Saturday, May 9, 2009

Soccer: Take II

I am way cooler inside my head than in real life. I can always think of the funniest or smartest comments with imaginary conversations. Put a live human in front of me and suddenly I might as well be stuffed and hung on a wall! Even in this weakness of mine, every now-and-again, I surprise myself. Today, I think I made a friend.

My stomach has been on quite the roller coaster ride this week with highs of excitement and lows of twisting anxiety. I found out with only one week notice that Saturday (today) would be a soccer round-up for the summer woman's league. It has been several years and two kids since I last played competitively. My last attempt was pretty much pathetic...to say the least. My brain and instincts were still on par, but my body was definitely not. Remembering the tragedy of my last attempt, I started more conservatively today, not running around like a wild woman the first 30 seconds and then almost passing out. I hung back and made intermittent strategic runs. I passed more than I dribbled so as not to trip over the ball. After a bit, my confidence rose and I did some tricky stuff...successfully! Ok, maybe here's a good place to mention that the teams were horribly lopsided and the other side had mostly players that resembled cones more than soccer players. We pretty much wasted them, though no score was kept. (To give you a better idea of the situation, let's just say I was tempted to volunteer to be goalie for our time after a while...not a good sign for the skill level of our opponents). I'm not sure they really had any shots on goal. But, it definitely boosted my confidence and now I'm pretty much just excited about the whole idea of playing soccer again.

Back to my friend. We're pretty much identical in every way. She played soccer, I played soccer. We both want to play again after a serious hiatus. Her parents are from Argentina, I'm...well...I speak Spanish...and that's really about all I know about her. But I'm sure we'll discover many more things we have in common as we get to know each other! We decided to request to be on the same team so our paperwork got paper-clipped together. Definitely a new BFF. Too bad I thought of all the cool stuff to say in my head on the way home from the round-up. Luckily she had the sense enough to see through the dummy that runs my body most of the time and recognized my inner coolness. I'm looking forward to being her teammate.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Luke 9 Months


Height: 28 1/2 (50-75%)
Weight: 20lbs 14oz (50-75%)
Head: 44 1/2 (25%)

Luke is as cute as ever...and into everything!  He gets into stuff Annalee doesn't even know existed!  He definitely keeps me on my toes.  His big sister keeps a close eye on him for me and is quick to say "uh oh, Gucas" (Gucas is Lucas).  He gets a kick out of big sister and is always happy to see her.

Milestones/Quirks
  • pulling up to standing and taking his first cruising steps holding on to stuff
  • Carrots and most fruits go down happily, but watch out for squash, peas, and bananas to come flying back
  • If he's unhappy or doesn't want whatever we're trying to give him then he bats at his ear
  • Beginning to make sounds other than screeching (namely "guh" and "dadadada")
  • 2 bottom teeth are popping through
  • loves to drink from a sippy cup
  • does great impressions of a rooster and a fire truck
  • enjoys "singing" to the hymns at church
  • mastered the ability to bang on his tray for more food or attention
  • Successfully removed his diaper all by himself while waiting for me in the crib

This is one loud and wild, but very happy, little man.