Soccer & Basketball

I guess I can now officially be called a "soccer mom." This month we signed Tanner up for Itty Bitty Soccer and Ethan has been participating in a basketball club. This is the first time we've had our boys in any kind of sports, and it's been a learning experience for me.

Tanner has really liked his soccer experience. He listens really well and is willing to try anything. Here is trying out some of the stretches. He made friends with the little boy behind him at Ethan's basketball club, and it turns out they're in the same soccer group too! Tanner even made him a Valentine.

Bradon has been the patient little brother who happily attends all of the sports events.

When Tanner first came into the gym where they were doing the soccer clinic the other kids were just standing around. It didn't take him long to have the whole group doing races up and down the gym.

He learned how to dribble the ball. He was telling Ethan about it and Ethan didn't believe that you could dribble the ball in soccer too!

Getting ready to kick the ball. . .

. . . and he scores!

Ethan's basketball club is twice a week instead of just once like soccer. Tanner has been patient about the whole thing, even though he felt really left out of everything on the first day. He practices dribbling the ball on the sidelines and has actually gotten to be pretty good.

At the end of every session they divide the kids up into teams and let them play a little game. Watching young kids play basketball is hilarious! Most of the time they forget to dribble the ball and they never want to pass to each other.

Ethan is not very aggressive by nature, so you can usually find him pretty far away from the action. He's improved a lot though from when he first started, especially when you consider that he knew next to nothing about the game before he started.

Another shot of cute little Tanman.

Ethan looks forward to basketball all day, constantly asking me how long it will be until we can leave. It's nice to see him getting some good exercise. On the other hand, it's hard as a parent to watch him play and notice that the other kids will pass to each other and never to him. I feel sad when he gets discouraged. I just want to protect him forever even though I know that I can't. I told Brian that I don't think I'll be a very good sports mom. I'm working on it.

One thing that I don't like about the club is that it's for kids ages 5-8. If you know kids in this age group you'll realize that there is a great difference in skill levels between a 5 year old and an 8 year old. I wish they'd divide them into groups based on age & ability, instead of just randomly picking groups. I guess I can't complain too much since the whole program only cost $20.

I'd like to see Ethan try some t-ball, but so far he's resisting. I guess we'll see if I can persuade him. Ethan has a great arm!