Christian was on his "A" game last weekend. It started with soccer where he played mid-field for 3/4's of the game and had one of his best soccer games ever. The big difference was that he was into it, kept running and was focused on his position. We had to leave early and the coaches talked about how great he did and they didn't want him to leave --- but since we were leading 3 - 1 at the time they felt good with it... The game ended up in a tie, bummer but we had to move on to our next activity...
The second part of the day on Saturday was taken up with the Spooktacular swim meet up in Roseville. After the rec summer swim season Christian likes to swim with the year-round (competitive) Sierra Marlins in their clinic for a couple of months and they can do 2 swim meets with them. The Spooktacular is the first of the two meets.
For the first time ever Christian attempted a 100IM (25 yds of Butterfly, Back, Breast and Free) and did awesome not only finishing legally (without a DQ) but he came in 7th for his age group overall which earned him a ribbon (top 3 overall finishers get pins or medals and 4th - 8th get ribbons, anything else and you get squat). He also swam his best ever 25 yd freestyle event earning him a 6th place ribbon and his best ever 25 yd breast stroke getting another 7th place ribbon.
Sunday afternoon was the second half of his events. He started off with one of his best strokes, the backstroke --- but he didn't do too well with it and came in 15th. Then he swam a 25yd butterfly improving his time and coming in 7th place and a 50 yd freestyle coming in 6th place. It's cool to see him being able to hold his own against other year round competitive swimmers and top earn some ribbons for his efforts. In November he'll swim in the Gobbler and has a goal of swimming an "A" time to earn a medal and to swim well again. I think he also wants to try some bigger events like the 100 Free... He loves his swimming!!
This weekend is also starting off with a bang as he caught an interception and returned it for a touchdown in tonights Flag Football game!
I really shouldn't call this "A new chapter of trauma" --- it should be drauma, a cross between drama and trauma...
First, you should know it's been a rough couple of days. A tired and cranky kid... (yes, Karen, this started over homework, you are not alone!!)... Anyway, today (Saturday) was soccer day. It started out fine, Christian started as a mid-fielder and doing well but he was staying too far down toward their goal and not dropping back to help defend like he should when the ball is on our side of the field. Not a big deal, this is rec afterall but we were all telling him to drop back (don't worry, we were talking to other players too about things to do - that's just the sideline parent thing to do!).
Anyway, the drauma came about near the end of the first half. I knew it would happen sooner or later, what I wasn't expecting was the reaction, nor was I expecting him to be the first. If you haven't guessed by now (or didn't glance at the highlighted workds yet), well... Christian was yellow-carded for a dangerous play - the first yellow card for anyone on our team. Didn't I mention in an earlier blog how he's getting more aggressive??? It was justified, Christian was going for the ball but clearly missed it and brought his leg up in front of the player who had control of the ball.
Christian was fine with the play and even getting called for the penalty but when the ref called him over, showed him the yellow card and chewed him out a bit for the rough play and then shouted over to our coach that he needed to sub out the carded player it became too much for Christian. He came and sat next to me crying saying he didn't want to play any more --- blah blah blah... Thankfully it wasn't a scene or anything like that, just hurt feelings and pride. The half ended, coach talked to him, he played the rest of the game just fine. It ended in a 1-1 tie. I wonder what his tally of yellow cards will be by the end of the season, hopefully no red cards!!
I'm so proud of Christian... A couple of weeks ago we got an email from the swim team regarding a youth triathlon being held in Folsom. I talked to Christian and thanks to the Olympics he knew exactly what a triathlon was and was excited to give it a try. The 7-8 age group would swim 50 yds, bike 1 mile and run 1/2 mile - a perfect distance for his first ever triathlon.
We figured the swim would be no problem, he swims 50 yards in his sleep. We also figured that the bike ride wouldn't be too big of a deal, we were mainly concerned about the run. We measured the distance from our house to his soccer practice field and it was exactly 1/2 mile, so his main training for the triathlon was running... okay, jog/walking... to his soccer practice. And when soccer was over he was just as excited to run/jog/walk back home. I think he was able to do this 4 times in the past weeks. Not much, but it did work - that jog/walk started out at about 30% jog and 70% walk and turned into 100% jog with a faster (not quite a sprint though) finish.
Today was race day. Grandpa/Grandma made it up to support him in his effort. With twelve 7-8 boys racing I figured Christian would place around 8th or 9th with my estimated time for him around 18-20 minutes. It was a hot day but Christian was excited and ready to go. Pictures are below, I love the first one where he's coming out of the water - I think he looks like true triathlete in this pic. He did an amazing job. We reviewed several times what he needed to do to transition between the different legs and the importance of doing it quickly and he took it all in... When he got out of the pool he rushed to the transition area got on his gear for biking and hit the road. I wish I can get him to rush like that whenever we want to go somewhere! He hit the bike course, did the loop, handed his bike over to me, took a quick drink of water and started the run --- okay, jog/run... Notice, I did not say walk!! Even after swimming and biking he managed to jog the full 1/2 mile and even increased his speed to a run toward the end.
So how did he do?? Awesome! He placed in the worst position to place --- 4th (where the 1st through 3rd places get medals). He finished in 12 minutes, 18.40 seconds. He totally blew my expectations out of the water!! I'm so proud of him and he feels great about it! Check out the results...
What a great weekend so far. My mom's brother, Milton, and his wife, Maud, are visiting form Sweden. Last weekend they came up here to Folsom and I prepared some Baby Back Ribs for them... This weekend we went to my moms for a BBQ and they liked my ribs so much they wanted them again!
Saturday was full of swimming, dinner (tri-tip becase we didn't have time to cook the ribs after the gas in the BBQ ran out) and visiting and then Sunday we went to Stinson Beach for the day. While it was a little foggy (not bad though) there was no wind and the temperature was perfect. Finished the day with dinner at moms (the ribs). After a long day of playing in the sand and water Christian crashed in the car the entire ride home!
(note: If you're viewing this on Facebook, I'm not sure if the pictures I'm posting will be included in the post, if not you'll need to visit the website if you want to check out the pics)
"OMG You'll never believe the email I got today" (in response to a friend request email which has still gone unanswered!)
Is the World coming to an end?
It's about time!
But, yes, it's true, I decided to create a Facebook account... And after doing some research I found a plug-in for my website so when I create an article for it (like this one) it'll automatically post the message to my FB wall... Of course, it wasn't that easy as Facebook changed its authentication and access schemes in August and all of the existing free plug-ins I found didn't work but that gave me an opportunity to do some coding to make it all work.
So look forward to more updates! Hopefully it works out. If you want to be my friend find me here...
