Tots Tennis

For some reason we thought that signing Caroline up for some kind of summer activity (in addition to the dance class) would be a good thing--something more for her to do, maybe a way to meet some more people. We had to choose the activity based on when we would be in town and tennis was the lucky winner, Tots Tennis to be exact.

Caroline was very excited and was an enthusiastic learner. Unfortunately, the class was right when naptime should be starting, so one day we had an emotional breakdown. I'm not sure what was said to her by the coach or if she was just upset that she had missed a ball, but at one point she looked across the gym at me, reached out her arms and started to cry a little bit. I went over to her and tried to encourage her to finish the drill she was on, but she was pretty emotional. We went over to the side to talk. I asked what was wrong and she said she didn't like tennis.

"Why not?"
[Crying] "Because it's not my favorite game!"
"Why?"
"Because I don't like it here." [still crying]
"Why don't you like it here?"
"Because this place is too messy."
"It is?"
"Yeah, [very indignantly] there are balls all over the place!"

At that point I laughed because it seemed that what was getting to her was just the chaos of the whole thing--thirty kids in one gymnasium, tennis balls flying everywhere, little teammates to distract you from the drill you were doing, and lots of coaches herding you here and there. It all made sense to me. Earlier that same session, Caroline was trying to retrieve every ball that went by her. Pretty much every other kid seemed oblivious to them, but Caroline was determined to clean up whatever she could. And finally it was too much--she couldn't clean it all up and she couldn't handle the chaos. She did go back to the next drill, though, and was fine for the rest of the day.

The last day of camp all the little ones were given some tennis balls as a parting gift and Caroline was so excited. That night she really wanted a racket to go with them, so Jeff promised her that when she woke up she would have one. And--like the very good dad that he is--he went to the 24-hour Wal Mart late that night and got her one . . . and me one (so I could play with), along with a bag for her and some more balls. Needless to say, we played tennis a lot the next day. She's gotten pretty accurate by this point and wants to play all the time. So--another interest that I've never had personally that she seems to be really into. But maybe she would be really into whatever we threw at her. It seems to be her personality--such a go-getter!