Nolan the Soccer Player

On the advise of Nolan's pediatrician and teacher, we decided to sign Nolan up for Soccer. He really seems to enjoy it, but only on his terms. Practices are a little harsh because he doesn't really want to chase a ball when there is a playground within sight. But when it came to the game this morning, Nolan was all in. And he loved it!

Nolan is actually really good at controlling the ball, but when he is confronted with someone else, he just lets them take the ball and runs about two feet behind them. It's actually very entertaining.

Nolan has some really great players on his team for him to follow. He really gets excited (as you can see in the picture above) when the crowd cheers. He's also fabulous at following directions. When the coach yelled "Go to the goal", Nolan ran straight to the goal and got caught in the net. Granted, he didn't have the ball, but he sure followed those directions perfectly!

Above is the only time Nolan really took control of the ball. He got to do the kick-off, but no one really noticed that he'd kicked it. So he took it and ran toward the goal. And missed it. And kept going into the next field before he finally stopped. He was so proud of himself! And it really was a proud moment for me. He's really understanding what he needs to do, even if he can't quite complete it yet.

And of course, we couldn't have a game without a few issues. Like Nolan's pants falling down a few times. The coach helped him once, but the next time, he took control himself. In the middle of the field. What can I say? Nolan is nothing if not entertaining. And I love him for it!

So all in all, Nolan's soccer is going well. I hope he is enjoying it as much as it looks like he is. And maybe he'll keep doing it. That would be splendid. But even if he doesn't, he's going to be awesome at anything he does. I just hope he doesn't undress himself anymore...

My Favorite Pictures of Paris 2011

To celebrate our 5 year anniversary, Don surprised me with a trip to Paris. We went the first week of August, and it was SPECTACULAR!! I've never had a more fun or exciting trip.

Since we spent an entire week in Paris (with a day trip to London), I decided that I'm going to break up the posts a bit so you don't get too bored looking at my pictures or reading my ramblings.

So here is the first installment: My favorite pictures of Paris! (in no particular order... just how blogger uploaded them)

an urn in the gardens at the Palace of Versailles

Statues in front of the ponds at the Palace of Versailles

The Westin Paris- Our hotel

one of the bridges over the Seine that leads to the Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame de Paris tower

Notre Dame de Paris

A view of Napoleon's Tomb from the garden of the Musee Rodin

The Musee d'Orsey

The Inverted Glass Pyramid at the Louvre

A fountain in a park near the Champs-Elysees

A carnival was being held in the gardens of the Tuilleries across the street from our hotel

The Eiffel Tower from the subway platform

My favorite picture of the Eiffel Tower from some very random spot we walked through due to the flooding in the subway system

So there you have it: Paris at a glance. Stay Tuned for the story of Paris!

What can I say? He's a geek like me :)

You know those moments when you know you are your child's mother? Like when he bites his nails, says that playing the piano is fun but practicing isn't, or collects every bit of "treasures" he can get his hands on?

Today I can add another to the list: Brennan loves science! And not only does he love it, but he's amazing at it. (Gotta brag for a second here: We got his TCAP testing from last year and he got 100% on the science portion. That's my boy!!)

So I can't say it really surprised me when he came home with a Cell Project and wanted to get it done right away. It killed me to tell him to wait. We were sooo busy for the first few days after it was assigned that I thought he was going to run out of air from asking so much. So when I couldn't take the begging anymore, I put him to work painting, gluing, and labeling his cells.

Here's the final project: