Game on

I'll gloss over the things giving me IBS this weekend, and get to the theme of the weekend: Games. Ok, it is a weak theme, and it is only based on 2 things, but here they are:

1) Showed up at Owen's soccer game Saturday morning (drizzle, wet field), and one of the coaches couldn't make it. I volunteered to be a coach for the day, which essentially meant being on the field and trying to help manage a 3 on 3 game. I had Owen, a boy named Connor, his twin sister Claire, Jillian, and Catherine. Owen can play, Connor can play, Jillian can even play, but Claire and Catherine... it isn't so much they can't play is that they can't pay attention. I also had to shuttle kids in and out while quelling my inner instinct to stick with Owen, Connor and Jillian. This was fine except for:
a) One point where I had the 3 girls in, 2 of which couldn't pay attention, and even served to distract Jillian to the point where the other team scored like 5 goals in 5 minutes; and
b) The Euro kid (Marcus), who seemed like he was on the Danish U7 team. No kidding, he slide tackled Owen. Kid was 6. Now if I'm on the sidelines, I'm not sure what to do, but when the kid is playing intense like this, it took everything I had not to yell at the other coach on the field. Also took a lot to get Owen not to smack him one (and Owen would have taken out the trash).

Anyway, I learned that coaching 6 year olds is exhausting, but also that I can set up a really good corner kick at this level. Almost the goal of the year.

2) Sunday, Owen has his quiet time after lunch, which usually involves him being in his room, listening to CDs of stories, and reading or making a fort. After quiet time, he came downstairs and shows me this series of 9 drawings he made on pieces of paper about 1" square. I have to say, they were pretty creative. Including: a) A globe b) His desk at school c) 2 trees (an apple and a pine) d) The "Ratmobile" e) A picture of a mountain with 2 guys going up the mountain, and 2 guys skiing down the other side; f) Another picture of mountain climbers; g) A "farm" (read: Garden) with vegetables growing, complete with little signs with pictures of carrots, etc.; h) A picture of a dog, with a leash extending off the picture (implying someone is walking the dog; and i) Of course I can't remember the last one.

So he explains all these drawings to me, and I'm just tickled with his creativity and initiative. Then he asks me to rank them in order of preference, and does the same with Katie. Then he decides he is going to come up with a game for these, and talks a completely convoluted nonsensical game that I kind of dismiss. But then he comes up with another game; which involved hiding each paper, then Katie and I try to find them. When you find one, you get the points associated with it, which are 9 if you find your personal favorite, 8 for 2nd favorite, etc. The trick is you get the points associated with your ranking if you find it. Anyway, he hides these and Katie and I spend awhile looking for them, and he's tallying up the points, and all I can think of is, well, WOW. This was done all on his own, with his own initiative, his own thoughts, his own creation. The game was even fun! And competitive (Katie accused me of shoving).

Good times.