Discipline & Math

Cade's new soccer coach, Joe, has been great and I especially appreciate him for his quiet discipline. He never yells at the boys but he has complete control (I've gotta figure that one out) down to the fact that the boys (ages 9 to 11) line up their soccer bags on the sideline as they place them on the ground before practice and they all tuck in their shirts and pull up their socks all the way to their knees. It always startles me a little to see all the bags lined up so nicely (I wish Cade's room was so polished :). I also appreciate Joe because Cade is learning a lot and really enjoying himself on his new team. We are off to Burlington, Washington tomorrow for a big tournament and then a little vacation to Vancouver, B.C.

Another theme that's been playing out lately is Willem's fascination with numbers. I come from a math family (lots of accountants) and I have a few weird math habits myself like I often find myself counting stairs as I step up them. Well I seem to have passed this on to another child in Willem (Cade is definitely afflicted as well). Willem seems to be counting everything lately including the lined-up bags today and he then informed me of how many total boys there were in practice by adding two to the number of bags because two boys didn't bring bags. He also figures out how many minutes or hours it is to anything I am talking about. And so on and so on! I think we have the makings of another accountant here!