Not A Puppet Show

It's not the puppet show, but I did get some fun videos of Lily riding her bikes in front of the house a few days ago. Pure comedic gold this kid is sometimes.

This clip includes her first "spill". What a tough cookie!

I like to call this one "NASCAR practice" . . "Safety helmet's on!"

And the commentary in the last one is just classic Lily. A brief and reluctant appearance by Avery at the end is something of a novelty. She's a touch camera-shy.

As a bit of an aside, we were at Avery's soccer practice and a friend kept an eye on Lily for me while I coached. I heard from Lily from time to time throughout the hour, but really wasn't paying a lot of attention to what she was doing. When practice ended, I came toward the sideline and was informed that Lil was demonstrating her new favorite song to the parents, one that none other than her Meema taught her. The lyrics are approximately as follows:

I see your hiney
All white and shiney!
It makes me giggle
To see it wiggle!

Did I mention that practice was at 8am? What a great song to wake up to, eh?

Dragons Fade

I can officially say that the Green Dragons ran out of gas last night in the Championship game. The offense was lethargic and the defense was sloppy. The result was a 2-0 defeat at the hands of a Sharks team that, admittedly, was a lot better than us. I guess the fatigue from a 4th game in 6 days finally caught up with the team, but I don't blame them a bit for that. They play their final regular season game this morning at 10, which will be their 5th in a week, and it promises to be a complete disaster. The head coach has promised to mix up the line-ups, allowing the kids to try some new positions since the game is essentially meaningless. I'm looking forward to seeing what an all-girls offense can do, as well as what some inexperienced goal-keeping will lead to. The season wraps up next Saturday with a pizza party and another set of trophies, and I have to say that coaching this team has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in a long time. The one-on-one time with Avery has been great, and the chance to teach and lead the kids is something I'm grateful for.

A Defining Moment

I don't even think I could believe my eyes as it was happening . . Avery scored her team's first goal in their game this afternoon, the first of what will surely be a long and illustrious career! I was so proud of her I thought my heart was going to explode out of my chest, so it was everything I could do to refrain from running out on the field and giving her a huge hug. As a Dad I can't remember many times when I've been more proud of one of my kids, but I knew that it was an even bigger moment for her and that she deserved to celebrate with her team.

Soccer's been the only team sport Ave's ever shown any interest in, so it's really meant a lot to me to be involved in coaching this season. Somehow I never stumbled upon any defining moments while taxiing her back and forth to dance lessons. I remember having some really conflicting feelings about Josh, her biological dad, having the opportunity to coach her team when she was 5. I've always been happy that she has a good relationship with him, but as the provider and the potty trainer it was hard to watch from the sidelines as he spent "play time" with her. That's not to say that I wanted to coach this year to quell any old feelings of jealousy . . I am way beyond that now. But now I have the best of both worlds, and it's really fulfilling. That goal this afternoon was really a defining moment for both of us, I think.