Micro Soccer

Andrew’s first experience with organized sports was the Fall 2012 season of Micro Soccer at Holy Rosary. We weren’t really sure how it would go, but he seemed enthusiastic, so we were optimistic. Andrew is a goofy kid, who loves to run, jump, and bounce. What better way to use all that energy, than chasing after a soccer ball? Unfortunately, a week into the season, he broke his arm in a completely non-soccer related fall off the porch swing. The cast subdued his enthusiasm significantly.

Throughout most of the season, Andrew enjoyed practice but was content to be a somewhat passive observer during the actual games. While the other kids frantically chased after the ball, he stumbled along behind, not wanting to get in on the action. I was surprised, considering his usual energetic personality. As the season went on, his cast got smaller and he became a little more comfortable on the field. I think the turning point was the parent-kid scrimmage during the last practice. He enjoyed chasing Taylor and even scored three goals. He was so proud of himself and talked about those three goals for a week.

 What, I scored a goal? No big deal...

 Practicing with three balls has to be better than one

Noah enjoyed the season too, from the sidelines. And sometimes from the field, if he was quick enough and got out there before one of us could catch him.

Andrew with Evan, one of his buds from class

For the final game, Andrew was cast-free and I couldn't believe the difference. The child who for all the other games had hung back shyly and was uninterested in the competition suddenly was in the middle of the action, kicking and chasing. He even scored a goal!

After the final game, the Micro League had pizza for all the teams, followed by the trophy presentation. Andrew knew there would be trophies and he was so excited to get one.

The kids proudly showed off their trophies to one another, even though all the trophies were the same! He even posed for pictures, which usually never happens. All in all, everyone had a great time. I hope he wants to play again next year.

Fall Finally

The weather was rainy this weekend, which made it feel like fall. So we did our best to have some fall fun. First, we celebrated Taylor’s birthday with a steak dinner.  Unfortunately, since he’s the best steak-griller in the family, he had to cook his own birthday dinner. It was delicious.

Andrew and I got crafty. I have little to no DIY skills, and any attempts to be crafty usually means I end up with either a half-finished project or an under-whelming result. But that doesn’t stop me from trying, and I look for simple and easy projects. That means a project with only one or two steps. (Any more than that – see results mentioned above.) I saw some gold acorns in the latest Pottery Barn catalog, and thought, “I can do that!” Andrew, my enthusiastic partner in all crafty projects, attacked the job of gathering acorns. And we found some really great ones too. The small ones in our backyard were nice (they may be small, but they are an army of thousands!), but the ones at the zoo were really awesome. Huge acorns, the size of Noah’s head. Might be a slight exaggeration, but still big. Before the rain came, we squeezed in a nice trip to the zoo and loaded up on acorns. We also played on the playground and on the coin-tornado thingie. I hear rumors that there are animals at the zoo, somewhere…

Hopefully, they didn’t mind us leaving with a few acorns. We took them home and applied gold spray paint. Andrew is very proud of our gold acorns, which will add a nice touch to our fall décor (and by fall décor, I mean the sad pinecones I spray-painted last year… I’m sensing a decorating theme!)

 Noah grilled while we painted...

While acorns are fun, nothing says fall like pumpkins. Noah was napping, and in order to keep it that way, I got Andrew out of the house and we headed to the pumpkin patch. He had a blast picking out pumpkins. He’s a very indiscriminate picker. The first one he sees, that’s the one he wants. I tried to encourage him to take a look around, to really inspect the pumpkin for roundness, good color, and a nice stem. I don’t really know what makes for a good pumpkin, but I’m pretty sure I don’t want a bumpy one. Andrew couldn’t care less what the pumpkins looked like, he just wanted a lot. So he loaded up the wagon with six pumpkins. Good thing pumpkins are cheap. And totally worth it because he was so proud of his pumpkins. He kept asking me how many we had bought because he never could quite remember. Everyone we saw was told how many pumpkins he had. When he walked into school on Monday, his response to “Hello Andrew” was “I got six pumpkins.” Totally worth it.

We are only a few weeks away from the big day - STEP UP for Down Syndrome. If you haven't joined our team yet, please come walk with us. It will be a lot of fun! If you can't come, please consider making a donation. It's for a great cause.

http://www.ezeventsolutions.com/fr/dsamemphis/2012stepup/NitroNoahsLocomotive