Monday, February 25, 2008

Sammy's Goal

Sammy scored his first goal in soccer yesterday. This was quite possibly the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. Him... not so much... but ME - oh yeah!

Before I get going, let's get something straight - while I love sports, I am not one of those crazy parents who pushes his kid to be the absolute best and to win at all costs. I think that having fun and learning how to play team sports is what is the most important thing at this age (or at any age really, unless you are making a living playing professional sports). I have a degree in acting for God's sake - so aggressive athletic dad does not really describe me.

Two weeks ago I saw a noticeable difference in his play at soccer. He seemed to have overcome his primary obstacle - fear of going after the ball. Also his fundamentals of dribbling and stopping the ball seemed to be improving.

On Saturday we were talking about the upcoming game in the car and he told me that he didn't want to play defense today, but rather wanted to play offense. This was odd, because Sammy has verbally voiced his preference for Defense in the past. (Prompting me into my "Defense Wins Championships" speech). But today was different...

As we got out of the car, I reminded him to not be afraid and to be aggressive about getting the ball - when it is in his part of the field.

It seemed to have worked... and Sammy Beckham scored his first goal!

Who knew this parenting thing could be so easy!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

A Tug of the Heartstrings.

Today the girls went to a party at our favorite birthday party getaway, Jumpers.

What was so thrilling this time was seeing Anna climb to the top of the slides and crawl her way to the deepest innards of this large jungle-gym-type-thing that they have. She kept up with her sister (as well as the other girls at the party) every step of the way and was able to participate in all of the jumping and craziness.

This was especially touching to me because of her recent diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy. The docs have all told us that she has a minor case, but none the less, it still gets to ya sometimes. Having the opportunity to see her keeping up with the other kids, physically, was an amazing moment for me.

I guess it is fitting that we're getting ready to assemble our family team for the March of Dimes this year. The March of Dimes is an organization that helps to fund research to eliminate premature births and to treat the conditions that are associated with being born early. Our kids received the best care available and because of that, they are growing up in to healthy and active little people. There is no doubt that The March of Dimes had a direct impact on the lives of our children and we're going to do the best we can to help raise $4000 for the March of Dimes this year, $1000 for each of our kids that was born prematurely. Donate if you can and let us know if you are interested in walking as a part of our family team.

Ok - I'm off of my soap box, now.

Let me know if there are any organizations out there that I can support that fund research for how Dads can avoid wrenching their backs when playing with their daughters at places like Jumpers.