cute | SuburbanDaddy

First Organized Soccer Experience

This weekend was the first “game” in our mini-soccer league. Soccer is way more popular than when I was growing up. It’s the first organized sport kids can play, starting at age 3, though I use the term organized loosely.

Mini soccer works like this…each kid brings his own ball and wears shin guards. Who knew they made shin guards in size 3T? A soccer academy trainer leads the kids through some games involving basic soccer skills. In later sessions, there may be actual “games”, which should prove quite entertaining.

My 3 y.o. was very eager to start playing. We’ve been talking about it for weeks. We got to the field early. He jumped right in and ran through all the drills. That is, until, during a round of soccer tag, he was hit in the ear by another kid and then wanted to go home. Oh well, hopefully his memory will be short, and his soccer career will be longer than just the 20 minutes of glory this weekend.? There is always tee ball.

Why Why Why

The most popular word in a three year old’s vocabulary is ‘why’. It has been estimated that every fourth word out of their mouths is ‘why’. Also very popular are ‘what are you doing?’ and ‘what’s that?’ At this age, kids are human sponges, eager to take in any and all information about the world.

Being on the receiving end of these questions is fun most of the time. Other times, I worry that if I struggle to know the answer now, what will happen in a few years when the questions get tougher? Here are some of the questions I have been asked recently.

– Why is it snowing?

– Where is that airplane going?

– Why are you eating pizza upstairs?

– Why are you wearing boots?

– Where does the water go when you flush the toilet? Why?

– Why does it get light outside?

Daddy is a chimp

My toddler at 19 months has a large vocabulary for someone his age. I know, all parents say that. But he really does know a lot of words, and is able to identify scores of animals. Except one. He dutifully goes page by page in the picture book, enthusiastically calling out duck, cow, sheep, lion. When he gets to this page with the picture of a chimp, he says Daddy.

That’s not Daddy, I say, it’s a monkey. And he says oo oo, ee ee, imitating a monkey. My wife thinks this is hysterical. She probably taught him to do it. But I don’t mind, that’s part of being a daddy; being the butt of jokes, submitting to all sorts of humiliation, anything to get a smile and hear your toddler say Daddy.