Eva's Turn

After we left the gym at St. Stan's, she was very insistent that we call it Futsal and not Soccer. 

"They are not the same, Mommy.  You stop the ball.  A lot.  You stop the ball with your sole and you kick the ball with the inside of your foot."

She's still the same shy-until-she-gains-her-confidence girl that stands on the sidelines and watches.  And she still really doesn't like it when everyone watches HER, but after I yelled at her to go after the ball and she immediately kicked it in to the goal, she's already excited about what she can do.  She's hoping that at next week's scrimmage she can be on the team that gets to wear the little yellow pennies ("Our team didn't get to dress up this week.") but after just one session with Coach Thiago, she's already asking when she can go back and she's clearly disappointed that she doesn't have soccer, ahhh futsal, every day.

BK5K 2015

When we crawled in to bed Friday night, I told Sam the forecast said there might be rain and thunder at start time.  "Awwwwww," he said "I want to run the 5K.  Will they still have the race if there is rain?"  I told him rain, yes, but thunderstorms no.

And when I got up early to eat some breakfast and drink a little coffee before waking Sam, the rain was coming down pretty hard.  The radar showed rain continuing to move in for several hours, but the race website said the race was still on and volunteers were waiting for runners to pick up their race packets.  TT and her sisters started milling around drinking coffee and laughing about what body parts hurt, and as Sam got his shoes on I explained to Grandma where the race was and how to get there.   The rain was coming down in sheets as Sam and I pulled out of the garage and headed north in to town and I really didn't expect the race would go as scheduled.

Within a few miles of our drive the rain stopped, and as we maneuvered through the roundabout near the cemetery, Sam spotted a patch of blue sky to the west.  I texted Mom that the skies in town were clear and we parked within walking distance of the finish line before heading over to the start.  We stepped around large deep puddles everywhere and Sam was excited and nervous as the Star Spangled Banner broadcast near Lake Lodge. But as soon as he saw Scott and fistbumped him at the starting line, Sam calmed a little and told me he wanted to run by himself, told me he didn't need me to stay by him.  They announced that only the fastest runners should be up near the start so we meandered back a ways and lined up near some old neighbors from Trempealeau before the starting gun exploded and Sam was off in to the crowd and running on his own.  I had intentionally dressed him in a bright unique color so I could find him in the crowd, and I watched him fighting to pace himself (as we had practiced) rather than sprinting, and by about mile 2 I was sure I'd never catch him.  When he turned to look around behind him just before the route crossed Huff again, I waved and he was already starting to walk.  From Huff we ran/walked together, me giving him short goals... just thirty steps then you can walk again, just to that big tree, just to that sign...  We had passed Lake Lodge and were circling around near the finish when we saw TT and Aunt Nancy and Aunt Judy (and Eva, who jumped in and started running with me) standing in the grass alongside the race path, and Sam kicked it in to high gear and finished strong.  His first full 5K.  Followed by much celebration and fistbumping and highfiving with Scott and TT and the aunts.

45 minutes later he lined up to do the kids race while I stood with Eva in the 4-year-old staging area.  Sam had asked me if he could walk the whole thing and still get a medal, and I told him yes.  So I shouldn't have been surprised when I was standing there after all the other 7-year-olds had finished the kids race watching for Sam to stumble across the finish for his medal.

Eva and I lined up and she insisted she wanted me to run with her right up until the Ready-Set-Go.  And she was off in a flash and didn't look back.  She was confident and proud and determined to win, and I cut across the grass to see her come in at the finish, her smile big and proud as TT and the aunts high-fived her and cheered her on.

What a beautiful morning filled with sunshine and laughter and family and friends.  Sam didn't understand why he didn't get a medal for being the 2nd 7-year-old to finish the full 5K but he got a medal for finishing the kids race last.  I told him that races don't always make sense and it's not about the medals and the place you finish anyway.  It's about getting out there doing it, setting a goal and finishing.  I told him I was very proud of him.

"When can we do it again?!"  he smiled.

Before the start of the 5K

5K finishers, Sam doused with water by his adoring fans

 Eva before her race

 Eva closing in on the finish

 My racers

 Sam's proud grandma

The racers and their adoring fans

Trinona 2015 - Mother and Son

 

SWIM.  BIKE.  RUN.  FINISH.  CELEBRATE!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Much Like Auntie Annie

She would not even let Jamie help her

When Ann and I were old enough to care, we would look through old photos that were scotch-taped into those sticky clear film photo albums and look back at the adventures we had as kids.  And inevitably it would come up that there were more pictures of me.  Where was the picture of Mom when she was pregnant with Ann?  Where was a picture of Ann riding a trike?  Why weren’t there any pictures of Ann with her face smeared with dirt in the backyard in Michigan?  The two pictures I recall of Ann’s childhood are one where she’s trying to guzzle from a capped beer bottle in the kitchen in Portage and another where she is holding up Aunt Judy’s pregnancy underwear when Julie was a few weeks away from entering our lives.  Ann didn’t even have her own baby book.  The seldom recorded statistics of her toddlerhood were scribbled in the margins of my baby book that had been filled out 2 years earlier.

It’s true.  Second kids get the short end of the stick.  And so it’s been with Eva.  She’s starting soccer and dance class and learning to ride a bike without training wheels and rapidly turning into a “big girl” right before my eyes, but none of those things have resulted in a blog post to celebrate the event.  None of these resulted in Mommy sitting down to reflect on how grateful and blessed she is to have this child and this life. 

Sam invited a friend from the Y over this weekend, and when the new mom, a mom I didn’t really know yet, saw Eva she kept saying “she’s adorable.  She’s adorable.”  And I thought, yah, I guess she is.  I’ve been so busy trying to balance the needs of two children while working full time that I rarely slow down and appreciate this adorable creature who is growing up right before my eyes.  I listen to the endless mom-mom-moms every day and hear myself constantly sighing and saying “just a second” more than I ever imagined I would, and when Eva wants to talk and talk and talk in the car I often just want a few moments peace without any noise.  But yesterday when I pulled up to the daycare and Eva wanted to show me how she could now ride a big girl bike without training wheels, I saw it.  I stopped and saw my daughter and her incredible determination and persistence and expressive joy.  And yes, she is adorable.

As was Annie. ( Even if we have very little photographic evidence of it.)

 

 Tiny Tots Soccer

 

 Creative Movement Dance Class

 Helping Mommy Plant the Spring Garden

 Fearlessly Loving Every Slide (big and small) at Great Wolf Lodge

 Doing Girlie Stuff with Brooklynn

 "I can do it myself!" is something she says often.

 Painting Her Own Bedroom Mural

 Skating with Harmony

 Hanging in the Tree House in Winter

 

Balancing

One night last week Sam came home from school and went right to the piles of Lego and paper and markers and tape that have recently engulfed our dining room table.  He told me he was working on a project and I wasn't allowed to know what it was until he was done.  He made a cone of paper and fed it through the hole in the center of his new wooden ruler, and then he balanced it on a tower of Lego and began forming little pans on either side.  He later explained that he wanted to be able to measure which is heavier when he compares various sized Lego bricks so it's a balance scale.  His first grade teacher said it was an interesting idea since they are currently learning about balancing both sides of an equation.  Sam keeps telling me he wants to be a singer when he grows up (despite having what he calls severe stage fright), but he also tells me he's smart enough to be an engineer if he wants to.  My little Renaissance man will, perhaps, be balancing his left and right brain his whole life.

19 Kids Rockin' with Chuck

When Sam told me he wanted to have his birthday party at Chuck E Cheese this year, I grimaced and tried to tempt him with Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells.  After all, I had managed to avoid having to attend any parties at Chuck E. Cheese, and all of my friends' statements about overly sweet pizza sauce and the smell of urine and out-of-control noise didn't really ever make me think I was missing out.  I had dropped Sam and Eva there a couple of times but the dinging of the arcade games and the long lines to pick up the prizes with all the tickets they earned had left me sure that I would never actually have my own child's party there.

"You don't want to bring some friends to Great Wolf Lodge?" I spoke to the rearview mirror.  "Remember how much fun that was?  I thought you wanted to bring just a few friends and have birthday weekend like last year?"

"But I have too many friends," he said.  "And I can't pick.  How many people can I invite if I have a party at Chuck E. Cheese?"

Not knowing how the whole thing worked I told him 10 or 15 depending on what it costs, and he set about making his list.  His best best best friends from St. Mary's that he misses all the time because they now go to St. Stan's and he's in public school.  His new buddies from The Y after school program.  All the new friends he's making in first grade.  Kids from the neighborhood.  How could he narrow it down to just 3 for a weekend at a water park?

He made his list.  We sent invites to all 11 boys in his first grade classroom and I emailed all the moms from St. Stan's, the moms who have been our community since the kids all went to preschool together.  A few invites by text or facebook to moms I don't know well, and we ended up with 19 yesses.  Add a 4-year-old sister and a couple of friends to keep her company, and you've got yourself a big party.

And you really are going to hear me saying this:  Chuck E. Cheese was an awesome choice.  The fact that they have security up front and kids can't get out without the adult that let them in was a godsend.  It allowed me to let the kids go and run and play and just be kids without me freaking out about having them in control and accounted for.  And we had a party coordinator who handled the timing and the pizza and the drinks and the buckets of coins and the ticket blaster machine.  ("Come on Sam.  You can do it.  We believe in you," the boys were saying as he put on the goggles and crawled in the booth to try to catch as many tickets as he could.)  And I got to briefly meet parents that I didn't already know and quickly touch base with friends I've known for years.  And the kids had fun!  All 19 of them.

 

A few kids didn't want anything to do with Chuck E so they hung back with the Moms, but here are all the crazy ones who rocked out with Chuck.

Pokémon Cake

Eva's Favorite

Sam's Best Girl Friend

Ticket Blaster

Seven!

 

Seven years ago today when I first met this guy, I could not have imagined the yellow-belt-wearing, pokemon-card-loving, chapter-book-reading, song-and-story-writing, Minecraft-and-Sims-addicted little Renaissance man that he would become at age 7.  I am so proud to be his mother and I cherish this age when he still wants me to crawl under a blanket and snuggle him on the couch or sit at the dining room table and play endless rounds of Old Maid with him or listen from the front seat as he tells me about the Lego robot he built or the spelling test he aced today in school.  He surprises me every day, but the thing that surprises me more than anything is that I could love another human this much.  Happy Birthday Sam!  I love you beyond space!

 

A look back:

 

December 2013

 

December 2012

 December 2011

Dec 17, 2010

Dec 17, 2009

Dec 17, 2008