Ahhhhh, my first post of the streak this year.....Susan had taken the first two and I failed to write last night after a long day filled with fun - perhaps too much fun and, thus, the blog did not get updated. Quick recap of the weekend.
Noah is "playing soccer" at 8:15 on Saturday mornings....this was the second occurrence. I put this in quotes since, as many of you are likely aware, three year olds don't really play soccer. They flop through some drills and then play a "game" which is actually a pack of children following the ball around the field. Noah has shown an interest in soccer and it is certainly a good sport for him to pursue. He can actually kick the ball pretty far with his left foot (perhaps not a surprise if you are familiar with his cannon of a left arm) and, when prompted, he'll give it a nudge with his right foot. He loves playing in the driveway and the yard...unfortunately, this did not translate to the fields of real competition. The first day, he clutched my leg and refused to even walk on the field. We talked about why he didn't want to play and he said he didn't like the other kids. Of course, he had never met the other kids before - he tends to be quite shy at the outset of any new adventure or relationship. We talked about it a lot over the week and he promised me he'd play this time. Well, he stuck to his word - at least for the first 2/3 of soccer this weekend. He went through all of the drills and started the "game", but once he rotated out of the game for a bit - he refused to go back in. He told me later it was because "the white guys were trying to get the ball from me." The opponents had white uniforms while Noah's team is orange...apparently we have some more work to do!
Shortly after soccer on Saturday, we made the trip into Boston Common for the annual, Massachusetts chapter of CHASA to have its annual picnic. This was our third since receiving Noah's diagnosis (there wasn't one last year)....it's a really good resource - helps to be able to talk about things that everyone there understands: AFOs, the OT and/or neurologist at Children's Hospital that everyone seems to see, issues at school, camps, dealing with siblings, etc. It's always a little awkward at first, but then everyone relaxes and it's very helpful. We actually had a bit of a tee-ball game break out yesterday, which was great....Noah did a good job of whacking a few, but his favorite part was running the bases. All-in-all an wonderful event - again - aided by a nearly perfect Spring day in the city.
We then had to rush home for our first annual neighborhood "Derby Party" hosted by our next-door neighbors. Our neighborhood is a really great, enclosed cul-de-sac of about 30 houses and there are a number of annual neighborhood events. Since we're newer - we try to make it a point to go to everything we can. And we're glad we did - though the horse we ended up with in the blind auction didn't do much for us. We had a wonderful time - got to know more of our neighbors - and Noah had a blast playing with older kids. He was the youngest there, but did an amazing job of keeping up as they marched around the yard, played basketball and soccer in the driveway, did there own "horse races" with inflatable horse sticks and god-knows-what-else. We actually were inside with all of the adults while the kids were all outside for a period - all looking after one another and led by a couple of 10-year olds. It was really cool to see him do so well in a "normal" situation and be accepted by the others.
Busy Saturday followed by a trip back into the city today to see Disney Junior Live: Princesses and Pirates with Matt, Meg and Emily at BUs Agganis Arena. Noah was a bit unsure as we went in - he was initially terrified of the pirates and didn't want to go near the stage. Once he realized that I hadn't spent $135/each to sit on the floor and that our seats were a "safe" distance from the stage, he calmed down and seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit (though he still insisted on sitting on my lap the entire time). We followed up the show with a trip to Anna's Taqueria - the best burrito place in the Boston area which we lived across the street from (one of their locations) in our youth. Noah and Emily seemed okay with their quesadillas, but were definitely more interested in playing together on the floor - not the cleanest place in the word, to say the least, but they had a good time. Jared G - if you're reading this, I can feel your discomfort right now!
Wow - that was a long recap....meant to write more about what I'm thinking about these days. But, I think I might leave it here for now - there will be 26 more posts this month (assuming no more Derby Parties within walking distance of my bed!) to cover some of that....it is funny that I typically have no idea where these posts will go when I sit down to start. In brief - Noah is now old enough that we can really have fun together and he makes me laugh a lot...he's a clown. As he gets older, part of me gets a little sadder that he's going to be singled out by other kids - kids are mean, it's inevitable, I hope we all are able to handle it when it comes, don't know how to do that. I'm excited to be a father x 2 - this time to a little girl....though I still feel like it hasn't totally hit me (and we're only 10 weeks away!) - I guess when you already have a kid, it leaves less time to ponder the upcoming, life-changing event on the horizon. Streak is off to a successful start - though I'm horribly out of shape. I've run and worn something purple each day. I plan to work in bike-riding this year a bit, too...we'll see if that happens or not. That's it for now - tune in tomorrow after a margarita or two for Cinco de Mayo!
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