10-16-10 8am Part 2

Zoey has been dreaming about soccer. We are going to put her in a soccer league this spring and she is so excited she can hardly contain herself. She is even dreaming about it at night, but she told me that she had a bad dream the other day and I asked her what it was about and she said that she was playing soccer and her team lost. I'm scared that my fandom/competitiveness has rubbed off on my Zo in the wrong way - so I said something that I never thought that I would say, 'Right now it is just about playing and having fun and not about winning or losing.' I had to swallow hard on that statement, but I made it through. Zoey is such a light for us right now - she is so interested. That is the best way that I can describe it - she loves to learn new things and her and I have very long conversations that start with me asking her questions about what she has learned or her asking me questions such as, 'Why do we only have one moon and Saturn has more?' It's fun to see how deep I can get with her until she loses interest/doesn't get it - most of the time I get to the first one before the second. It is a fun game for me as I try and take things I have learned over the years and try to put them into 4 year old. I don't want to make it to simple for her though as I think our children are smarter then we give them credit for. My squiggles is one of the few things that brings utter joy to my life right now and I also feel sad for her as she will have to grow up/live with Riley getting 'special attention'. Michele and I are going to have to figure out how to make sure that she understands her role in all of this and her special place in our hearts and minds.