Now that Baby Duck's ballet recital is out of the way, we are taking a break from dance to nurture other interests, like sports.  She is starting her second session of indoor soccer.  We have a very cool program near us that starts as young as 18 months.  Rather than putting toddlers and preschoolers on 'teams', it's more of a weekly skill-building class.  This time around she's old enough where they start spending the last 15-20 minutes of class scrimmaging against one another.  That's where it starts to get funny.  To see several 4-5 year olds fighting over the ball with no regard for the well-being of the other team-- or their teammates, for that matter.  I don't think they even quite get who is on their team well enough to notice when they're going after the ball.  They still play as though there can only be one winner.  Which reminds me:  I need to get tiny shin guards before Tuesday.
    I do want to mention how proud I am of Baby Duck for being tough.  You see, we arrived about 15 minutes early for class to fill out any paperwork needed.  They still had us on file from last year, though, so we ended up heading on over to her field so she could kick a ball around.  She had herself worn out and dripping with sweat before anyone else from her class even arrived.  I was just getting ready to tell her to come cool off and get a drink so she would be ready to start class when I saw her get the ball tangled up between her feet.  She flipped in the air and landed straight on her head.  She laid there dazed for a minute, then began to cry.  I went out and picked her up of the floor.  For a minute she thought she wanted to just go home.  But then we went to the bench to get a drink and her other classmates began to arrive.  She took a few deep breaths and headed back out to the field.  My little Drama Queen did not fuss once during the next hour about being in pain!  She didn't even talk about it unless her coach or I asked her if she was doing okay.  Then she would admit that it did still hurt, but that it was getting better.  I tell you, she went down hard enough to scare me, so I was amazed at what a brave face she was putting on!  
    So I am back out of my comfort zone (as I couldn't possibly be any more incapable of the skills required for organized sports) and loving it.  I truly love supporting my daughters interests because they are her own.  I really like that she is willing to try new things and not pigeon-hole herself just yet.  She has her whole life for that... but I hope she never gets around to it!

CL