John is loving his gymnastics class Thursday afternoons. It is an hour where he can balance and walk on a “belt like” rope suspended off the ground between wooden beams, practice his cartwheels and backward rolls and pull-ups on suspended bamboo poles positioned conveniently in between doorways. We are grateful to the gal who has opened up her house/yoga studio to offer classes to young kids in the community. It is a fun hour and the instructor runs a tight ship. I enjoy helping out during the station work and am remembering just how uncoordinated and inflexible I am. We are grateful to Cath and Nicole for their patience and passion!
So that’s our Thursday!
Friday we are off to the pool, this time “Poco a Poco” Hotel which is conveniently located in Cerro Plano. We attended a few classes last year at another hotel but had a hard time getting the kids ready and interested in putting even a toe in the water on Saturday mornings at 8:00 a.m. Fridays classes are working great as I pick them up from school at 1:30, shove a quick snack at them and head towards town for the 2p.m. start! Both Michael and John love the lessons, which by the way, are mostly made up of kids from their kinder program. Poor teacher! There are about 7 kids ranging from beginniners (who have barely seen a pool let alone jumped in one, to my boys who are positioned to show off their keen cannon ball abilities at any time). It is quite funny to see all us parents trying to keep our kids in line from the poolside. Somehow we muddle through the hour and manage to learn something too! 10,000 colones gets us a month's worth of lessons for one child. $20 dollars multiplied by 2 and there you have it!
Saturday, we are off to Santa Elena bright and early at 8:00 a.m. for soccer (or as they call it here, FUTBOL). I remember while running into Santa Elena last year, huffing it up the hill by the soccer field on my Saturday morning runs and seeing the kids play ball thinking to myself “sure looks like fun, gotta talk to Mike about getting the boys involved”. So, yep, a year later, Mike and I are helping another parent coach the 6 and 7 year olds! It s a hoot! I really don’t have any experience with soccer, probably the only sport I never played as a kid – Mike isn’t much better from an experience perspective, but we thought we could all learn a little about Costa Rica’s favorite sport! So, off we went! I ran the warm-ups the first week – I’m sure some of the local kids thought, “who is this Gringa and why is she making us work so hard?”. John and Michael have come a long way in the last couple of weeks and are now feeling more comfortable with the other local kids and if I bend my ear just right, I can hear Michael squeak out a “passé la” request. (pass the ball to me). Way to go Michael! It’s two hours of fun and lots of running around. I often hear the kids whisper in Spanish how I'm an easy target at goalie - with me as a goal tender, there's sure to be a point won! Thanks kids!
I have to smile at John when he put on the team shirt for the scrimmage (yellow netted shirt), in good ole John fashion, he spent five minutes trying to make sure he was all tucked in and presentable….’that’s my boy’!
Mike is spending time with the boys outside before dinner practicing some of their skills – it is fun for me to listen to their stories over dinner (anything from, “mom, did you see my fancy footwork?” to “yo gane, yo gane” (I won, I won)!
So that is what the end of our week looks like – The first half of the week is filled with play-dates which wears me out too, but is so good for the boys to expand their social network. Half the class has been over this year - so I guess I am preparing myself for the November birthday party I will plan for the boys sixth birthday! One little boy from their classroom talks non-stop about the zip line here and is perfectly matched with Michael and John from an activity and energy perspective. Mike made some make-shift steps up to the tree that holds the tree swing so now the boys can more easily maneuver themselves up to the top (yes, they’ve discovered if they climb halfway up the tree) they get a better chance to imitate Tarzan). So fun, until someone breaks a leg or arm - good thing the clinic is only 10 minutes away!
Any filler time is spent riding their new ‘trick’ bikes as they call them – an early birthday present that I purchased in San Jose last month. They will grow into them for sure – some scrapes, lots of bruises but, oh so worth it!
So, this brings me back to the title of this post – and puts a smile on my face!
Peace,
Signed: S
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