mud bath

• Another hot one today.  Katie, you had two more soccer games this afternoon, but it was daddy's turn to take you.  You sat out on the first game because you said your knee hurt.  Daddy had a feeling that your knee wasn't hurting as much as you said, so he talked to coach Mike between games.  Mike spoke to you and told you that your team really needed you and you should play if you could.  You ended up playing the whole game, but as you came off the field at the end of the game, you burst into tears and daddy whisked you away and brought you home.  Daddy told me the story and we had a chat about it.  At first you said you thought you had heat stroke, and that was why you were crying (It was awfully hot!!).  But my mommy senses told me something else was wrong.  I let it rest for a while then talked to you about it a bit later.  It turns out that you are really scared and intimidated by your new coach.  He yells a lot.  Like...a LOT.  And he totally lost it during the game and threw his clipboard.  That's not your style at all.  
• We talked about it more later and discussed your options.  You had three, as far as I was concerned.  You could quit, but you don't want to do that because you love soccer.  You could suck it up and leave it in the past, but you were too pissed off to do that.  You could talk to him about it, but you didn't want to do that.  I told you to think about it and let me know in the morning.  I'm interested to see what you decide to do.
• Jane, George and Lila, I really dislike Slurpees.  I hate the thought of you drinking a huge cup of sugar and food coloring.  However, it was so hot today, I took you to 7-Eleven because we all just needed some relief from the heat.
• After Slurpees, we set up the little pool in the bottom section of the courtyard and invited all the kids in the building to come and play.  The grass down there is just hanging on by a thread, and by the time we had been playing for a few minutes it turned to mud.  You LOVED it.  I had to hose you all down before we went back inside,
• All the moms sat around in the shade and chatted and watched you.  It was great.  It seems as though our building is changing a little and there are more kids moving in all the time.  It's great.