Liam has been a fan of soccer for years now. His neighborhood team was quite good, and got to the point where they had no competition in their league. Now I've never been a fan of select sports for young kids, but after seeing him start to get bored I allowed him to join the select team being formed with the better kids from the local team.

Liam was a solid player on the team, but as always, he carried a little attitude with him. So of course it wasn't long before his coach called and said he was on the verge of asking him to leave the team. His skills were fine, but he was being mouthy and disruptive in practices. I told coach I would talk to Liam and he would be better. I did, and he was, and he finished out the season.

The next two seasons they played again, but Liam chose to do BB and VB instead of year round soccer. So when Fall came back around Liam found out that there were now two teams instead of one. And that since he hadn't been playing he got stuck on the lower team. The lower team was D6 - pretty much the lowest level of select, and the upper team was D4.

Liam dutifully played his season of D6, and was just about as bored as he was in his old league. He did get the chance to sub on the D4 team, and as soon as he took the field it was obvious that he was one of the top players on the team. At one point one of the new coaches looked to the main coach and asked if they had just found Liam this year. I kept expecting his coach to ask him to join the D4 team, since he is one of the better players, but he never did. It seems he never got over the issues from the previous year.

At the end of the season they were trying to decide what to do for the next year. I found out that they were having tryouts at his soccer club, but I really wasn't sure why. He was already on a team. But I went anyway. As always, Liam was clearly one of the best players on the field. He was really upset at the end because his team didn't score any goals. I told him not to worry - that he stood out even more so because he was on a weaker team. But he didn't believe me.

Sure enough, 2 days later we got a call from the D1 coach (different from the current coach). He said the assistant coaches called for him to come over and watch Liam play and he agreed that he was a D1-level player and wanted to offer him a spot on his team! How many players have you ever heard of who have gone from D6 to D1 in one season? We were super excited.

But then the politics come in. Turns out the reason for the tryouts was current coach wanted to merge his team with D1 coach's team and have 2 D1 teams. After tryouts (or maybe even before) D1 coach decided he didn't want to merge, but that he did want a couple of current coach's players! As you can imagine, this didn't please current coach. So current coach decided to move to another club (Star).

Now does he tell Liam about this in time for Liam to make it to Star tryouts? Of course not - we find out about it after it's done. But on the other hand he wants Liam to play for the team again. And in Star they will again have 2 teams, but this time a D1 and D3. But of course he wants Liam on the D3 team! And we really can't get him on D1 since the Star coach has never seen him play.

We eventually agreed to have him play Star, but I'm just incredulous as to how crazy this has become. Why can't he just be on a decent team with decent competition? Is that really so hard?

Apparently so.

On the plus side, Liam is playing great, and has plenty of options. And if this doesn't work out I'll just take him to another tryout next time!

Denis had a very sore throat. His Ama (grandmother on Mimi's side) had him gargle with salt water, which helped. Only not for very long. After he left our house to stay at her's for the night he needed something else, something that would last longer. Ama suggested Listerine, but then worried it was a little too strong, and that it might keep him awake. So she went through the cabinets to search for something else.

She came back with a bottle and a smile. She told him he should try this, it's orange so it should be milder. Denis happily took it - he was scared off a bit by her reaction to the Listerine. So he took a good pull of it, began to gargle, ... and spit it out forcefully!!!

It was now that he noticed how it bubbled in his mouth and the weird taste (even though it was in fact Orange flavored). Hmm.

When he could finally talk he asked Ama to see the bottle. It was of course Orange Scented - that was good. But reading more closely he found that insterad of mouthwash it was Hand Soap!! That part not so good.

There is an important lesson in all of this. When Ama gives you something - especially medicinal - READ THE LABEL!

Today was St. Patrick's day. As always, Mimi made up a little gift set for each of the kids to celebrate. This year they all got 5 gold dollar coins, a mini pot and shamrock seeds, and some Lucky Charms chapstick. They all seemed pretty pleased with their haul.

Seamus, however, decided he wanted a little more.

I saw the loot before I left for the morning, and before the kids were up. So I didn’t' get to see their reactions.

When I got home I noticed there was a little mess in the family room. A bunch of pencils on the ground, someone's gold dollar coins, some other homemade money, a decorated cup and other items. Looking more closely I could see that the pencils were in a bit of a pattern. They all seemed to be set down such that they were pointing at the cup. Next to the cup was a festively decorated sign that read Leprechauns Welcome!

I asked Mimi about it. She said "Oh, that's Seamus' Leprechaun trap!"

What??

Well it seems he figured that ol' Lep had plenty more gold coins and he wanted some of that action. So instead of chasing down a rainbow that didn't currently exist he'd set a trap and have the fairy come to him. Ingenious! And very nicely executed.

I was so impressed that after he went to bed I had Mimi track down our little plastic leprechaun and I put him under the cup.

I wasn't there when he came down in the morning, but I'm dying to hear the reaction!

Swim Championships

In our house sports are strictly optional. In fact they're a treat. You get to do them if you want to and if your behavior warrants it. Denis has stopped playing soccer, which is just fine by me. Liam was withdrawn from the Bball team one season because his behavior at school was poor.

There is only one exception to this rule - Swim Team. Swim team is a required sport for all the kids. Mimi and I both agree that the kids need to know how to swim. Whether they swim fast or not is up to them. But being on swim team is like having an entire season of swim lessons essentially for free. So we clued into that early on and have the whole family signed up.

At the beginning of the season neither Seamus or Tara could make it across the pool. They were still learning how to stay above the water. And the nice thing about the Evendale swim team is that there's no pressure to compete. If you can't swim, or even if you can, coming to the meets is your call. There was no question for either of the young ones. Since they couldn't make it 25m they wouldn't compete.

And then, 2 weeks back, Seamus had a minor breakthrough. With no obvious progression, he suddenly made it across the pool! You'd expect that he'd go 5m, then 10m, and so on until 25. But no. He went 2m, then 3m, then 25. It wasn't exactly what you'd call swimming, it was doggie-paddle, but he cleared a length. There was much celebration in the house at the news!

Since he made his length Seamus immediately started thinking of swimming in the championships. I think he had ideas of winning something. So he expressed a desire to swim in them. The problem was, to qualify for the championships you have to compete in 2 meets. And the second to last meet of the season was that night. We called the coach and quickly got him onto the roster. He was going to swim in his first meet!

Race time came, and Seamus was very excited! He just knew he was going to smoke everyone. After all, on his second day of playing Bball he was one of the best kids on the team. Why not swimming? As the race began it was clear that there were two camps of 6 year olds. Ones who could actually swim freestyle - with alternate breathing pattern and everything. And those who couldn't. And Seamus finished at the back of the second group. Yup - he came in dead last. He got out of the pool in tears. He said he didn't want to compete any more - he was done.

The last meet of the season was just a couple days later. After going back and forth several times, Seamus again agreed to swim. But this time he did a little better. He still got smoked by the real swimmers, but he came in in front of a couple of the doggie-paddlers. So this time he was just angry instead of crying. And again - no interest in the championships.

Until of course the championships came around, and every kid in the village was talking about them. Of course then he was back on the team! He had qualified, so he was good to go. When his event came you could see he was nervous. But excited also. There were tons of people cheering him on, and he ate that up. There were 43 kids in his event. The top 12 made the finals, but he had no fear of being in that group. He did his normal paddle and amazing came in 34th. He was unhappy until he heard that he beat 9 other kids. Then he was back to his normal happy, cocky self. It's going to be really interesting to see how he develops. I'm guessing eventually he'll be a very solid swimmer.

Denis' story is a bit different. He's been on the team for 3 years. And he puts a very good effort in. But his CP really holds him back. In a 50m event it's not uncommon for kids to finish before he's made the turn. But he has not given up. He's clearly not pleased, but he does see his times improve, and unlike in land-based sports, he's actually started to close the gap on some of his peers. But in 3 years of racing he'd never beaten another kid in a race.

In the championships he swam the 50 free. It's his best event as the leg-kick doesn't require much flexibility. Mimi and I were both there to watch the race. He was in the slowest heat. His seed time was actually almost competitive with the other boys. It was 7 seconds behind one of them and 9 behind another. Denis has really worked on his diving and you can tell. It's every bit as good as most of the other kids. As the race started and they got into the water he was even with 2 of the 3 other boys. That's not uncommon. What happens next is that the other kids quickly pull away and Denis is left alone. Only this time it didn’t' happen.

One boy pulled away, another had a slight lead, but the 3rd boy was just 2 feet ahead of Denis. You could see Denis recognize this, and really start to put his total effort into the swim. This had never happened to him before, and he was using every ounce of energy to stay close. Going into the turn he was just a bit behind, but coming out of the turn he had a lead! A lead! For the first time in his young life. The whole way back the pool every Evendale parent was screaming their lungs out for Denis to push, with his parents screaming loudest of all! The lead ebbed and flowed. Denis would pull away, the other boy would catch up. And so it went all the way to the wall. But in the end Denis touched first!!! He had beaten someone in a race! I couldn't believe it. He had never really even been close before, but he stuck with it and he finally had some success. Having someone to swim with clearly got him to push harder than normal as he bettered his best time by 8 seconds! That's a ton in a 60-second race. I was just so proud of him I can't even explain. It was a wonderful feeling. And for the first time coming out of the pool he really looked happy. It was one of those "life could have ended and I would have been fine with it" moments. Even thinking about it chokes me up.

It's funny, but Liam's swims were, in comparison, almost anti-climactic. There's now two ways about it, the kid's fast - on land and in the water. He's regularly 1, 2, or 3rd place in the dual meets. And with 9 teams in the finals we expected he'd do well. He could have placed in 7 events, but kids are only allowed to swim 4. So he was in 25 free, 25 back, Medley relay, and free relay. He easily made the finals in both his individual events, but his times put him in the B final.

The way they run things is 12 kids make the final. 6 in the A final, and 6 in the B final. If you're in the B final, and you swim the fastest time of all 12 kids, you get 7th place. Basically you're not allowed to move in front of anyone in the A group. I can see why. A kid could sand-bag in the prelims, get into the B group, then sneak out a win without the A group knowing about it. So they go this route. Liam seems to lack motivation in the prelims, but he always brings it in the finals.

So when final time came around, in his free event he came in 2nd in the B group. So he got 8th place. But his time was faster than 2 of the A-final kids. So really he should have been 6th. Similar story in the back. He won his final, and had a time faster than 2 A kids. So really he should have been 5th. Instead he was 7th. Oh well. He still did great, scored a lot of points, and set new PRs in both events.

The relays were more of the same. Most of the Evendale kids are near the top of their races. So they knew they'd be competitive. In the free relay they were right in the think of things, but were missing one of their fast swimmers. So they ended up a solid 3rd. In the medley relay they had one weak link that set them back, but Liam made up ground and they ended up 4th. So in his 4 events Liam for 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 8th. Not a bad day at the pool!

It's funny. They're all three very different kids. But they all had fantastic races, and I'm incredibly proud of all of them as a result. For different reasons, sure, but tremendously proud nevertheless.

College Prep

Before I get in to the story I need to give a little background to the older demographic.  Those of us in our 40s grew up with a set of drinking games that apparently no longer exist (well, outside of retirement homes I guess).  We played the good old games like quarters, Mexican, Bullshit, that crazy counting game, etc.  I never really considered it, but as each successive generation feels an obligation to break from the past in terms of clothing, music, etc., the same is apparently also true for drinking games.

Today's drinking games are a touch more active.  Which I think it great!  Nothing more entertaining than active drunks!  A few I've become familiar with (by hanging our with the current crop of college students) are baseball, beer pong, and flip cup.  They're mostly team games, and involve tossing ping-pong balls into cups of beer, drinking the beer, and (optionally) flipping the cups so they land upside down.  I've spent a couple good nights observing these next-generation games at recent parties at the college boy's house.  Boatloads of fun!

OK.  So the stage is set.

Denis got invited to a sleepover party at the house of one of his 6th grade classmates.  The boy's name is Joey, and he's the youngest of 3 (or 4) brothers.  I think the oldest brother is in college and there's 1 or 2 in HS.  Denis was very happy to be invited, as he and Joey aren't always the best of friends.

I dropped him off around 6 on a Saturday night.  I stayed up fairly late just in case there was a phone call, but none ever came.  So it appeared he had a good time.  I picked him up the following morning after church.  Denis was a wreck.  According to him they had stayed up all night, not falling asleep until about 7am.  And they got up at 10.  Rough night!

I asked him what they did.  In true pre-teen fashion he gave me a couple grunted answers.  Watched movies.  Played video games.  That didn't last us the whole ride home, so I pressed a bit,  What else did you do?  Anything else that was fun?

Oh yeah, he said, brightening up: we played marshmallow pong!!  Now of course I wasn't familiar with the game, so I asked him to describe it.  And as he did the most curious thing happened.  It all seemed so familiar.  The game is played on a ping-pong table.  You pour a bit of soda into several cups and arrange them on your end of the table while your opponents do the same on their side.  Then you take turns tossing marshmallows into the cups; and when one goes in the opponent has to drink the soda in the cup.

Is this sounding slightly familiar to anyone?  If not, go back and re-read the second paragraph.  Yup.  They were practicing kiddie-version drinking games!!  Isn't that great?  You send the boy off to a sleepover and he comes back with some real life skills.  I was so proud.  But I wasn't nearly as proud as I was happy.  That I picked him up instead of Mimi.  She would have exploded!

So here's the dilemma.  He says he was good at it.  Does that mean I should bring him to Bobby's next party?  Tough call...

Not a white person

I had just picked Denis up from his piano lesson and was taking him to his VB match.  He was sitting in the front seat next to me.  It was a pretty nice day, and he was wearing shorts.  As I looked over I noticed that his legs looked really dry.  Naturally, being the dad, I just can't let it go.

So I look over and say to him "Damn!  Your legs look really dry!"  OK, so maybe I said 'Darn.'  Generally a volley like this is met with resistance.  This time it was more like defeat.  The essence of the response I got back was resignation.  'Yeah, they're always dry."  Those of you who have kids will recognize this as a strategy to give up in the face of inevitability.  Nothing I can do about it pops!  Just going to have to live with them being dry.

Naturally I don't buy that.  So I ask him if he put lotion on them after his shower in the morning.  And of course the answer is no.  Too rushed in the morning.  This brings me into full dad mode - well of course they're going to be dry if you don't put lotion on them!

Silence follows.  He's working on perfecting the surly teen thing, and this is a great time to practice.  Eventually he pipes in with a question: "Why don't white people's legs get dry?"  At first I thought he had simply mis-worded the question.  He of course wanted to know why white people's legs got so dry all the time.  I was all prepared to deliver and answer.  But then it hit me.  He did word the question correctly - he just doesn't consider himself to be White!

I mean it really hit me.  I damn near missed my next shift.  He doesn't consider himself to be white.  And why should he - he's 1/2 White 1/2 Asian.  So he's really neither.  But he's light skinned and has brown hair, and I guess unconsciously I've always thought of him as white.  But he's not.  At least he's not in his mind.  Wild!

Once I recovered we talked about my friend Chris.  Chris is black, and during the winters in Wisconsin would always complain about his legs being ashy.  And that every race gets dry skin, but the darker your skin tone the more obvious it is.

So I think I recovered OK.  But the whole time I'm thinking: Denis isn't White!  Who knew?

Those of you who know the family history know that I am not a fan of children skipping grades.  I just don't see the benefit.  Sure, they get to college a year or two faster, but it doesn't make them smarter.  And in many cases they're not mature enough to handle the environment and suffer as a result.  I offer by way of example my oldest brother (skipped 2 grades) and oldest sister (skipped one grade).  After the experiences with those two my parents did not allow the rest of us to skip.  Thank God!

I have passed this philosophy into my parenting.  I do not try to teach my kids topics ahead of when they learn them in class.  If I did, when the class learned the topic they'd be bored.  And would likely misbehave and get into trouble.  So again; what's the point?

But try as I might to hold them back, somehow the slippery buggers get away from me.  It appears that this has just happened with Seamus.

It wasn't malicious or spiteful learning (is there such a thing?)  He just happened to be in a room when the older kids were doing some math exercises.  And he couldn't help but overhear what they were doing.  This is how he learned to add.  Mandy was working with Tara, drilling her on basic addition.  She's in 2nd grade, so this is what she should be learning.  It wasn't sticking right away, so they went over it several times.  Think of Tara as Teflon when it comes to math and Seamus as glue.  Gorilla glue.

Now Seamus is in kindergarten.  I don't think they're even talking about basic addition.  It's more numbers, number line etc.  The fact that he picked up addition wasn't a big concern as he would get that instruction soon enough.  But it's gone just a bit beyond that.

Mandy came home today and announced that she was quizzing Seamus on addition facts in the van.  OK.  How'd he do?  Well, she was impressed that he could do the problems from his seat in the van.  No numbers in front of him, it was all in his head.  Again I discounted it, as I figured he had memorized the single number addition chart.

No, Mandy says.  It wasn't single number addition.  "Really?"  I asked?  "He's on double-digit addition already?  Wow.  That is advanced for kindergarten."  No again.  

He's doing triple digit addition.  In his head.  And getting them right.  As a kindergartener.

Holy cow!  Mimi can't do that!  I am just going to get myself mentally prepared now for behavioral problems in the next few years.  Like there wouldn't have been enough of those regardless.

Good with the bad I suppose.