My little Zander loves physical touch.  Being held.  Being in his sling.  Sleeping on my chest. My mom thankfully loves having the kids close to her as well, so he has been taking his naps either on my mom's chest or mine.

However this is now turning out to be a bit of a problem.  My mom has a back problem.  Zander is getting heavy.  This is not a good combination.  So we are trying to teach him to sleep on the bed.  Obviously we still get him to fall asleep in our arms (by rocking him on a chair) and then putting him down on the bed. 

Today was his first day and he only managed to nap for about 45 to an hour every time.  I know that's not bad for most kiddos but my son loves his sleep.  He was exhausted by the time we got home.  Little boy is now fast asleep on my chest as I type this.

I'm sure that in time he will get used to taking his naps on the bed.

(I know that I'll get flamed.  Saying that I should have known better.  That I spoiled him.  BLAH.  No I did not.  This is my third child.  I have done this with all three.  The way my life is, I can do this for my kids.  Just a pity that my mom's back is getting worse.  Kids grow up way too quickly and need all the closeness and love that they can possibly get)

It's the end of our rugby season.  So I won't bug you with updates on my son's rugby games for a whole year lol  However, since we still had rugby yesterday, I'll bore you one last time :)

Short update.  We won all our games.  There was yet another "incidence" with another school.  Again a big school.  Again putting bigger kids to play against our boys.

We are assuming because we have been unbeatable all season, they bigger schools are doing all in their power to beat us.  We could clearly see in the last game that at least two (out of the five) players were much older than our guys.  During the first half, we really battle to score against them but you could also see these guys had much better ball handling skill than all the other Grade R children.  They were also playing too hard against our children, really beyond how the normal games are.  During half time we went up to the coach to confirm if the guys are all in Grade R.  We turned to the kids and asked, who of you are in Grade 1 (which would make the a year older than our kids) and the one boy answered that he is not in Grade 1, he is in Grade 2!!  The coach denied this, although when the second half started, those two bigger boys were off.  We scored five quick tries then and they put them back on.  Urgh...I can't see the point to try and beat a team by putting older kids on the field.  We won them anyway but that was unpleasant for us and the kids.  That is not what their games should be about.

Last night was the year (season) end function for the rugby.  It was lots of fun.  The kids all got trophies and we had a lovely barbecue with the other parents.  Even though it will be heaven to have my lazy Saturday mornings back, I will miss the rugby.  Socializing with the other parents.  I have uploaded some photos from yesterdays game and from the prize-giving here.  There's also some photos of Zander and his sling. He so loves that sling of his.

Look who is trying to sit up already!  My newborn?  Yeah okay I need a reality check lol

Whenever I lie him down, he tries to sit up.... he has some strong stomach muscles that's all I know.  I put him sitting in his doughnut cushion and he managed to keep sitting for a few seconds.  Yes, that's my hand right there.  Can't want my youngest falling over and getting hurt.

I have to go to a conference this morning.  In another town.  I have a breastfeeding baby who has never had a bottle.  I also do not know how mother's pump cause I sure can't!

Anyway, Tommie is taking Zander and Jason (we are getting back too late to pick him up from school)  with so that I can feed Zander in between.

What an awesome understanding father

What happened to good old sportsmanship.  Children taking part in sports for the fun of it.  To get exercise.  To spend time with friends.  To learn how to win and lose gracefully.  Especially at a young age, where winning should not be everything.

I have mentioned before about one specific school that we play against.  It's the same school that have told their little players to tackle our kids until they are left lying down.  This school has to win.  They just cannot stand losing.  Up until this Saturday they have never won a game against us.

Well, Saturday the rugby games were held at their school.  They didn't schedule one game against our school and frankly we were fine with that.  At 11h30 our games were finished and we left to go shopping.   Some of the kids stayed behind though and wanted to know if they could play another game.  Some of the kids had only played half a game (it wasn't really a big day where the kids played lots of games)

Apparently the other school decided that they were willing to play against us.  The chose some kids to play against ours - which included kids in grades higher than our kids.  They also told our coach that he was not allowed on the field (they always stay on the field to show the little ones what to do).  Their coach however was the referee.

One of our parents overheard the coach tell the kids that if they can't get past our kids, they should punch them.  The game was hard (as it always is against them)  They don't really go for playing "clean" games. 

They punched one of our players so hard in his stomach that his parents had to take him to ER.  He has not been to school since.

One of their team players tackled one of our guys real hard.  So the next chance our guy got, he tackled their player back, hard.  The kids were all walking back to their places when one of the adults of the other school kicked our boy in the back with his knee!!!  Our team decided to rather walk off the field.  They were not up for this.  The other school then shouted that at last they have beat us.

These kids are 5 and 6 years old!!  How do you teach your child to play like that.  Why would you want your child to think that winning is everything?  What kind of pressure are you putting on that child?

I'm so glad we weren't there.  I shudder to think of the scene if it was Quintus that got kicked in the back by another parent. 

We are all seriously considering not playing against them again.  It's just not worth it.  Let them think we are scared.  Because we are.  Scared of our kids getting hurt.  Scared of our kids learning to play dirty like them.  Who knows what that team will be like when they are 13.