Soccer Practice Pressure

Yesterday Axel had his first day of soccer practice.   Arjun, his best friend from preschool, had invited Axel to be his buddy for the class, so for weeks every time I saw Arjun he reported to me that he and Axel were going to play with the soccer ball soon.  Axel had also been looking forward to it, but when the big day finally arrived, the performance anxiety set in and he suddenly didn't want to go.  

We convinced him to go but he spent the first half of the session apart from the group, "observing" and practicing the coach's drills at a safe distance of 20-25 feet from any other child. 

His favorite was the kicking the cone drill 

By the end of practice, he finally joined the other kids - its a good thing this class is 10 weeks!!

Visitors

Our best friends from Michigan came to visit us this week with their 18 month old twins, Max & Ben.  Its been pretty cool to see that even at this young age, children's personalities are apparent.  Despite being nearly a year and a half older, Axel is not the leader - that's Ben's domain.  But both of them are thrill seeking adrenaline junkies. 

Ben & Axel on their respective rides:

Boys

Xmas!

Christmas 2012

Line and Chovy doing a little pre-dinner snacking on the duck remains

Axel and Chovy making the marzipan candy - and eating some too

Jesper grills the Flaeskesteg (pork roast) for the big dinner

This year Axel (miraculously) found the almond - hooray!!

Danish tradition: dancing around the Christmas tree

Axel was the official Present-Opener . . . both for his own and other people's gifts

At the end of the night, he couldn't resist blowing out the candles on the tree (with Niklas's assistance):