Fall 2014 Soccer

Jack and Charlie both played soccer this fall.  We signed Jack up through the City of O'Fallon on a random team.  We ended up really liking the coaches and the other kids, so we are still playing indoor with the same group.  They played 4 on 4 plus goalies.  Jack had a lot of fun.  He scored a fair amount of goals, but he actually is kind of a natural defender.  He tends to hang back from the scrum to see where the ball will go and gets back quickly when the other team gets the ball.  I predict he'll be a mid fielder when he gets bigger.

And some videos.  Jack is #33; the one in the black socks (oops!  Mommy's fault):

Charlie's soccer was called Mini Kickers.  It was more like a camp (he's too young for a team), and it was through Challenger Sports, which is run by British soccer players.  Charlie's had Coach Luke, who was silly and the kids loved him.  Charlie had a good time most weeks.  One week (of course it happened to be the week that daddy and Grandma and Grandpa Lang were able to make it), he chose not to participate. Generally though, he got out there and had a good time.

And some videos of Charlie in action:

I love Charlie's little excited voice at the end of this one.  I could watch it over and over again...

Neighborhood Olympics

As I've mentioned many times before, we have a great group of friends in our neighborhood.  There are 6 families with whom we spend the majority of our time.  We love the grown-ups and our kids love the kids.  Win-win.  Jason's sister Cyndi has a similar dynamic in their neighborhood, which happens to be a mile away from ours.  We've planned a few things to get the two groups together (for example a girls night last winter at Painting with a Twist):

We wanted to kick it up a notch, so Greg had a brilliant idea.  Our neighbors Curtis and Kim do an annual Family Olympics with his extended family, so we decided to steal that idea and plan our own Olympics: our neighborhood vs theirs.  Melissa and I took control and got it all planned and we are so glad we did!

Our events were: volleyball, relay race (think wheelbarrow race, 3-legged race, piggyback, etc), washers and buckets (sort of like beer pong but with 5 gallon buckets of water and small basketballs).

Each neighborhood got into it and got t-shirts made, which were so cute!  We purchased a perpetual trophy so we can get the winning neighborhood engraved each year (because this WILL be an annual event), and we decided to keep score by awarding medals to the winner of each event.

I will let the pictures depict how much fun we all had... 

The Good Guys

The Good Guys being photo bombed... 

The Bad Guys

I'm disappointed to report that we lost by only a few medals.  We are ready to start planning our rematch and will be starting weekly training sessions as soon as the weather allows. :)

Doctor Check-Ups and Charlie's 1st Dentist Visit

Jack and Charlie had their annual check-up with the pediatrician in mid-September.  The doctor started with Jack and asked him a bunch of questions after which he said "he would've done just fine starting kindergarten this year, huh?"  I concurred.  His check-up went fine, except that he had to get several shots (DTaP, MMR, Polio and Varicella) to prepare him for school next year.  We talked about being brave, but he freaked out when it was time.  I had to hold him down while two nurses gave him simultaneous shots in either arm.  Poor little man.

Jack's eye test - he passed

 

Charlie was really shy with the doctor, so I had to answer most of the questions for him.  Other than that, his check-up went great, and no shots for this lucky guy!

Here are their stats: 

Jack at 5 years old: 3' 10" (94.7%) and 49 lbs (89.9%)

Charlie at 3 years old: 3' 2.25" (71.5%) and 34 lbs (73.9%)

In October Jack had his semi-annual dentist check-up and this time Charlie got to participate as well.  Both of them did really great this time.  Jack went first and set a fine example for Charlie on how to lie still and let Grandma clean his teeth.  Then when the dentist came in Jack cooperated for him too (this was actually the first time he behaved so well for Dr. Niesen).

Then it was Charlie's turn and he was a total trooper.

Charlie's New Specs

In September, they offered a free vision screening at day care.  We signed the permission slip even though we didn't have any concerns with their eyes, and we are glad we did.  Jack's screening came back fine, but Charlie was flagged for follow-up.  We made an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist right after his third birthday and learned that he is far-sighted.  That by itself is not overly concerning in kids.  The doctor said that many kids are far-sighted because their eyes are small, and they just grow out of it.  The concern with Charlie though is that his left eye is much more far-sighted than his right.  The result is that, without correction, he would begin to rely on his right eye more than his left.  Eventually his brain could stop using his left eye altogether, which is when people get a lazy eye.

To prevent all of that, the doctor recommended we put Charlie in glasses. His right lens has a minor prescription and his left has a much stronger one. 

Here he is trying them on for the first time.  He was less than thrilled...

I have to say this guy is a trooper though.  He got used to them very quickly and rarely complains about wearing them.  Even the very first day of wearing them, we ate dinner at Chick-Fil-A (on our anniversary, no less, can you say romantic?) and there was a balloon artist there.  Charlie picked something that went over your head, and when the balloon guy asked him to take his glasses off to measure his head, we heard Charlie respond "I can't.  My mom and dad said I can only take them off at bedtime and bath time."  Love it!

We think he looks pretty darn cute in his glasses, but we may be a little biased...