He's Ours to Entertain Again

With Nana, Pop, Kathleen, Stu, and crew out of the picture, Shane was ours to keep busy again.

The snowstorm forecast never materialized. Which was great, because Shane had a soccer game. It was cold and drizzly. From Tuesday to Friday, I never imagined the game would happen, so this was a huge turnaround.

But without a huge turnout.

Which is fine. Our team never has to do substitutions! Shane largely hung back and stayed near the goal. I'd hoped he'd have been more active after he won the dribbling contests in practice. I expected the coach to order him forward, too, but he let him hang back on defense.

Shane's friend, Sam, attacked relentlessly. Sam's gotten good at kicking and taking the ball right from under someone's feet and then chasing past them to get it and score.

Which was good timing for Sam's dad, Paul. It was his first time to make it out to a U8 game. He was really happy (And on a random note: Someone else from the UK wandered over. The guy and Paul recognized each other's accents and started talking. Accents draw themselves to their own. The guy kept offering his kid 'crisps.' That's potato chips for us Americans).

Shane was more active after a field switch.

With the usual Shane-annigans and playing around in between.

Shane had a few awesome break away plays once he started going on the attack. Twice, he drove on the goal ahead of the pack with the ball.

Twice, he tried to dribble the ball all the way up to the goal instead of shooting and came away empty handed. Other kids were able to catch up and mob him. Both times I was excited and yelling, "Shoot! Shoot!" Shane kept on dribbling and once it was contested started yelling, "I can't!"

The second time, Shane started to yell at me and ran off to stand in a far corner of the field. He stood there for a few minutes and refused to play. He came out of it for the last 10 seconds to defend the final goal attempt and that was the game.

We talked afterwards.

"You made me cry!" Shane yelled.

"I was excited you were doing so well! I was cheering you on! You did great!" I replied.

"I didn't like it!" Shane said.

"Did you think I was mad?" I asked.

"No."

Really, it was Shane was frustrated. To go from the elation of nearly scoring to being foiled was hard for him to handle. Which is normal. Learning how to deal with that sort of emotion is one of the reasons I've pushed sports! I gave him a big hug and told him I was proud of him.

After a little bit, I did ask, "Do you run faster with or without the ball?" He replied without and I mentioned, "That's one reason it's better to shoot from a little further away. You slow down to manage the ball and other players can catch up to you." He got the point once he was out of the situation and could look back.

We checked in at home and then went out for some errands. Shane read a Star Wars graphic novel from John as we drove.

Our first stop was the 8th anniversary of the FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store). Shane had $6.53 of Easter money burning a whole in his pocket. He wanted to buy a Pokemon GX.

He was able to afford two.

Which he was ecstatic about.

He talked about how awesome they were all the way to Costco. I sat on my phone and texted as he continued to elaborate on the strategies and scenarios he planned to win with them in.

The end of Rogue One was playing on a TV as we went into Costco. I mistook it as a remastered and CG'd opening to Episode IV at first.

Samples were out. Always a plus.

I almost bought a block of over 2 lbs of gouda for $5.79/lb.

Then I thought, "Nah. I don't need that much. I don't want it to go bad. It'll be a little more per pound, but I can get a more manageable portion at Wegmans." I had to go to Wegmans anyway to pick up a special Carrie request.

Wegmans was $8.99/lb! They had added in some smoked flavor, but yeesh. I would have been better off buying more and throwing away whatever molded!

Wegmans was also out of bread flower. Who'd have known?

Shane got to stay home with Carrie for the Wegmans run. He'd been busy all morning and afternoon with me. We unpacked, cleaned and hung out the rest of the night. All the activity felt a little bit like cramming all of our usual stuff in to make it feel like we were back home and not on vacation anymore.