soccer

you know how much your kids love soccer but know there just bored of it here's a tip.  just go out and play with them and sooner or later they will start to love it again just like my daughter she was sick of it. now shes licking it more and more and more and my son. !!!

Focus, Focus, Focus!

My son has been into sports this summer. He's gone through three camps and has one more to go. Because of this, he comes home and wants to throw any kind of ball he can find. We have been playing catch and it has been great.

A couple days ago, he was following me around asking to play football in the front yard. It was mid-morning and the house was a buzz. Everyone wanted to tell me something while my son was pulling me to the door.

He got so frustrated that he yelled, "DAD...you've got to focus here!" It surprised me so that it got my attention. I looked down, his face complete determination.

"OK?!" He was absolute.

"Son, what did you say?"

He had already opened the front door, and we were out throwing the football in no time.

Mother vs. Madre

My daughter was standing at the top of the stairs trying to get my wife's attention at the bottom of the stairs.

Mom, mom, mom." That didn't work, so she went for the full name, "Mother! MOTHER!!! MAAAAAAATTTTHHHHHHEER!!!!!"

My two-year-old corrected my older daughter. "Hey! You CAN'T say mother," she scolded, "You HAVE to say Madre!"

The Commercial Crisis

Our family is hooked on Netflix and DVRs. We are pretty well spoiled in this day-and-age to watch what we want, when we want. Often we'll record a program even if we are around, just to miss the commercial breaks.

Yesterday, our two-year-old ran to our oldest. She was beside herself.

She yelled, as if her world was ending...

"The TV is broken! It's...on...'mercials!"

My 9-year-old's Tribute to "A Christmas Story."

My 9-year-old's Latest Project...need I say more?!

OK, I will anyway. She got this idea, walked to our next door neighbor who is a handyman, and ordered him to build her a leg lamp out of her life-sized Barbie.

...And he did! That's my daughter!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

PS...She insisted we put it in the middle of the front room window!

Exactly How Hungry Do you Have to Be...

While picking up one of my daughters one day when she was about five or six, I noticed she was quiet. A little too quiet. That awkward silence when you know you are about to have a serious conversation. I looked in my rear view mirror and her little eyes were welling up.

"Honey, you OK?"
She gave a long, drawn out sigh. I started to get worried. What was going on?!

"What is it kiddo?"
"Well," she paused, "I am hungry."
"OK, what do you want to eat?"
She paused for a while.

"I want to eat...the road."
"OK well, let---wha?" I caught myself mid-sentence. "Did you say the road?!"
"Ya, the road." Drama was gone from her voice now and she shifted to an intellectual connitation. "You know," she pointed out the window,"the road."
"The one we are driving on?" I was still trying to figure out where she was going with it.
She rolled her eyes at me.
"Uhhhh, ya!" She spoke with a valley girl flair.
"Didn't know that was one of the food groups." I smiled back at her.
"Well it IS."

I drove for a few minutes in confused silence, then offered a compromise.
"Want to stop for a hamburger on the way home instead?"
Long pause as she looked out the window to consider my offer.
"Yup."

It's amazing what a modern public education teaches children these days, eh? I guess the food pyramid had to be built on some foundation. Asphault, who knew!

Boys Are Boys, and Girls are Girls!

When one of my daughters was young she had the end all to any conversation. Trying to teach her that she couldn't follow me into the bathroom, we taught her that, "Boys are boys and girls are girls."

Well she got the message loud and clear. It soon started extending beyond the bathroom boundary...

• Why won't you eat your dinner? Boys are boys and girls are girls!
• Why don't you want in to your carseat? Boys are boys and girls are girls!
• Why don't you want to go to bed? Boys are boys and girls are girls!

Soon it evolved into a conversation all its own.

"Mom?" She would say from her carseat.

"Yes dear?"

"Boys are boys and girls are girls right?"

"Yes dear."

-conversation over.

So if you find yourself looking for something to say in those awkward silences that happen in conversation...just remember:

Boys are boys and girls are girls!

-'nuff said.