Carbs and Lytes

YaYa does not usually make special meal requests.  He made an exception this past Friday when he asked for "pasta" for dinner. He had been told by his coach that a meal with pasta would be a good pre-tournament dinner, and he was all over it.

I made homemade macaroni and cheese, and then called him home for dinner.  He arrived, took one look at his bowl and asked where his "pasta" was.  "This is pasta,"  I told him.  "The noodles are the pasta, not the sauce."  "Does it have carbohydrates?" he asked.  "We need to have lots of those."  I assured him that it did.  He ate it all up.

That night he came into my room with worry written all over his face.  "I think that I need electrolytes," he informed me, "my pee is yellow.  The girl at your talk said that yellow pee isn’t good." 

*sigh* 

It seems that YaYa was absorbing more than the pizza at Tuesday night’s TNT gear talk.  The problem is that I don’t want him to be worried about carbohydrates and electrolytes.  I would rather him worry about sunscreen and thirst. 

I tried to explain that simply looking at the color of your pee was too simple.  It does not take into account the other factors that could change the color.  "YaYa, there are many reasons for yellow pee.  In your case, there is a vitamin in the B-Berrier drink that you had earlier that makes your pee yellow.  You are just fine.  Right now, what you need is sleep." 

So, with his gear all laid out, he went to bed and tossed and turned as he worried (just a little) about his up-coming tournament.  I guess this is probably just like my pre-race jitters.

On Saturday morning, his concern started again.  "Does this drink have electrolytes?  I think that I need them."  I went along with him, examining the label.  "It has carbs AND lytes.  You are all set."  Together, we fueled up for our day’s activities and got the day under way.  His team finished the day with a win and tie.  His coach told the boys to rest up for Sunday’s final game.

This morning, with the final game ahead of us, YaYa and I attended the morning mass.  YaYa was all dressed for his game – shin guards and all.    When they announced that donuts would be served following the service, YaYa looked at me eagerly.  "Do we have time?" he asked.  I half expected him to ask if donuts had electrolytes, but he obviously didn’t care.  I just smiled, said that we did, and then told him that donuts were filled with carbohydrates – not the best ones, but carbs nonetheless.

In case you are wondering, YaYa’s team played well but lost today’s game.  They did, however, place 2nd in the tournament.  At the end of the day, YaYa has two new trophies to put on his shelf.