The soccer field is always greener....

I have two kids.  Each one is on a soccer team.  They are having very different experiences.....

My son's team has not lost.  In fact, most games we stop keeping score at halftime.  Last night they won 8-5 and that was by far the closest game they've had.

My daughter has been on the same team for a couple of years now.  They have won two games this year.  Which is a vast improvement over last summer....they lost every game last year by a combined score of about 77-0.  Then they lost every game during the winter indoor season.

My son does not really have any friends on his team.  He is often off by himself during warm ups or at halftime.

My daughter is friends with everybody on her team.  They are always having fun and genuinely seem to enjoy being together all the time.

My son is never excited to go to practices or games.

My daughter likes to go.

Last night, my daughter said she was jealous of my son's team.

That last one makes me a little sad.

Sleep Mode

It is becoming more and more obvious to me that without my wife, the rest of us would probably never leave the house....and most likely would not get out of our pjs all summer.  I have a lazy streak from here to Sheboygan and back...and the kids are quick to follow my lead.

Actual things my kids have said in the last 24 hours:

"Dad, before you go into sleep mode, can you look at this?"
"Dad, I think you should limit yourself to two naps a day."

The Door Into Summer

Summer vacation starts this week.
Way back when...when I started this stay-at-home-dad thing, I always had big plans for summer.
Weekly trips to the library.
Bike rides for ice cream.
Picnics at the park by the river.
Those plans more or less fell apart by the afternoon of the first day.

(side note on the title of this post: "The Door Into Summer" just might be my favorite Monkees song....I'll have to draw up a bracket and find out for sure some time.)

This summer, I have no big plans or daily activities planned.
Sure, both kids have soccer until the end of June.  And summer school classes four mornings a week during June and July.
(and I know I wrote about this another time, but WOW summer school is way cooler than it was back in my day.  My daughter is taking a photography class and movie making class.  And my son is taking a class called "Legos and Computers."  How cool is that???)

So that at least gets them out of the house.
But we're mostly just going to wing it.

And hopefully I'll get more hours at Target over the summer.  For the first time, I've told them I'm available some during the day and most nights over the summer.  Which means....gasp....the kids may stay home alone for a few hours somedays.  I know...that's harder for me to accept than for them.  I honestly don't think they would miss me much.  But I like to pretend they would notice that I'm gone.