Weekend sports

Out plans for this weekend were unexceptional – one of those nice routine ones, just the usual stuff. It hasn’t ended up exceptional really, just not as ordinary as expected either.

Saturday – swimming

For us Saturday is about swimming, it’s at a really awkward time of 11am. Too late to go for lunch somewhere afterwards, bit too close to 9am for me to manage Park Run before and not spend the morning in chaos. Totally impossible to take small boy to football 9.30-10.30. Large boy has been swimming for a year and small boy for 8 months (including missing 4 weeks over the summer).

What was special yesterday? Well, large boy finally got his stage 2 award – he missed out by one skill at the pre-Christmas assessment, he’s thrilled. On top of that, small boy got his stage 1 award too. He’s the youngest in the class by 2 years and the only one who still needs arm bands for some things. It was particularly pleasing for him yesterday, as he’s had a few weeks of tears and fears at swimming, after getting unexpectedly and dramatically splashed in the face (by accident). He’s overcome his worries and not given up, so his first stage award is well deserved.

Sunday – rugby

Large boy started playing rugby in September – I may have mentioned this before (Rugby: first match). He’s really taken to it. He mostly listens to the coaches, gets involved setting up the defense, he’s quick down the outside and has occasionally fabulous footwork. For a child says “I’m a stay at home boy”, he’s remarkably happy getting filthy and is rarely bothered by knocks and bumps. However, he also feels a bit put out sometimes as he’s both a newcomer and not at school with several of the other players – the impact being that he doesn’t get picked when they’re passing.

Today though, he had a great game. He’s had good games before, been player of the week even. But today, he planted a try early on, right at my feet – skidding across the grass and leaving a slide mark in his wake. He looked up with a huge grin. He grabbed a few great tags too and scored again at the other end in the last 5 minutes. He wasn’t player of the week – and in fairness the kid who was had scored brilliant tries and lots of them. The special moment today came when one of the best players had to pass and threw the ball directly to large boy, without hesitation and despite other kids, better known and having played longer, being available.

So it wasn’t the achievement of tries and tags that made large boy beam, it was really feeling like he’s part of the team today.

Other bits

While large boy and I were at rugby, himself took small boy on a 2 mile bike ride. Quite far for a 4 year old really, and he was the one who insisted on doing a second mile long lap.

Finally, my personal achievement. A 6.4km run featuring a pace for kilometre 5 of…. 4.58mins/km! Woo hoo! Cheered me up no end after Friday’s dreadful squelch along the canal.