A Soccer Mom?
Since we’ve moved in with my parents, Lil C has been enjoying her outdoor time. She has become a huge fan of kicking a soccer ball around the yard and she’s really quite amazing, considering that she’s only going to turn three on Saturday (Yes, this Saturday. Let’s not talk about it too much or I will cry. My BABY is turning THREE!).
I did some digging and found a soccer program for 3-6 year olds at a local fitness center and took her for a test drive class week. In preparation for her first big night of soccer, we bought her the tiniest little shin guards ever and a size 3 soccer ball. Being a field hockey girl myself, I had no clue that there even were different sizes.
We arrived at the fitness center and Lil C, dressed in her adorable soccer gear, went out onto the turf field. There were parents milling around with their kids and I was uncertain who the coach was since no one approached us at all. After a few minutes, the coach blew the whistle and called the kids into a huddle. Lil C wasn’t really interested in hanging out with the other kids and instead stood leaning all of her bodyweight into my legs.
Soon the coach started working on "skills." I should mention here that when I inquired about the program, I was told that they divide kids up into smaller age groups once there and that they play "fun little games" to get them to learn the game. The coach began by telling them to work on toe touches. As he demonstrated, I looked at my Mom, who had come along to watch, absolutely dumbstruck. There was no way I could even do toe touches the way he was doing them. Little kids were falling all over the place. The coach seemed to levitate above the ball rotating one foot to the next and Lil C just looked at me like "not gonna happen."
After that he told them to put the ball on the inside of their feet and kick the ball from the inside of one foot to the other. I felt like asking him if he realized that small children don’t have much extra room between their feet and legs once you put a soccer ball in between them. I tried to help Lil C but it was hopeless. She’s just not big enough to even begin to learn that skill. It would be like teaching a 1-year old how to play the piano or the guitar. Your hands need to be a certain size to do that, and for soccer, your legs need to be longer than 16 inches.
Soon the kids were able to kick the ball down the field, but Lil C kicked the ball in the opposite direction. She was running around like a little star but wasn’t following the coach’s directions and honestly, I couldn’t blame her.
The coach then set up passing drills. No, I’m not kidding. He placed two cones half way up the field and created two lines of kids. He would toss the ball down the field and he expected the kids to pass down the field and score. Lil C decided to go to the other end of the field and kick the ball around with daddy. The coach did not once speak to her or even notice that she was there.
Then he announced that they were going to play a "game." He haphazardly divided kids into groups and told half to head one direction and the other half to score at the other end. What happened next was nothing short of complete and total mayhem.
The big kids were trampling the little kids. There were at least four children crying. One had been knocked down by the bigger kids and subsequently stepped on by other kids. He was miserable but his parents kept sending him out for more. The coach never even looked at him, let alone ask him if he was o.k.
Several parents were grabbing their kids and leaving. The coach still didn’t notice that there was a problem. As the ball approached the side where we were standing, Lil C acted as if she wanted to kick the ball, but we quickly realized this was a bad idea as a swarm of bigger boys came running at her. I have no doubt they would have trampled her too. She was easily the tiniest one there.
So, we picked her up and left, but not before demanding our money back. I told the owner that I was completely misled as to what would happen in the class, and that he better watch because he’s going to have multiple injuries from the way that the "game" was being conducted. He tried to weasel his way out of giving our money back, but ended up giving it back because we wouldn’t back down.
He said he would talk to the "coach" and give me a call Monday morning to let me know what happened and if maybe he was without an assistant or something, which would explain why it was complete and total chaos. It’s Wednesday, and I have yet to receive a call.
Yesterday, I signed Lil C up with a different soccer program. The director of the program teachers it herself and says that she teaches the kids to pretend the soccer balls are puppies. Then, they take their "puppies" down the soccer field to "Grandma’s house" (aka the goal). I think this sounds much more three-year old friendly and we’re excited to see how she does in an environment where she doesn’t have to "bend it like Beckham" instantly.
Check out The BBM Review for your chance to win a Sesame Street K’nex playset.
Three Week Countdown
This morning there were at least six trucks parked in front of our house. There were three guys working on the siding, at least four guys working on moving the Bilco door, a handful of guys inside cutting and putting up the trim, and a couple guys laying the groundwork for our sidewalk which looks like it will be poured sometime tomorrow. When we arrived tonight, there were two lone guys still working on the final bolts of the Bilco door. I have no doubt that the guys who sawed through 10 inches of concrete will be sleeping well tonight.
I will also be sleeping well tonight, knowing full well that neither of my fantasy football teams have a snowball’s chance in hell of turning out a win. Between injuries, and bad decisions on my part, I’ll be raking in two losses tonight unless Santonio Holmes and Heath Miller absolutely light it up. I’m not holding my breath.
Because I have an early morning of pounding basic research paper writing skills into the minds of young and hopefully impressionable freshman, I’m going to keep this short.
However, if you are the parent of a 2-5 year old who happens to like Sesame Street, you may want to check out The BBM Review, the latest review, and the contest giveaway. Keep coming back too, because there are three martial arts books in the queue and more giveaways as the holidays approach.
Finally, you may want to check out Karl’s birthday dare wrap-up. He took my dare to make a music video and I’ll just say that it’s not work safe and it’s slightly disturbing, but it’s still quite funny.
A Visit from the Tooth Fairy. . . Finally
Big I has had shark teeth and extremely loose teeth for months. Those suckers just didn’t want to come out. Everything changed tonight. Because I was concerned about her top front tooth being swallowed during the night, I encouraged her to really get wiggling. We even tried to tie some dental floss around it to pull that thing out. She kept laughing so that didn’t work.
As my Mom, my Dad, Lil C and I all encouraged her in front of the hallway mirror, the tooth got even more loose; but after 30 minutes of intense wiggling, there was still nothing tooth fairy worthy. I went downstairs and Mr. BBM was supposed to be putting the girls to bed, when he came downstairs with an ecstatic toothless girl. It finally came out.
She went from indescribable joy to complete depression in only minutes. The magnitude of the tooth fairy actually taking her tooth was just too much for her. She was reduced to tears.
We managed to find our tooth fairy kit, and we washed the tooth and placed it in the little pocket on the teeny tiny pillow. As she drifted off to sleep upstairs, having come to grips with the tooth fairy and her "mission," the actual fairy got to work.
The "tooth fairy" typed up a teeny tiny letter in 6 pt. font telling Big I how exciting it is to get a new client, and how she needs to continue taking good care of her beautiful teeth. The fairy then printed out a certificate and rolled up the teeny tiny letter into a little scroll, complete with $10 (I know people, I know, but you have to remember that we are living with "Mom-Mom" and "Pop-Pop" and this was a big and long awaited event. We’ll certainly be letting Big I know in the morning that the tooth fairy doesn’t usually leave such large bills). Because the "tooth fairy" has mad creativity skills, she tied that little scroll up with mint dental floss. Was that not a stroke of genius? I mean, really. This "tooth fairy" is one with-it gal.
Something tells me it’s not going to be a problem waking Big I up for school tomorrow morning. Something tells me we’ll be seeing a big toothless grin.
Jumping Back In with Both Knees
I don’t know how to ease my way back into karate, so I just jumped right in last night. I figured that while Big I was in class, I would take the early class which consists of mostly white to green belts. I adapted what I needed to, doing punches at full force but snap kicks in a very slow and controlled manner. Hanshi kept reminding me to take it easy, and I appreciated his acknowledging that it’s o.k. for me to do things differently.
When the class moved on to kata at full speed, Hanshi asked me to take a new white belt aside and teach him the 10-step blocking drill. The guy knew only the first block, but by the end of the class he was doing the entire drill correctly. I really like working with new people; I always have liked it. It gives me a chance to work on basics; and you always learn something more effectively when you’re teaching it to someone else. Plus, concentrating on someone else helps distract from your own worries about your less-than-perfect knee.
I figured I’d see how the first class went and then decide whether or not I felt like staying for the advanced class. As I watched my friends filing in for the second class, I decided that I really wanted to stay. I was feeling pretty good and figured I would give it a try. Before going to the dojo, I thought about grabbing my karate bag, but ended up leaving it at home figuring we wouldn’t be working weapons at all.
I was wrong. Since I didn’t have my own, I was given an incredible set of Hanshi’s sai to use. I believe they are Shureido; and they were easily the most incredible sai I’ve ever had the pleasure to use (Hint, hint Mr. BBM-Christmas present???). Before we started each weapons kata, I would stand there and try to get through it in my head, trying to predetermine areas that would be tricky for my knee or altogether impossible. I kept drawing a blank. My open hand kata are in there, but my weapons ones had started to fade a bit.
However, once we started moving through the kata, they started coming back to me. It felt so good to work through the moves and see all of the ones I can still do. As the night wore on, it became quite obvious that the sai kata are my friends, while the nunchaku kata is not. There’s a kneeling move in Odo No Nunchaku that just wasn’t going to happen. The second tunfa kata was difficult too. The fades to the back, followed by big pivots and quick movements were really hard. I found myself compensating by putting much more of my weight on my right leg. We won’t even discuss the jumps, except to say that I didn’t do them and my own version elicited a chuckle from Hanshi (Personally, I think he was relieved I didn’t try them).
The entire night, I kept hearing my surgeon’s wise advice, "You can go back, but you’re not going to be any good at it for a while." Every time I messed up, I repeated that in my head. It served as a comforting mantra for the night.
When all was said and done, I had completed two hours of class (the second being the most challenging), and I had a soaking wet gi (for the first time since the night I injured my knee) as my reward for all the hard work. Today, I am sore in the all the places I expected to be sore. Although my knee felt like it was going to mind it last night, today it feels pretty good.
The feeling I had driving home last night was so wonderful. The satisfying exhaustion that comes from a hard class is something I haven’t experienced in almost a year. Karate always made me a better person. I was able to get rid of the stress that was building up. After a hard work out, I was always in a better mood. The release after being unable to do karate for almost 11 months is just amazing. It had been building up all this time and going back is the biggest stress reliever ever. I am so happy to be back, slow pivots, lousy jumps, shaky nunchaku kata and all.
I’d like to wish my mother-in-law a very Happy Birthday! Your card from the girls is going to be late and it’s totally not their fault. I take full responsibility.
If you’re interested in buying some affordable and totally awesome bags for your weapons, check out Bags of Character.
New Attitude
Going back to class on Saturday lit a fire under me. Yesterday, I strapped Lil C on the back of Mr. BBM’s bike and went riding for 30 minutes. No small feat when Lil C is getting bigger everyday and on a bike that is too big for me. When we returned from the bike ride, we took a walk for another 15 minutes. Then we played soccer in the front yard. I am convinced Lil C is going to be a soccer Olympian one day. The kid dribbles the ball better than I do (of course, this is not saying much).
Today, the only thing sore on me after all that exercise is my knee, my right knee, not the knee that got the ACL reconstruction surgery. I’m contemplating finding a nice comfortable, supportive brace for my "healthy" knee. I don’t want to repeat the ACL saga on the other side. I just can’t do it again. I think my right knee has just had it with all the extra responsibility I’ve been placing on it for the past year. It wants to be babied too. The problem is that I can’t baby them both.
I think I’m going to try one of the evening classes this week at the dojo. These classes have a lot more people in them and they tend to have a lot of high ranking belts in them, but I see it as just another step in the process of getting back to the dojo full time. If I need to sit something out, I’ll do it. If I’m the only one standing for the rei in, so be it. I’m learning to accept these hopefully temporary restrictions and everyone else will just have to as well.
Since I went to class on Saturday, my attitude has been completely different. Going to class and getting back to the routine that was once so therapeutic for me just feels so incredibly good. I honestly don’t know how I stayed away for so long. I need this and I’m going to make it work.
If you are a martial artist, don’t forget to check out "Bags of Character." A friend of mine from the dojo makes beautiful, hand-made kobudo weapons bags and you can view them here.
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