Soccer mom

So, I'm not the most athletic person. Is this an understatement? Perhaps. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I'm not the most coordinated person ever, even though I do enjoy being active. Anyway, you'd think all of this would make me the ideal soccer mom...you know, low expectations, quick-to-cheer.

Well, I do cheer easily but I've found myself getting stressed at Miranda's games! I know I need to work on this because in the period of 2 days I read a blog post about a friend who is really positive and happy at her son's games, and an article by a mom who reads books at her kids' games to ensure she doesn't get too involved.

I think my problem has been that Miranda has always taken to thinks quickly and easily and has been just a bit beyond her years in some ways. That hasn't exactly been the case with soccer. So far. Fernando says that Cesar, our amazing soccer player brother, didn't really show a lot of competetive interest for the first few years.

The truth is, I really don't care if she likes soccer or not or if she's good at it or not. I'm not sure why I feel anxious at the games! I wonder if I'm falling into the trap of thinking that my less developed soccer genes have cursed her and that I've got to help make up for the difference.

I think it will balance out my "wonderful motherhood" post of a while ago when I say this: During the 3rd game, before we got out of the car for the field, I said, "Just play you best. And Miranda?"
"What mommy?"
"Just enjoy yourself, okay?"
"Mom, I promise to enjoy myself, and you promise not to get upset with me."
TRUE CONVERSATION! Can you believe it!?! I'm a horrible person! Aren't ego-involved fathers supposed to be responsible for such treatment?!

Of course I assured her that I was never upset and apologized and I have been better since. And, she's been better at playing since then too! (Meaning, she runs after the ball vigorously for at least 15 seconds at least 2 times during the game.)

Miranda kept telling me she wanted to play soccer, so I signed her up, even though she was a bit young. She's definitely the youngest on her team and probably on the field at every game. The players' parents all seem to appreciate the entertainment she provides. Her most exciting moments of the game are when her coach tells her she can sit on the side with her mom and rest. She does actually love to be a part of the team and she actually even enjoys the practice...kicking the ball into the goal and passing the ball to her teammates. And she gets that you don't touch the ball with your hands. So, it's just the part where she's trying to keep up with a Poynesian kid who is a foot-and-a-half taller than her and also almost 5 years old that she doesn't like. Can you blame her?

I've told her things to try and help her stay in the game. I told her that her foot was a magnet and it had to stick to the ball. Nope, didn't work. I told her that she had to follow the leader of one of the players on her team. She chose the blonde girl who languidly does handstands on the field and, like Miranda, would rather be on the sidelines with her mom. I told her she had to stick to a person on the OTHER team. She did great on that one! She even went over with him to their team huddle during halftime and stayed on his side of the line during the kickoff. I told her she had to get the ball from the other team and not let them get it. She was thinking intensely about this one, and after the final whistle blew and the game was over, she basically wrenched the ball out of this little girl's hand and almost got in a post game brawl. She has been tripped and fallen on, tripped over, and elbowed in the face. Why am I doing this to my little girl??!!!

I tell myself she'll get a little exercize, learn the beginnings of being on a team and of soccer's rules, and that she'll eventually at least learn to play a little bit. Then when people ask her if she plays a sport, she'll be able to say "I've always played soccer." And she'll always feel a part of her extended family who all have always played soccer. And we'll have something to laugh about when she's older and we remember this first experience with soccer.

More likely, I just should have forgotten about soccer this year and waited until next. I wonder often how much my children will have to suffer in life because of mistakes like this made by their mother, or because of my personality flaws. I don't remember much from when I was two so I tell myself that at least she won't accutely remember the mistakes I'm making right now. Then I heard about a woman who remembers every single moment of her life and I thought, well, I should probably do better. On a selfish note, I actually am grateful that I'm learning right now to just take it easy when it comes to my kids' extracurriculur involvement. I'm learning to actually enjoy that she spends the majority of the game doing stuff like this:

(I call it field ballet) because she'll grow out of that so fast. Too fast.
And I try to also celebrate those moments, however brief and far between, when she's having fun and trying and feeling proud of herself. And I've realized that no brilliant soccer experience is going to make her glad that I got "upset" with her. I think if I can learn that, I'll be a better soccer mom from here on out, and it might just help me to be a better person too.



On a side note, Sammy seems to love soccer. He babysprints to either the ball or the net every chance he gets out of my arms, But I won't have to address that for quite awhile.

Go Jazz

In fitting tribute to the Utah Jazz and as a vote of confidence against the Lakers (sorry Seminario family) here at home tonight, I post this picture of Fernando and I. We went to the first home game against the Lakers last Friday. It was an AWESOME game. We also got to watch Archuletta sing the National Anthem and even though I don't consider myself a crazed fan I did find myself screaming like a text-messaging 13-year-old after the song. I kept up my crazed identity throughout and even found myself talking about what the players should do as if I actually know what I'm talking about. Fun!
The game was close and GREAT and the fans were out of control. Especially this one Lakers fan right in front of us. Who prompted many otherwise insane people to turn rabid and attack him in the most embarrassing yet hilarious ways. If only I had been unscrupulous enough to use my video camera even though I saw a sign asking me not to. You gotta take the good with the bad when it comes to a strong conscience.
So this is Fernando and I after the game. We had a blast.

mad skills

So, Sammy has these massive paws. Well, for a baby size person. We've noted it since the first month or two. The other day Xiao Yu and I went with the kids to Discovery Gateway and in one of the areas a little girl was playing with a toy car at a table. She had no chance. Sammy just grabbed it away with his giant baby hands. We gave it back, of course, but we were laughing because his hands were so much bigger than hers. Funny.

Well, on Saturday he figured out a great new skill utilizing his hands. He can hold himself on a swing! We were at a cousin's house following a baptism and he spent pretty much the whole time swinging. Maybe all 1-year-olds can do this, but Miranda couldn't and I find it so cute and hilarious at the same time! Such a cute guy, Sam.





And some amazing acrobatic skills (with the assistance of his trainer). What a kid!

thoughts in China

I came in here this morning to post some fun pictures of the kids and I ended up reading more about the earthquakes in the Sichuan province, where my sister is at right now in a BYU study abroad. My heart aches for all of the people who have lost everything, including their loved ones.

Katie is okay. She and the other girls in the study abroad were on the 2nd floor in the hotel when the quake began. She said they got under the door frames, and then there wasn't enough room so she and some others had to run to another door frame in the bathroom. She said it felt just like the rolling and shaking earthquake rides some amusement parks feature. One of the girls started singing "A Child's Prayer" and a few others joined in. She heard another girl yelling to them to pray. Katie just felt a peace come over her and she knew they would be okay, even though she still wondered if the floor was going to fall out in places. The quake lasted through the whole "Child's Prayer" song so you can imagine how massive it was.

They had to evacuate, go back into the first floor, then evacuate again during the aftershocks. They'll be able to go back into their rooms once the building is inspected, and they have food and the faculty in charge plans for the group to remain where they are and continue the study abroad.

We're obviously really, really thankful she's safe. But the moments of wondering and waiting have made me think of all of those who did lose loved ones in the earthquake. I wish there were more I could do. For now we'll just keep praying.

this is what it's all about

Apologies to anyone who already heard any of this on Sunday from the pulpit, but I've been blessed and I wanted to record it here so it can become one of the major themes of the blog. I feel I've neglected it thus far.


Saturday we went with Rosie, Nance and a family friend Cody :) to Temple Square. We've been on the tours many times before, but we haven't been with the kids recently. Samuel was good and chilled most of the time there in the double stroller. But even through her constant wandering I could tell Miranda was feeling and thinking eternal things.

She always wants to go to the big Jesus when we go to Temple Square. This time we went to the Conference Center first and she kept asking about if we were going to go to Pa's work with the big stone fountains and the big Jesus. I thought, OH BOY it's going to be tough holding her off through the whole Conference Center tour.


So we sort of hung back out of necessity during the tour while the rest of the group heard all of the amazing facts about the building and the lovely things in it. This gave us a good chance to talk, which I ended up being very grateful for. We put our fingers in the fountain in the center of the plaza level, and then we took a few steps into the still vastness where everyone comes to sit and listen to a Prophet's voice.

I looked up at the pulpit and memorable moments flooded my mind. I stopped and leaned over to Miranda, "I always feel the Holy Ghost in this place."
I started walking with her again and she pulled my hand, and looked up at me with happy, wide eyes. "I feel it too! And I feel Jesus!"

We walked down near the pulpit. Miranda practiced the alphabet by saying the lit up letter at the end of each row. I was trying to listen at this point to the tour guide and I thought she was distracted by the ABC's (nice that somebody thought of that to keep kids quiet during the tour...heh heh). It was time to go to the next point so I took her hand and she was looking over the rows on rows of seats, balconies of seats spreading far and wide. "This is like a field," she said. "A field of chairs."


I loved that. I think I'll write a poem about it later. I must have been spiritually minded too at that point, benefitting from the holiness in that place, because I started to think about planting seeds and no more than desiring them to grow, and how living water comes out of that pulpit into the field, and the swelling motions produce fruit desirable above all else. Maybe the poem will express what I was thinking better.

We went up a few floors and I enjoyed her remarks about paintings here and there. Before we got to the hall of prophets on the top floor, she had noticed a picture of President Monson on the wall.

She was really excited about this because she's been working on always praying for him lately, and so she ran over and we said his name, and then President Eyring and President Uchdorf. I started thinking about how much of her life she may know President Monson as Prophet. She still prays for President Hinckley, too, actually. She prays that he won't die. And you know, he hasn't died since she's been praying for that.

Well, we spent some more time looking at a stainglass of "Healing at the Pool of Bethesda" by Carl Bloch.

This painting always has and always will remind me of my dad, who also has a copy in his home. So Miranda is familiar with it and likes to talk about all of the people in it...the little girl (boy?) with her mother gathering water, other sick people, etc. We turned from it to see my husband's favorite sculpture, depicting the Father and the Son appearing to the boy Joseph. The metal stretches all the way from Joseph up to the Father and Son quite a bit higher, like a strong, solid pillar. Everyone had gone on and Miranda and Rosie and I held back. I said, "Remember the story of Joseph Smith when Heavenly Father and Jesus came and told him not to join any of the Churches, because they were going to help him make a new Church that had nursery?" She loves nursery. So I've used that of course. She looked up at Heavenly Father and Jesus, pressed her little hands together in a prayer and said, "Thank you for making my new Church! I love Nursery!" I thought how special it was and looked at Rosie when Miranda turned back to them and added, "But I don't like Sacrament."

Then we went to each of the busts of the prophets in the room and she asked me their names and wanted to repeat each one. Wilford Woodruff was probably the hardest. But it was so, so cute to hear her say each important name in her 2 1/2-year-old voice: "Spencer W. Kimball." I loved it.

Another special time for me was when we went through the new "Families" exhibit (it might be called "God's Plan") at the South Visitor's Center on Temple Square. For any of you that haven't been to that exhibit, GO. It's fairly new, and we hadn't been before. It follows a cute little family from room to room in their house, and even to their Grandparents' house, and teaches about the eternal nature of families. I felt very uplifted by the Spirit. Miranda sat next to me the whole time and listened. It is definitely kid friendly. I won't spoil the ending but the presentation gave me a chance to talk about really important things with her, and to see her little face taking it in. After I explained one of the things to her, she turned and smiled at me and hugged me, without any major reason. I just knew she was feeling something wonderful, and I was too.

My favorite times are when she does something kind or good and tells me, "Mom, I'm feeling the Holy Ghost in my heart right now!" Her favorite times at our house by far are Family Home Evenings, and she wants her dad to show her a scripture book every night. I realize at these times that we don't feed her as much as we should. She loves holy things so much. I let her spend, and I spend, so much time on things that don't matter. I could write about a thousand times when I or the kids or both are not behaving in very holy ways, nor dwelling on the things of eternity in either thought or action. But in many moments, my kids show me what my own focus should be.

I feel so grateful for these experiences and for the chance we'll have with Samuel to experience the same and different things. Sister Beck talked about "Mothers Who Know." I've been thinking a lot about that concept lately. I feel like these kinds of experience give me a taste of what our lives could be like if I truly embraced my role the way He could help me do.

I realize as I'm writing that the people who I know read this blog are very well aware of the beauty of families and motherhood and likely do not lose sight of their role the way I often do. I appreciate all the wonderful examples and friends I have to remind me, and I thank you, especially as we head into Mother's Day.

I find myself more thankful than ever for the doctrine on the family that we know to be true. I know in my heart that the little things we do every day matter, and that they probably matter most. It is a testament to the kindness of God that his plan is for us to be always with our family. It is a testament of His kindness to me that I can always be with mine.

FINALLY...our DC Trip

Fern and I went on a vacation a while ago. It was wonderful! Here are some highlights. You might actually have to ENTER the slide show in order to see the excellent captions, heh. Thanks to those of you readers who made some or all of the trip possible for us!

sabbath

Isn't it a great part of the plan that we have a day of rest built into every single week?