying on his side, but this week, he did a GREAT job staying put and being ready when the ball came to him. He had his first assist - a goal attempt that ended up right in front of his teammate who kicked it in. I'd have great footage of that if Maddie and Isabella didn't have to use the bathroom just before that happened! Liam also played goalie for the last quarter. He loved it! He got scored on a few times by this amazon kid, but he had a few GREAT saves and one catch. The best part about Liam playing goalie is the big boomeroo. Liam has a huge kick. When he walks out to the edge of the goalie box, he can drop kick the ball past the half line!

Monday, April 24, 2006

Quotes from school

The one benefit/disadvantage of working at the kids' school is I hear the little strange things they say or do in class.


Isabella was chatting with a friend in class. The context wasn't overheard, but the teacher caught the tail end of the conversation.

Isabella (to the friend): "I CAN'T do that! I'm ALLERGIC to dinosaurs!"


Liam and his class were discussing Malaysia at school. The teacher asked if anyone knew how to say something in Malaysian. Liam piped up.

Liam: "I know this one thing, but I forget how to say it. But, I think it means 'bring me back a t-shirt!'"

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Quick one

Maddie was playing with her "laptop computer" - a learning toy that used to be Aunt Jen's. She was playing a spelling game - the computer gives you the word and she had to spell it. John and I were somewhere else in the house. After a few minutes, she calls for us and comes in.

Maddie: "Mom, my computer keeps saying the same thing over and over! It says 'spell ECHO'. 'Spell ECHO'. 'Spell ECHO'. over and over!" She smiles, obviously getting the irony.


Liam got a suction cup gun for Easter. He was so thrilled, and even told the family member who gave it to him that it was great - he 'finally got something that looked like a gun.' We have had all kinds of rules about where and how he can use it and finally decided he could try to shoot the suction cup at the sliding glass door or windows on the clubhouse. The problem came today when the boy next door came over and wanted to play cops and have Liam bring his gun. Our rule last year was this child (who has a complete toy arsenal) wasn't allowed to bring his guns into our yard. Hmmm... conundrum. Do we keep with the rule of no guns in our yard, including Liam's? I was not sure how to get out of this one.

I explained to Liam that I didn't want the other boy to think it was okay for him to bring all his guns over to our house and open up the door for violent play at our house. Liam was full of suggestions: he could take his gun into the neighbor's yard and only play with it there. Or, he had several ideas about how to make it okay for him to have his gun because it didn't look like a real gun. Finally, I played the daddy card, told him I'd call his dad and we'd make a decision and he should go play in the meantime without the gun. And he never came back in to ask for it. Ahhh... parenting by distraction, not just for toddlers anymore!


Isabella got out of the car this morning from school carrying her jacket instead of wearing it. She put her arms around herself and said "Brrrr.... es frio!" (it's cold!) in her best Spanish dialect. It's amazing how Spanish words have effortlessly snuck into her vocabulary!

As we drove home from school, I asked her what the animal was out the window. She said, "it's a horsie." I asked her how to say it in Spanish... in Spanish. "Como se dice en Espanol?" I said. She understood perfectly and responded "caballo." She then asked, "where is la vaca?" (the cow - the animal we usually see out the window!) Her comprehension is really astounding. It also forces me to brush the rust off my Spanish vocabulary!

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Alive and well and doing good things...

I once worked for a man whose answer to "how are you?" was always, "alive and well and doing good things in (insert city here)". I loved that. He and Maddie would really get along well.

As I was preparing dinner tonight, Maddie came in and told me that she had overheard Liam apologizing to the neighbor girl for hurting her feelings. She repeated the entire exchange, including the girl accepting his apology and thanking him for it (she's ten). Maddie really wanted to tell John when he got home, but I asked her to wait and tell everyone at dinner.

At dinner, I asked everyone to tell something nice about someone else at the table and let Maddie begin. We all went around telling something nice about what another of us had done. Maddie, in thinking about it more carefully, came up with several other things she had noticed Liam doing for other people. I love her willingness to praise others unselfishly.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Easter

After our triumphant return from Florida, John and I dropped the kids off with Grandma and came home to unpack clothes from vacation and pack clothes for John's friend's funeral and for Easter. We drove back in to Ohio. Easter was really nice and relaxing. We had brunch with my family on Saturday and Easter dinner with John's family complete with an egg hunt, egg toss and drumming circle! Our only problem was that we haven't quite mastered the return home. Dreading the drive home Sunday night, John and I decided to leave at 4 AM Monday. That was just as miserable! Posted by Picasa

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Easter Candids

Waiting to see if the Easter Bunny had left anything...

Maddie found hers!

Isabella found hers!

Liam's celebration dance after catching the egg in the egg toss.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Spring Break

How does one return from paradise? We spent the last 10 days at Grandpa's place in Fort Myers. The weather was so gorgeous that the forecast looked impossible on the tv screen each day. High reached about 87 and low was about 82. The evenings weren't even cool enough to wear pants! We enjoyed the great swimming pool, the gym, the spa. Liam and Maddie both got to test out Liam's new clubs at the driving range. It was so relaxing and the kids got some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa.

During the trip, we really began to notice Isabella's affinity for speaking Spanish. The Spanish teacher at school had already mentioned to me that Isabella seemed to really pick up the language quickly, which I agreed with. However, I really began to notice that her everyday speech has become littered with Spanish words and phrases here and there! It's quite funny and unexpected.

We were at the beach in Sarasota and she was drawing "letters" in the sand with her finger. John tried to pronounce what the word looked like.

Isabella: "Daddy, can you read what that says?"

John: "It says... goj."

Isabella: "No, Daddy. It says 'hope'."

John: "Hope?" (looking at me quizzically)

Isabella: "Hope. Look. (points at the letter "O" written in the sand then at her mouth) with an 'o' en la boca." (in your mouth - in Spanish)

We found this to be even more meaningful than just the usual ramblings of the kids. John had just found out that morning that his mentor and close friend from work had died unexpectedly at age 34. Our kids always seem to know when something is not right with us and find some way to bring comfort.

Sunset on Turtle Beach


We took one day last week and drove up to Sarasota for the afternoon and evening. We spent hours playing on the beach at Siesta Key. It's my family's favorite since before I was even born and has become our family tradition as well. The sand is so fine, you could powder your face with it!

Every time we've gone to Sarasota, we've gone to Turtle Beach to watch the sunset and collect shells. It's a really lovely tradition that always makes for gorgeous pictures. In fact, some of my favorite photos were taken there. Here are a few from our trip there last week. Posted by Picasa

After the sun has gone

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