Clara and Chase

What can't we go out and play with the big kids?

Before the weather turned cold, Clara loved to stand at the back screen door and babble away. In the picture above, her friend Chase, our daycare provider's son, decided to join her to watch the older kids playing in the back yard. Although Chase is three months younger than Clara, he learned to crawl at the same time as Clara and learned to walk before Clara. While I am proud of Chase's accomplishments and offer my praise to him, it is sometimes bittersweet to be reminded of Clara's delayed milestones. Those bittersweet moments are fleeting because I know that Clara is making steady progress toward her milestones in large part because she is motivated by her friend Chase.

Soccer Season

Owen's first experience with organized team sports began this spring with soccer. Our expectations are pretty basic - run around and have fun while beginning to learn how to work as part of a team to accomplish a common goal. The added bonus is that he learning to be social with other boys that he has never met before.

At this age (3 and 4 years old), soccer generally consists of a pack of boys chasing the ball with a couple of stragglers trying to keep up. Since Owen is the youngest on his team, he is generally slower than the other boys and is often the straggler. While he wants to kick the ball, he also wants to pretend to be a train, or pay attention to all the people on the sidelines, or watch the cars in the parking lot, or...you get the idea. Owen is also a talker and likes to try to tell the other boys his view on how things should be done as they are running by him. While we try to keep him focused on the task at hand, all that really matters is that he is having fun while getting some exercise.

Kick Off!!

I'm Thirsty!

Is this game over yet?