End of summer...

First soccer game

Train ride at the zoo

On the way to the zoo... looking thrilled. With a garbage hat on.

First soccer practice

Putt putt

Farmers market

Playground

TBall

Boxers

Well, summer is officially over. Woke up to 40 degree weather this morning. I love that for sleeping, but I’m still hoping we have a quite a few nice fall days ahead for playing outside after the long stretch of hot weather we had this summer and ahead of the approaching winter.

Ethan played his final t-ball game on Tuesday night. He had another fun season. This team seemed a lot less focused than the spring team was. Lots of not paying attention while in the field and kicking, throwing and piling dirt while waiting to bat on the bench. But, in the end all the kids seemed to have fn except for the one girl who quit coming to games. Ethan did really well in the field. He’s learning to stop the balls and throw more accurately. However, I feel like he regressed some with his batting. We’ve been working on incorporating a step into his swing, and now he focuses way more on that than actually watching the ball. And, since he still doesn’t have full control of his body the step sometimes throws off his balance. The few times he put it all together and hit the ball, he hit it well. But, that was maybe 1 out of every 3 at bats. By the end of the year I was trying to get him to stop stepping to no avail. Oh well… as long as he’s smiling. It bothered me though because as his coach I’m supposed to be making him a better player. But, at this age it’s hard to teach them much. I am really looking forward to actually getting to coach him where I can teach him more.

We have spent quite a bit of time in the front yard playing catch. Like I mentioned, he’s throwing much more accurately than he was this spring. When, I can get him to look where he’s throwing. But, now I’ve drilled it into his head so as soon as he throws one 15 feet to the left of me he knows what he did wrong. A couple weeks back I bought him a whiffle ball set and I’ve been pitching to him. And, he’s getting noticeably better! The first couple I had to try and throw the ball into his swinging bat. But, now he’s actually watching the ball and hitting it on his own.

We’ve spent quite a bit of time outside playing hockey on the driveway as well. It’s been really nice not dealing with 100+ heat.

Ethan has also started playing soccer! The first couple of practices weren’t all that exciting to watch. Though, it was fun to watch Ethan play something new though. He was very timid with the ball, and despite the coach’s best efforts to not get them to use their hands Ethan would often pick up the ball and move it where he wanted when things weren’t going as he liked. He had his first game this past Sunday. He had a lot of fun and the passiveness he displayed during practice was thankfully gone. Sadly, they got beat somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-2. But, they all had fun. I was very proud of Ethan for not getting down and quitting when the green team buttmunches kept scoring over and over. Hopefully the game this weekend is a little more even.

Sticking with the sports theme… my dad and I took Ethan on his first putt-putt outing a few weeks ago. He really enjoyed it. And, he beat me on a couple holes. He kind of a had a hole in one too. It was actually his second shot, but his first went like 6 inches. He was very pleased with himself. He put his arms in the air and had a big smile on his face. I love moments like that… seeing the pure joy on his face. I only hope he has better finishing skills than I do. I was up 4 strokes on my dad with 3 holes to go and lost on the playoff hole. I’m the Jean Van de Velde of mini golf…

What’s that you say… you want to hear more about sports? I’ve got more… but this time the sports are digital. Last night, Ethan and I picked up Kinect Sports for my Xbox. For those who don’t know, the Kinect is a fancy camera that tracks your body and allows you to play games without controllers. The first game we played was Boxing. Ethan worked me. Mostly cause he’s a spaz and I couldn’t even get a punch in with all his flailing. The next game was soccer… again, I lost. Mind you, I wasn’t trying to let him win yet. At this point I started getting pissed. 4 year old or not, I don’t want to lose twice in a row. I then proceeded to destroy him bowling(My arm is still sore today from bowling though. I may have been trying too hard/taking it too seriously….) and made sure to taunt him as well. And, now that I had my victory I was happy to start letting him win. Before you feel too sorry for him... every time he beat me he was sure to do a little dance. And, with the Kinect you avatar on the screen mimics your movement so in reality he was mocking me two different ways at the same time. We played table tennis, volleyball and did a bunch of track and field events as well.

One thing I’ve come to notice is that Ethan is throwing less tantrums lately. Not sure what the reason is, but I like it. I’d like to think that the mature examples I set are finally beginning to rub off on him. You can actually tell him no and he doesn’t become unglued like in the past. He still gets pissed sometimes, but I think he’s better learning how to deal with it. He is also very polite little boy. He’s getting very good with remembering his ‘please’s and ‘thank you’s. And, as long as he’s not in trouble he’s very quick to apologize. Getting an apology out of him when he’s in trouble is still a task… but, if he bumps into you or does something accidental he’s always quick with a ‘sorry’ and usually a hug. And, just so you all know... I wrote started this this morning and tonight while at soccer I scolded him for not listening to the coach. Ethan looked at me, blatantly mocked me and went right back to not listening. That's what I get for giving him praise...

The other week Ethan decided he wanted to start wearing boxers to bed. There’s not much to the story… I just find it amusing to see him in boxers. Especially cause even the smallest ones have to be rolled so they stay up cause he’s still so skinny.