Soccer's Over!

So soccer this summer has been a whirlwind. It lasted 8 weeks (I think?) but it seemed like only a few! Buddy's skills grew by leaps and bounds, but unfortunately his attitude grew with it.

It's surprisingly tough coaching a team when your son is clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the players. I didn't go into this season expecting this, since last season Buddy was one of the dreamier ones on the field.

This year, between his sudden coordination and all the time he and his dad are spending playing together, he's suddenly a superstar!

And that's great. I'm so proud. But what do you do when your boy suddenly dominates to the point where no one else on his team even gets a chance? We talked about making passes, letting everyone have a chance to have the ball... but how can you blame the kid for not wanting to do that when he passes to a teammate and then that teammate doesn't even run with the ball? It would be different if the other kids tried but failed, but we have some kids who won't even run. Which drives me nuts, of course.

Anyway, last week Buddy's cocky attitude got him in trouble. After scoring his 4th or 5th goal of the game, he did a little happy dance and some kid from the other team got ticked off and decked him. And Buddy hit him back. And all of a sudden they were in a fistfight.

I was mortified. But what do you say? Don't be happy about your success? Don't be proud of yourself? And when someone creeps up from behind trying to hurt you... shouldn't you defend yourself?

I definitely gave him a talk about sportsmanship, but... I don't know. I maybe don't think he really did anything wrong? I mean, if another child had scored a goal, would it have been wrong for them to run around and cheer about it? And since my kid is only 5, is it really fair to expect him to understand that he's not allowed to be vocal about his success, since he's doing better than others?

Anyway, this year was great, because Buddy got so much better. And because I got over a fear and coached his team. But I definitely can't wait for next year, when he will hopefully play against kids more his own level :)

Proud coach/mama with her favorite teammate!

Kick the Coach!

Ok, so you guys all have heard ad nauseum about my horrible anxiety. Well, one of the things I really wanted to  do but was too nervous to actually try was coaching Buddy's soccer team. So my wonderful father agreed to coach with me! He's the head coach and I'm the assistant (at least for this year) and it's been really great so far!

Of course, since I'm coaching I don't have as much time to take ridiculous amounts of pictures of Buddy. But we're having a great time! Buddy's favorite drill/game thing is called "Kick the Coach" which means they dribble the balls around and try to kick them at us, the moving targets! We also have run ones involving animal noises, one where the kids pretend to be pirates, and some fun 'monkey in the middle' games.

It seems to be working well, since today in their first game our team (the Wingers) scored 4 goals! Oh, and did I mention which teammate scored those goals? That's right, my Buddy!!

Next week I'll get pictures of him in uniform, but in the meantime here we all are at the skills clinic last week!

Umphrey's, and Soccer, and Rock-Climbing, and Bike Riding, and...

So there has been lots of stuff going on, and I just realized that I haven't filled my faithful blog readers in on it!

Ok. So last weekend we went to Minneapolis for a mini-vacation! I went to an Umphrey's concert with my brother:

Which was awesome and great and all, and I loved dancing and screaming and watching some sick guitar solo's... but I also got super anxious and claustrophobic and we ended up having to leave shortly after the second set started. Which was still OK, because I had a good time and left before I would have had a horrible time, so it all worked out. Still, next time I'm gonna make it through the whole thing!

We also went to a dinner-theatre production of Hairspray, and Buddy had a sleepover with Uncle Dave which sounds like it was super fun! Unfortunately I don't have that many pictures, since my batteries died leaving me with only a crappy camera phone. URGH.

Anyway, this week was kind of good weather, so we did a bunch of playing outside. We drew a road with chalk again, and this time we put buildings on it and made into a city! It was really fun, but of course it snowed heavily the next day so all our hard work washed away.

Soccer has also been going on, this year Buddy is much more focused and has a little more motor control so he's taking it very seriously and is having a pretty good time!

Look at that kick!

Playing defense!

And last but not least, he tried the rock-climbing wall today! I was kind of surprised that he had the guts to do it, because sometimes new things kind of paralyze him... but even though he was nervous he sucked it up! He even climbed up twice :) Uncle Dave, now you know what you can do with him next time we come down to visit!

Elf on the Shelf

So, even though Buddy's dad and I aren't together, his family and I are pretty close still. And I got some messages from Buddy's Aunt Bethany, who found this great, sort of interactive Christmas story called "The Elf on the Shelf". It is a story about an elf who is your friend for the weeks leading up to Christmas, and he goes and tells Santa every night if you were good or bad. It comes with an elf doll, that is supposed to be moved every night while the child is asleep so he looks like he has gone to the North Pole and back! Then, Grandma Lynn surprised me with the whole set when she came to get Buddy for the weekend at his dad's.

Anyway, Buddy just got home from his dad's to find this in his room:

Notice his rock collection, it's always growing and changing!

He was so stunned he didn't even know what to say! He wasn't sure if he was supposed to see it, or if he was supposed to wait for something, couldn't decide whether to get in and see or hang back for directions!

"Mom, is it OK? Can I check it out?"

We  read the story, Buddy named his elf "Fuzzy" and is really excited about it! My curious boy has asked about a thousand questions about the elf, has been running to tell Fuzzy things all night, and I caught him telling Fuzzy what he wanted for Christmas!

Anyway, thanks Aunt Bethany for the awesome idea, and thanks Grandma Lynn for getting this for us! We're having lots of fun with it!

Loving the Fall!

So, for some unexplained reason, Buddy didn't have school today. I think it was just an excuse to get us to pay more for the daycare services, but I decided to take advantage of his "day off" and stay home from school myself!

The weather was beautiful today. Seriously, if I could have one type of weather all year round, it would have been today. High 60's or low 70's, sunny but with a little breeze... beautiful.

We definitely took advantage of our day off! We went to the Eau Claire Dells and played around for a few hours, plus spent some fun time outside, just playing around on bikes and with chalk and such. I got some decent pictures too!

I love this picture. So much. I think I'm getting it framed.

Trying to give his mother a heart attack by standing as close to the edge as possible!

My Baby's not a Baby!

This morning, I dropped Buddy off for his first day of school! He was so excited, he wanted to look extra handsome for his first day. So:

He made sure to be cleanly shaved, no stubble for the first day!

He combed his hair to "look like Grandpa's"

He wore one of his "church shirts" and would have worn dressy pants too if I hadn't talked him out of it!

He was goofy, since he was so excited!

And he left me! For his first day of 4K!

I'm not sure whether I'm happy, or sad, or anxious, or excited. But I'm sure proud that my baby is growing up!

All's Fair in Love...

So, every year in Wausau we have this lovely tradition, the Wisconsin Valley Fair. As my mother often says, "The fair is when the toothless people climb out of the gutter for their once-yearly view of the sun," congregate on a gravel path, and spend way too much money on greasy food and overpriced rides.

Obviously, this tradition is much-loved by the people of my fine town. Except in our family, we never really got into it! Well, the fair just happens to be right down the road from my apartment, and though I had debated just keeping Shiloh in the dark about it I ended up getting invited to go with Amber and some others. So because I had some half-baked notions of being left out as a child because we didn't go, I figured I'd take him.

Seriously, I do this every year. I know now why my mom just didn't ever take us! First off, I ended up spending almost $50 on rides, tickets to get in, food, and the Demolition Derby.

I didn't even enjoy myself! I went on 2 rides, ended up getting sunstroke really bad, felt dizzy, nauseous, and thought I might pass out. I ended up leaving my kiddo with Amber, who graciously offered to finish off the fair trip for me, rather than watch me collapse.

Buddy did have fun though! Next year, I'm pawning the job off on an uncle. Dave, I'll pay you to take him! Just please, let me stay home!

Amber's brother Nick was a really nice guy and rode with Shiloh on a bunch of rides.

Making new friends on the car ride :)

The Zoo! (Finally)

So, in case you missed the memo, I've been wanting to go to the Henry Vilas Zoo for ages! And yesterday, we finally got to go with my friend Amber.

We meant to leave Steven's Point around 9 am and get to the zoo by 11. Well, as these things go, we didn't leave till around 10 and didn't actually get into the zoo till about 12:30. Needless to say, this made for a LOOOOONG day. But it was still super fun!

When we got to Madison, we met up with Amber's friend Kelsey for a little bit. A nice parking police-man asked us if we wanted him to take this picture so we could all be in it :)

We also at a picnic lunch before we went into the zoo, since we didn't want to spend a bunch of money on hot dogs etc. By the way, Lunchables are absolutely disgusting. I don't know why I wanted them so bad in elementary school!

Once we got to the zoo, it was 4 nonstop hours of looking at animals and reading signs. Of course there was some goofing around too!

Buddys's arms compared to monkey arms!

These giraffes were separated by a fence, since I guess they had been fighting haha!

This tiger was pissed.

Buddy as a baby kangaroo!

Mama with antlers!

On the train ride!

Giant turtles!

Alligator snapping turtle. Totally gross, and also fascinating.

The otters! Buddy played with them for a long time, they loved the attention!

At about 4:30, we finally left the zoo. We stopped at Kelsey's house to eat a quick dinner, then started home.

As you can see from the Capitol Building in the background, he didn't even make it out of town before he crashed :)

The zoo was amazing, I'm really glad I've got a friend like Amber who loves hanging out with my kiddo, and I want to go back again sometime soon!

Earth Day!

Mama loves Earth Day. Seriously, I love it. So I was looking for crafts and activities to do today for probably a week in advance. Of course, hardly any of my ideas happened, but Buddy had his own creative thoughts and I went with it!

We started the morning off with a litter walk. This was Buddy's idea, since when I asked him what we should do for Earth Day he said "Pick up the earth, duh!" 

We also invited a few of the extended family members. Unfortunately, we went to a park that was surprisingly clean, and it was freezing outside! Buddy really got into the idea of cleaning up, and once we dropped off the friend we went back and did some more "litter walking" around our neighborhood. I think my bud was proud of himself for making a noticeable difference, and he wants to do another clean-up soon!

You know you're a hippy when it's not an issue of finding an appropriate shirt for Earth Day, but an issue of picking just one! Buddy's is an ice-cream earth that says "save some for me", mine is an earth with different colored hands holding it up saying "we're all in this together".

Our Earth Day craft (that I picked), an Earth luminary. I used tissue paper, mod-podge, a circular candle-holder, and a paintbrush.

Buddy hard at work, cutting up the tissue paper and then painting it on. He did NOT like it when the mod-podge got on his fingers, so I had to hold the glass and the tissue paper on while he painted. Hence, awkward photos, it's tough to take a picture one-handed and all sticky :)

The finished project! It looks cute, I'm proud of it. Buddy didn't like making the "continents", so there are only 3. But it's still nice!

And this was Buddy's idea for a craft, he just wanted to color an earth and make some promises to it! I traced a bowl for the outline, and let Buddy draw the continents and then color them in. My favorite of Buddy's promises is "Keep room clean (Mom too!)". His words, not mine!