Past Due For a Post

Well.....we had a great Christmas and new years and things have been busy around our house. Between scooping snow, running kids to activities, keeping up with work, taking care of house projects and hanging out with friends, I've been slacking on writing anything on this blog. Life happens!!

Hannah is in gymnastics class now at the YMCA and loves it. Last Wednesday was her first day and we were worried that she wouldn't want to participate. Any of you that know Hannah knows that she is 'all talk' before any activity then turns into a clingy shy girl when it come 'game time.' I took her to class and she seemed excited but when the instructors called all the kids to stretch out before getting into the activities, she became clingy again....'uh oh' I thought. But soon thereafter, she was out there doing what she was supposed to do and listening to the instructors like a champ. I'm glad she found something that she likes to keep her busy.

Today, the whole family ran Carson to indoor soccer...this is about the 3rd or 4th Saturday of the winter session. Up until today, I've been taking Carson by myself and giving feedback to Tara about how he was doing but it doesn't really do it justice. She had to see for herself.

Today, the kids practiced for the first 40 minutes (like usual) and then the head coach split the kids up for 5 on 5 games lasting the last 20 minutes. After the coach made the selections, Tara asked why Marty (the coach) handpicks the teams. 'You'll see,' I told her.

For the next 20 minutes, Tara was a proud mother. Carson did great and it was a battle out there between all 10 players. It's amazing to see the progress from the first time he touched a soccer ball and now. Towards the end of the game, a guy sitting next to Tara struck up a conversation about having Carson play on his YMCA team. He was impressed with how Carson handled the ball and his hustle on the field. The man's wife joked around about giving Tara recruiting paperwork. As a parent, I'm sure Tara was beaming with pride to have someone ask her son to play on their team.

As soon as the game ended, the mother of two boys that Carson had just played against came over to Tara and asked if Carson would play on their Capital Soccer select team. Her husband was a soccer player in Yugoslavia and is now an international referee. They too were impressed with Carson's play and believe that good players should play with other good players to continue to excel. I was proud but probably not as much as Tara. Tara and Carson have a special bond and I could see that today was an extremely proud moment for her.

As a parent, you're always proud of your kids' accomplishments and usually their biggest fans. And you usually have a biased view about how they do in sports or school or whatever. It's always nice for others to ratify what you believe in your kids.....

Go Carson! Keep working hard and, for gosh sakes, please get a scholarship so I don't have to pay for college!