First Soccer Practice (That we went to)

At Carrie's request, we skipped soccer to help around the house last week. This week, we were going.

Shane knew it, but he was not happy to see me when I pulled up to afterschool. All the kids were on Minecraft. Minecraft!

Not only that, the teachers had assigned the kids to make a hurricane shelter in the game!

Shane nearly had a meltdown. If you know him at all, you know why. I don't think the teachers could have picked a better project for him and here I was to ruin it and make him run around in the heat.

He came against his will, but I got him there.

Soccer is actually a chore for me this year. I have to drive from my work to Shane's school, turn around and drive back past my school and continue on to where Shane's practice is. It's about 30 minutes in the car for Shane and 50 minutes for me.

I understood Shane's frustration, but I wasn't happy to hear griping when I had stopped what I needed/wanted to do for work to spend nearly an hour on the road.

I had hoped there would be a Scottsville team, but only one other kid from Shane's school was on the team. We're committed this season, but there is a Scottsville group that formed last year I may sign Shane up for in the spring instead.

Shane's a hyper-active, soundbox, space cadet and it shows around the other kids. He's the only one dancing in place and monologue-ing when the coach tries to huddle everyone up, but I think that makes sports all the more important for him. It's a physical and social outlet. It lets Shane feel like he belongs to something bigger than himself (even if he would rather be playing Minecraft).

I was surprised Shane didn't offer to play goalie. He was vocal about his prowess as a defender and eager to show it off.

Shane had a solid first practice. He looked good. Mostly. Shane and I really need to work on his kicking form. His idea of a power kick is anything but.

The coach called me up from the sidelines to join in.

He put me on the opposite team of Shane with a grin (Shane was mortified!).

I ran around with the kids for the last 15-20 minutes. I really enjoy helping out. I just don't want to be responsible for everything when I have so many other priorities that conflict.

The coach seems like a well organized guy. He had spare water, pennies, gear, and an idea of what he wanted to do. He's been communicative over email and has clearly coached before.

I wonder who will be the first old friend we run into on the field.

I didn't want to waste all the driving, so Shane and I went into town for dinner and an errand. I let Shane choose ChicFilA or Costco. He wanted CFA until he learned we were only doing the drive-through.

We ended up getting pizza, yogurt, and groceries at Costco. Shane got to watch some scenes from Rogue One on a huge TV (It's the best recent Star Wars movie in my opinion even if not for Shane's age).

Tonight was a good night. The commute is a pain, but we'll see how the rest of the season goes.

SOCA Training Center

To say, "We're sorry about all the cancellations," SOCA offered a free practice session at their 'regional training center' for anyone willing to show up. It was half an hour away in Ruckersville, but Shane and I chugged out there. 

We went to the U8 session instead of the U10 with the hope that Sam and/or Iggy would be there. Sam was planning on going. I'd traded some texts with his parents beforehand.

Sam's dad mistook the time, though. I thought there'd be more kids, but with Shane there were 15 total. That was enough to break the kids into two mini games.

Shane did well, but he was clearly one of the biggest kids on the field! He normally does well when he's confident about something and having a size advantage helps with being confident!

Shane was focused most of the time! He buddied up with Ezra whom I recognized from baseball last spring. I had to yell for Shane to stand up at one point. He started to crawl on on all fours and said he had "a plan." I don't know if his plan included getting hit in the face, but crawling on soccer fields is not advisable.

The last ten minutes they let the kids pick a game. Shane immediately organized sharks and minnows.

Shane was shouting out rules and in his glory. He had most of the kids listening to him and he was supercharged. One little boy ran off crying, because he wasn't sure what the rules were and they started playing without him. The boy rejoined, but I pointed it out to Shane later. He was so swept up, he never even noticed.

We didn't have a play date, but we got a lot of energy out. We broke up the return trip with a few errands.

I bought light bulbs at Lowe's while Shane checked out the Halloween decorations.

We hit Costco next for gas, pizza, and a light grocery run.

Best news: We finished The Fellowship of the Ring on the way home! We got to watch the end of the movie with Mommy when we got home. It's PG-13, but breaking it up into small chunks and listening to the book to know everything ahead of time made it manageable.

Still, I'm going to hold off on The Two Towers for a while. Probably years. There's more stuff in Shane's age range and I want him reading more on his own.

Soccer Practice 2 - U10 2018

It was hot. Real hot. 90+ degrees, humid, and felt like over a 100 degrees F out. But, it was soccer day. Play on!

Fall Soccer 2018 Season Start

Shane and I showed up for his first soccer practice today! It was 90 degrees out and humid.  

There were nine kids and one coach as I walked up, so I became an assistant coach to even the odds.

I recognized the coach and the coach's kids names from Shane's preschool. They threw an end of year bash years ago.

Almost all of the kids were from Burnley-Moran. I recognized a few other Jackson Via kids' names on the roster, but they weren't at practice. At least one, Zakir, is switching teams for a practice time that better fits his family (They did that last Fall, too).

Shane was forced to go up to U10. He's only 7.5, and won't turn 8 before the end of the season, so I was a little annoyed about it.

I'm hoping Shane will play up to the level of those around him. He's the second youngest kid on the team and not exactly a star.

U10 will include position play, a goalie, and keeping the score for real. I'm curious how Shane will handle it. He was quick to volunteer to play defensive, but he, also, threw a fit and showed really thin-skin when Hayden laughed at him for making a mistake. The coach made Hayden sit down and said, "We don't laugh at teammates," but that makes me wonder how Shane will handle situations in a real game.

Our first game will be September 15th.

A Different Ride

I took a different ride to work today. Rainbow Dash distracted me every time she swung into my peripheral vision.

Carrie sent me a text to make sure I got to work incident free. I don't get those texts in the Volvo.

The reason for the switch was tire related. Carrie made friends at a tire shop while she was living at Sonya's and raising Nibs. She drove my car to help Sonya and pick up tires for a nice price.

Which left me with the truck.

It took Shane a moment to realize what had happened when I picked him up. I let him walk out into the parking lot (he marched so determinedly) and then I asked, "Where's the car?" That made him stop and look around. He put it together and changed direction. I don't know where he was walking to before!

We had our soccer practice in 90 degree weather.

Since my school is attached to the field, I was able to go inside to refill Shane's water bottle. That let him share some.

Only one coach was present. He made the wise choice of talking less and keeping the kids active. They played a bunch of games. It was one of their best practices all year!

It's amazing how kids improve even when it seems like every practice and game is chaos. The doing is the important part. 

Fun practice. Shane asked for blob tag and there was blob tag. 

Day of Games

Happy International National Tabletop Day! John was hosting an event at his library. I was happy to help. I packed more games than we could possibly use into my trunk.

I resisted the temptation to throw more in.

Once we were packed up, we headed to Shane's soccer game.

My plan was to let him run around and get tired before subjecting him to a car ride.

Energy was exerted. The field was a muddy mess.

Shane's continued the habit of trying to stay on defense. He's got energy in spades, but is surprisingly hesitant to spend it.

It's not like he sits still and rests on the sideline. He got in trouble for pouring out the coach's water to make a 'lake.'

Jeremiah is the other player who likes to hang back on defense. Maybe they're bonding.

Another game, another wave of high-fives and a snack for the road!

Two hours (and one Hank the Cowdog) later, we were at Tyson Regional Library. Cooley and several of Matt's JMU friends were already there. We used to play DOTA on Warcraft 3 with the guys, but Alex was the only one I'd ever met in person. It was great to reminisce ("Remember when we all made power ranger names?" "Or what about LN and how we became the Lithuanian National Team?")!

Shane inspected the fragiles,...

...but John was smart enough to bring other entertainment options for him.

With Shane on the Switch, I was able to socialize with less distraction.

John and Cooley ran through an Age of Sigmar skirmish. Alex and another guy tried Warhammer The Adventure Card Game. I talked to Nick and he started to pull out Space Hulk for a run through (Can you sense a Games Workshop Vibe?).

Nana and Pop stopped by after visiting Dad's friend, X B, at a track meet. Shane gladly gave up the switch in favor of Pokemon and grandparents.

That left me free to talk and try Space Hulk for a little bit. We actually had a pair of guys walk in who had heard about our event online. They joined John and Alex for a game of Welcome Back to the Dungeon. I hopped back and forth and did my best to be social and facilitate before settling down to finish Space Hulk.

I won as Genestealers. Cooley wanted to play a round, so I switched sides and played Marines. I'm glad I played the game if only to spend time with friends and to learn I don't want to buy it.

Nick, Alex, John, Cooley, Shane, and I met up at Noodles and Company after the library closed.

Alex was nice enough to play Love Letter: Batman with Shane after we ate. Shane dealt me in only to knock me out before I knew I was in the game!

Nick and Alex had other plans and said good-bye after dinner. The rest of us went by a friendly local gaming store to poke around.

John took Cooley home and then rendezvoused with Shane and I at Dairy Queen for ice cream. Shane spilled an entire cup of Hi-C in front of his chair. Calvin and Hobbes was a casualty.

Of course, I made Shane clean it up. I had almost thrown away his drink when we left Noodles and Co. Almost! Shane chose to prioritize his Pokemon cards over the drink. See them in his cup holders?

The cup was not in the cup holder, but on the seat.

Oops.

Lesson learned, I hope.

I got on Shane's case some, but not much. He knew he was in trouble. He worked to clean up the mess and take responsibility which is what I wanted to see.

Shane kept saying he didn't want ice cream because he messed up. I told him he'd done his penance, but he insisted. He was stubborn about it, so I switched up my approach. I told Shane he couldn't have a fancy blizzard, but he could have a small cone.

The cone was accepted.

I had an Oreo Blizzard in case anyone's interested. It's the best Blizzard out there.

Shane and I said good-bye to John and met up with Nana and Pop at Jama's apartment to spend the night. Shane was pumped to see them, but still fell asleep.

Which was great, because the adventure would continue in the morning.

Side note: Nana thought he looked filthy and needed to shower before hopping in bed. She also combed his hair for what was probably the first time in his life