My kid has better hand-eye coordination than me.

Adam is playing soccer and he is actually pretty good at it. We sit around and marvel at this because Ben and I are both, well... challenged in the sports arena. We can run and ride bikes and I can swim decently, in the sense that I could survive for twenty minutes while I waited for rescue in the deep sea (or at least in an olympic sized pool). I can sometimes throw a basketball into a basket. But I spent my teen years avoiding volleyball with a passion and never played a team sport in my life.

But he's actually pretty good-- he kicks the ball, runs fast, and follows his coaches' directions. He has scored goals in both the games. It is fun to watch him get excited and run so fast.

The soccer mom stereotype thing feels weird, though. No minivan, though. not yet.

Greenish Challenge 1

Our goal: to walk to school every day, both ways, until the end of the year. I'll be making exceptions if the weather is so awful that Sam really can't go out in it, or if we have an appointment or something immediately before or after school. So far, we are doing decently with this one: in the past three weeks, I have driven the car to school once. We have walked in rain a few times and got caught in one surprise downpour (Sam stayed pretty dry). Since we have an involuntary carbon footprint reduction going on (one of our cars died dramatically a few weeks ago), this is a pretty practical thing for us to do, and the exercise is good for all of us. I have been putting Sam in the jogger and running right after I drop them off.

"Walking every day will make us stronger."-- Rachel

"but grouchy." -- Adam.

walking on the first day of school this year

Jogging fail

1. Walked the kids to school and jogged to the park. Happy baby.
2. Ran intervals around the park for a while. It felt pretty good. Happy baby.
3. Screaming baby. Comfort baby, find no reason for screaming. Resume jogging.
4. Screaming baby. Stop, park stroller by bench. Nurse baby.
5. Random man walks past bench, eying scene with interest.
6. Sam pulls off dramatically to observe random man.
7. Calm baby. Resume jogging intervals.
8. Screaming baby. Head for home.
9. Screaming baby. Stop, remove baby from jogger. Carry baby in one arm and use the leash-thingy to manipulate the jogger with the other.
10. Baby spits up all over me, jacket, and jogger.
11. Arrive home. This strengthened my core, right?