Knitting Zeal

My soccer champ

My little guy is playing real soccer this season on a real team with actual uniforms.  They play real games too in their teeny tiny cleats.  It cracks me up to see a bunch of five year olds chasing the soccer ball across the mini field.  Up until now he has played instructional soccer at the Y and for our township which was basically not soccer and just learning how to kick a ball and run.  This season he's playing for our local soccer club and so far he is enjoying it.  He has a game every Saturday.  This weekend was his third game against another kindergarten team.  The kids had fun and scored lots of goals, but they don't keep score because they are supposed to be playing for fun and sportsmanship, not competition at this age.  (Thankfully!) 

My kiddo is not very aggressive, which is a characteristic I like in him in most situations.  The exception, he is almost too polite on the soccer field. We've been trying to encourage him that it's ok to kick the ball away from other players and to jump into the action.  This weekend's game he figured out how to get in there and managed to score a goal with assistance from a teammate.  We were more excited than him.  He said to me, "I just gave the ball a little kick and it went in."  

Besides learning how to play on a team and improve his soccer skills, playing for the local soccer club means he also plays with all kids that are in kindergarten at his school.  While no one on his team is in his class this year, I hope that establishing these contacts will help as he grows in the school.  

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Sunday afternoon at the ballpark

We spent this afternoon at Citizens Bank Park watching the Phillies beat the Mets!  We took the train and the subway to get there, fulfilling the little guy's need for SEPTA experience.  (I have mentioned his obsession with SEPTA, right?)  It was the first game of this season for us and the weather was perfect, if not a bit hot in the sun.  The kiddo asked to leave approximately halfway into the FIRST inning, as he was too hot.  He ate so much junk food, including his first cotton candy, which not surprisingly he loved (although did not finish!) The 1st through say 7th innings were rather slow, but by the end of the game the Phillies started playing well and the crowd became more enthusiastic, so the kiddo made it until the end.  Phillies won, 8-2!

Baseball on a sunny Sunday afternoon

This past Sunday we had the good fortune to attend a Phillies baseball game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.  The three of us had never been to the "Bank" as apparently it is called, and the monkey boy had never been to a baseball game before, so we were all very excited.  Decked out in our Phillies tee shirts (mine borrowed from a friend because, well, why would I own one?) we arrived at the stadium complex and discovered that there was so much more to do at there than just watch the game!  Outside the stadium was a row of vendors giving away free things, like bags of Wonderful Pistachios and cups of Turkey Hill ice cream. The little guy was more than happy to enjoy ice cream at 11:30 in the morning!  
My husband received our tickets from someone at work, so when we realized that they were seats in the Diamond Club, we were thrilled.  We didn't know what to expect, but when we figured it out, Wow!  Not only were our seats great, behind home plate on the third base side, but we had access to the "Diamond Club" which was an air conditioned lounge/bar/restaurant.  It was wonderful being able to take a break from the sun and heat and sit indoors for a bit.  They had the game on tvs there as well as the women's soccer game.  Everyone was really friendly to us and doted on the monkey boy.  He got his "first game" certificate and one of the staff gave him a little Phanatic figurine as a souvenir.  He also enjoyed more ice cream, but in a Phillies cap this time.  It was tasty after being so hot. We found a playground in the stadium, the Phanatic Fun Zone, that he had a blast climbing on.   We walked around the entire stadium prior to the game and were amazed at how much is there.  It really was beautiful!  We watched a bit of the practice and warmup of the pitchers in the bullpen.  Oh, and we watched the game too!  The little guy and I wandered around a lot, as it was a long game.  He seemed to enjoy it and took in all that there was to do.  He finally was able to get his long awaited foam finger.  Months ago we read a Curious George book about baseball and he must have seen someone with a foam finger in the book because that is all he kept asking us for months. After having no luck finding a Phillies one in the local stores (it was off-season) I found a generic red one at a party store.  Well, now he has the authentic and classic Phillies one!  He was really excited that now he has one for each hand. It's the little things that excite him! 

The Phillies won the game, 14-1, against the Braves, which according to my husband was meaningful. It was a great game to see, since it was so high scoring.  At least that is the impression I got from his feedback!  (I'm so not a sports fan!)  We did get to see one home run, so we saw the Liberty Bell lighted sign "ring" although in bright sunlight it did not have the same effect as if it were an evening game.  

After the "win" we went down to the edge of the field to show the kid home plate and the Phillies dugout.  He had more fun running around the outside of the stadium!  

team player

With the past few months of winter leaving us housebound more often than I liked, I was desperate to find an indoor activity for my son that would expend some energy...more than just going to the mall again.  We (finally) joined our local YMCA a few months ago as a family, where he has been taking swimming lessons for a couple of years.  When I received the spring catalog of classes I was excited to see so many sports/recreation classes listed for little kids.  He's only three, so being in a formerly organized sport is not age appropriate.  Most of his "girl" friends take dance lessons, and while I'm not opposed to him learning dance, he has not expressed interest in it and I thought he needed more exposure to boys, since so many of his buddies are girls.  We signed up for an intro to team sports for 3-4 year olds.  We've gone twice so far.  It is hysterical. 

The first class focused upon indoor hockey. After a series of stretching exercises and sprints around the gym, the "coach" handed out foam and plastic hockey sticks to all the kids.  They practiced hitting balls, running drills, and then broke up into two teams to play each other.  Let's recall that the average age of the children is 3.5 years.  My monkey boy refused to do the stretching and I had to run him for the sprints around the gym.  He was ok with being handed a stick, though, and had a blast.  

This week the sport was baseball, or more appropriately T-ball.  My guy still refused to stretch, but he agreed to sit near the group with me and pretend to stretch at times.  He outright refused to run around the gym for sprints.  When the coach pulled out a bat, bases and balls, he was ready to be a team player.  The coach taught them first to run bases and each kid got two turns to run around the bases.  Then each kid got a chance to hit five balls and then run around bases again.  Finally, each kid was assigned a spot to stand to field the ball that the coach threw to them.  My guy was on third base and seemed to like it.  More than half the kids could not follow directions and there were some tears about misunderstandings, but all in all they had fun.  Thankfully my monkey was able to understand the directions and follow through most of the time. It took a lot of patience on the part of the coach, along with lots of parental encouragement, to get through the class. 

Neither myself, nor my husband, were involved in team sports as a child.  I grew up in the 70s and early 80s when Title IX was brand new and there weren't the opportunities for young girls the way there are now in regards to team sports.  In high school there were girls' teams, but by then I was not in the mindset to play a sport.  So now I am taking my son to a class where at least half the class has team sports parents.  The difference is obvious.  The one little boy was shouting "defense, defense, defense gets the girls!" the first week.  Apparently his dad was a lacrosse player in school, playing defense, and taught him that.  His mom informed me that she played offense, but was overruled in the house.  This little boy is very serious about his sports, which makes his dad very happy, according to mom.  Mom remarked he doesn't know his ABC's but he can tell you almost anything about sports.  He even brought his baseball glove to class this week!  (I  hadn't even thought about it!)  Another little boy, my friend's son, was SOOOO excited to play baseball. He could barely control himself he just wanted to play.  He tried to catch every ball and even hit all five of his balls on his turn!  Both of his parents were big team sports players growing up, so it isn't surprising that he is a lot like them.  I realized that my monkey had never even played baseball before, as he didn't know how to hold the bat.  I think this is going to be a good class for him...maybe he'll find his passion in one particular game.  And if not, it's ok.  I also have a feeling there will be a lot of theatre and drama classes in our future too, considering his dramatics and active imagination.

When we came home today, we had to locate our Curious George baseball bat and glove, but we could only find the bat.  I think we packed everything else up in the barn (shed) for the winter.  It's going to be a fun spring this year.  I see a t-ball set up in the back yard in our future!