My Beaver Blog

This should explain a lot to the other members of my foursome. All those times the club left my hands, it was simply a practice method. A way of releasing the tension in my swing. Yea, that's what it was.

Now if only the trees will buy this.

102 days from kickoff and the expansion at Reser looks great. The new turf is in, although it's tragic the end zones are black instead of orange. The lower bowl seats are in, also black. Word is the bleachers being installed in the student section, running the entire length of the new east side, will be orange. That I'm looking forward too.

We finally bit the bullet and anted up for seats on the new side. Front portion of upper deck near the end zone. Can't wait to finally see where they are. Looking forward to an actual chair and not having to fight for my fair share of a bleacher.

I am perpetually amazed by both of my kids, but "the Boo" has hit me with a couple of memorable moments in the last few days.

First, last Saturday was girl scout Father/Daughter skate night at the local rink. We went of course because there is nothing more important than getting another patch for the vest. This would be the Boo's second time skating (the first time we never made it on to the main rink) so expectations were low. We wanted to have fun, make sure no one got injured and get that patch. Well for one of us it became much more.

I'm not sure when she became so competitive or who she got it from? OK there have been signs since birth. Who can forget the time a two year old Boo had the toilet seat fall on her hand only to quickly have her mom lift it to relieve the pain. The Boo responded with "myself" and proceeded to slam the lid on her hand again so SHE could be the one to remove it.

Here is the skating particulars.

After a brief stint in the learners rink we made our way to the main rink. With one hand on the rail and the other firmly in dad's hand we slowly made our way around the rink. She was doing very well, but her eyes were continuously glancing towards the center of the rink to those skating much faster and you could see the desire appear quickly in her eyes. The following exchange followed shortly thereafter;

B - "Daddy, I want to go fast like them."

D - "You will baby, your doing good"

B - "But I want to skate fast"

D - "You will, we just need to skate more so you can learn"

And then her spitfire attitude shone clearly.

B - "We are going to skate everyday until I can skate fast"

And she was dead serious. Now of course we haven't been, but we have agreed to skate more. I know that she is very competitive, but this even surprised me. The world is certainly not the friendliest place, but I don't think I have to worry about folks taking advantage of this one when she grows up. God help the guy that ever crosses her. As for her youth, I hope she can learn to enjoy herself and the activities she participates in no matter what her skill level happens to be. You can't be the best at everything.

Secondly, there was swim class last night. She has been in lessons for some time and is progressing well. Last night though was certainly the most memorable session so far. Towards the end of class the instructor motioned towards the deep end of the pool. Occasionally they will kick to that end of the pool using kickboards and do their final jumps to end class. Well this time there were no kickboards. I watched as my little Boo went right, left, breath, right, left, breath repeatedly. She was very rhythmic and it was the best I had ever seen her swim. She was moving quickly towards the wall at the deep end of the pool as I felt a smile appear on my face. She began to tire as she approached the wall and her form began to diminish. However, as noted above, she wasn't about to stop. I whispered words of encouragement and she continued trudging towards the wall. She grasped on with one final stroke of her left hand and had made it. She exited the pool and sat on the edge clearly proud of what she had done. Meanwhile I provided a quiet applause that she didn't notice, but one she certainly deserved.

I quickly made my way down for the poolside pickup and there was another "parenting moment"in store for me. When I arrived poolside I found the Boo in line at the diving board. She has never been on one before and the pool has strict policies on it's use. Her prior perfomance had apparently qualified her for a "treat". When it was her turn she slowly inched her way to the end of the board and paused. She looked at the water, over at the instructor, and then back at the water. This is when I expected her to freeze or turn and retreat. Instead, she plopped right of the end of the board and entered the water feet first. She popped up quickly and returned to the side and was back in line for another go.

For the second time that night a big smile appeared on my face. The kind of smile that can only be generated by the "amazing" accomplishments of your child. You know the one that is accompanied by a warm heart and a general glow beaming from the effected parent.

Then I realized that I spend entirely too much time critiquing and noting what my kids can't do (or can't do well) and not enough time noticing how amazing those little creatures are. 5 years ago the Boo was a clean slate. Now she's a bike ridin', roller skatin', book readin', lap swimmin', monkey bar swingin', seat belt fascinin', computer game playin' fireball. Simply amazing.