Fast times and wild living with (the former) Baby Whozit…
Posted in Friends, Jessica, Second Grader on Feb 2nd, 2015
Not-so-rhetorical question: How old does a child have to be before it is OK to dislike him or her? Don’t get me wrong, there are 3-year-olds I dislike. It’s just that when a child is hard to like at age 3, you have to assume the child is unhappy, off-schedule, stressed, or a normal 3-year-old […]
Posted in Friends, Jessica, Second Grader on Nov 13th, 2014
Originally this post was going to be called “The Value of Losing” and was going to focus on how much Simon has learned about losing with grace from his experiences playing soccer. I was planning to pen that entry immediately after the King’s Hammer Invitational Tournament, which you may have gathered did not go so […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends on May 12th, 2014
One of the trickier things about having Simon play soccer with older kids these past six months is that I have been less sure of my own role. Among his cohort, I have a good grasp of what’s allowed—public hugs and kisses, shoe tying, wrapper assistance—and what’s not—picking him up (not that I could), hugs […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends, Jessica on Apr 16th, 2014
How was last night’s Passover different from all other Passovers (of recent vintage, that is)? Easy. Last night was the seder in which we mostly ditched the kids’ haggadahs; left the plastic frogs, rubber bugs, band-aid boils, and pom-pom hail in an upstairs storage bin; and kicked it old style. It was glorious. Well, Matt […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends, Jessica, Uncategorized on Apr 11th, 2014
This week I began to teach Simon an important life lesson: When to deploy vagueness or the white lie in conversation. The need arose when one of Simon’s friends, Griffen, complimented him on a play-date. “Simon, you’re my best friend!” Griffen happily declared. “You are in my top 3,” Simon replied, which I suspect was […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends, Jessica on Apr 6th, 2014
It’s been ages since I’ve posted a recent picture of Simon. This one isn’t the greatest—I’ll get some better ones up shortly—but it’s sweet. I like to call it “Future USTA Mixed Doubles Champions”. That’s Simon with his bestie, Caroline, of course. The pair played something called “Canadian Singles” in which one player plays against […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends on Apr 3rd, 2014
Earlier this winter, I thought Simon was over-scheduled and was a little concerned about the effects on our home life and his school work. That’s when things looked like this: Monday: home after school Tuesday: team soccer practice from 6-7 Wednesday: home after school Thursday: Soccer extra practice (Talent School) from 5:30-6:30 Friday: home after […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends, Jessica on Mar 27th, 2014
Sometimes I am amazed by young children’s capacity for empathy and kindness. Very happily, I’ve had three occasions in the last week to feel as though children were setting an example for everyone else to follow. The first incident happened at the preschool. There is a boy in one of the classes, I’ll call him […]
If you had asked me back in December what the biggest risk of having Simon play soccer and tennis with older kids would be, my answer would have focused on physical risk. What if all the older kids are better than Simon? What if he gets crushed on the soccer pitch? My mom, on the […]
Posted in First Grader, Friends, Jessica, Simon says... on Feb 27th, 2014
Up ’til this year, Simon has had a knack for choosing friends he’s not completely compatible with, while I’ve (largely fruitlessly) attempted to steer him in other directions. For three of his four years in preschool, he most loved a couple of boys who were much rowdier than he was. One of these boys was […]