The Fighting Cobras

Here is a picture of Major. Yesterday, he appeared wearing cowboy boots, and carrying this lunchbox and said, "I wearin' Grumpy's boots. I goin' to wuk." He may have seen his Grumpy (Josh's Dad) with a briefcase, or maybe noticed the laptop that Josh takes to work every day. I thought it was pretty cute.



Mary Alice is playing soccer. I had envisioned her on a team with girls, but her team is coed. We had a little bit of trouble at her second soccer game today. She refused to play. Her first game went well. It was so cute to watch her run around on the field with a big smile on her face THE WHOLE TIME. So sweet. She did complain that she didn't want to get sweaty, but that was the extent of the problems we faced at her first game. Today, however, was a different story. Let me just say that Mary Alice had a bad day. She (like her mother) is prone to emotional breakdowns on occasion. Today she firmly decided that she didn't want to play soccer. We got out to the field and she started crying and saying that she didn't want to play soccer, that she was too "tired" and that she didn't want to "feel sweaty". She said that she just wanted to "go home and stay in her bed all day". She is going to have to get over that. She has regressed. My sweet little smiling soccer player was replaced with a character that we call "complaining Connie" in our house. She would have nothing to do with soccer, but instead sat in the grass on the sidelines talking with another hesitant girl on her team about things like ice cream and spending the night at each other's houses.

To help her get out of her funk, Josh did something that I was really proud of. It was very hard, but we didn't feel like it was okay for her to not be a part of the team and to cry on the sidelines. After much gentle encouraging by us to get out there and be a "joyful Josie" (the other character that sometimes frequents our house) she made up her mind that she not only was she not going to play, but there was no way that she was going to be joyful. After the game, Josh took her to a local park where he had her run laps. She was so cute and thouroughly enjoyed doing it. She didn't complain at all. Josh ran her until she was adequately "sweaty" and had gotten a little bit of exercise (the reason we signed her up for soccer in the first place.) She was a little out of breath when she got into the car and did mention that she was a little bit sweaty, but wasn't overly traumatized. We took her home and, after a good lunch, put her to bed "for the rest of the day". She took a nap and is now sitting on her bed, where she will stay until dinner. Remember, this was her request to "stay in her bed all day". She keeps asking me if I have made dinner yet. Staying in her room is such hard stuff. We did allow her to have a few books, but she has to stay in her bed. Hopefully, this will help her attitude to be a little bit better for next week's soccer game. We'll wait and see.

I won't defend her too much, but her last three soccer practices were cancelled at the last minute, so it has actually been a few weeks since she has even seen any of these kids. She has only officially had one practice and basically has no idea what is going on on the field. She does know that she doesn't like her coach very much (not because of him, just because he's a guy). She is hesitant to befriend men (a trait that I am very excited about and hope stays with her), so she really hasn't bonded with her coach yet, but prefers his wife. I also need to give an example of how little she actually understands soccer and sports in general. On the way to her first practice, I explained how she needed to listen to her coach and do what he told her to do. "Mom, why do you keep saying 'coach'? That is that thing on Cinderella." Maybe she isn't destined to be a star soccer player, but we're going have her finish out this season on the field, not on the sidelines.

Go Cobras!