Puppies

The kids just finished their first week of classes at the rec center.  In addition to Tali being in the preschool gymnastics class, which I wrote about a few days ago, Mateo is taking boys' gymnastics and a soccer class.  Sacha took him to his gymnastics class last night and reported that he had a great time.  He did all sorts of things on different pieces of equipment and had a lot of fun. 

He even parlayed a potentially bad situation into a good one:  a boy made fun of his name and called him Mr. Potato-head, and instead of getting angry, Mateo replied, "No, I'm not, I'm an orange-head!" and they both laughed hysterically.  He later reported that he and the boy were now friends. 

I won't pretend to understand the inner workings of five-year-olds, but both Sacha and I were pleasantly surprised to see how well he handled himself.  We could probably take a lesson from him, because both his parents and his Apa were ready to track down the kid's parents and give them a piece of our minds!  Ok, not really, but it doesn't take much for the protective instincts to come out. 

Anyway, today was Mateo's first soccer class.  He has been out-of-his-mind excited about this since we signed him up.  We took advantage of the beautiful day today and walked/rode our balance bikes down to the rec center.  (We gave up having many things within walking distance when we moved here, but having the rec center right down the street is really awesome.) 

The class reminded me, more than anything, of a group of puppies tumbling all over each other.  It was so, so cute.  They just ran this way and that, intermittently listening to the teacher, and soccer balls flew every which way.  It's a four- to six-year old class, so Mateo is on the older end of the spectrum.  This seems to be a sweet spot for him, or maybe he's just developing more confidence, because he has been in several groups lately where he has been on the older end of things and has participated in everything, be it new or not.  I hope this bodes well for him in terms of school, because he's going to be among the oldest in his class all the way through. 

It was wonderful to see him out there trying things out and having fun with kids he had just met.  It has been a good week for our family, as Tali has had several episodes of engaging in previously scary things, as well. She actually had a conversation with a teacher at preschool today - a big first for her!   Now, if we could just calm down the sibling rivalry at home, everything would be perfect :)

Tali and I head to California for our special Mama-Natalia weekend with my parents.  Meanwhile, Sacha and Mateo and Rosa are going to have special time here on the home front.  Happy long weekend!