Ocean City

This past weekend we made a quick trip up to Ocean City to visit Cullen's Grandma, and parents.  It was fun as usual... except for that one afternoon, when Daniel was sick.

We did something different this time and took the boys to Assateague Island.  That's the Island with the wild horses... there's both a MD State Park and a National Park there (http://www.nps.gov/asis/index.htm).  It was fun and delightful... and I forgot the camera!  After some wandering we did spot many wild horses grazing in the marsh.  We also enjoyed a walk on a nature trail and a boardwalk on the beach side of the island.  All in all a very fun morning.  We had peaked the boys interest in this particular island with a library book that one of them pulled off the shelf one week, "My Chincoteague Pony."  It was a cute book and boy were they excited to look for the horses.  Before the bridge to cross over onto the island there was a Visitor's Center with a really great mini-museum in it, which we enjoyed as well.

Here are some pictures...  

Grandpa reading to lots of boys.

No idea why Daniel wanted to stand on the vent, nor how he managed to by himself,  but he seems pleased.

Daniel coloring with Great Grandma- she informed me that she doesn't like her picture taken.   That reminded me of Trisha!

A few more words... to go with the pictures.  While Daniel was sick, we sent the rest of the guys off to the Boardwalk to check out Papapa's bench.  Cullen's grandfather, who passed away last winter loved the beach.  Grandma placed a bench in his memory.  I think he would be quite pleased.  If you are ever in Ocean City, MD, it's close to 24th street- in memory of William W Scott- enjoy.  Blaise came home and told me, "We saw the bench for the person who died that used to live here."  The next day, when Daniel was feeling better we all went out to see it again, but it was way too cold for my spoiled by a really warm winter self to last more than 10 minutes on the Boardwalk.

Really, they were happy, I promise.  Scott is in fact, actually smiling.

See, told you he was happy.  Rarely is he any happier than this!

Check out his stride.  Notice, also, that he's almost escaped the camera.  Boy is tall and fast.

Daddy has been having fun with the burst shooting feature on our camera.   I think Blaise likes it too.

"Coming of Age"

The birthday boy a couple of weeks ago, during a family trip to Clemson.

Evidently, there's a hobbit that lives in our house.  Cullen's birthday was this week and since it's the big one- if you're a hobbit, when I asked what kind of cake he wanted, he said he wanted a hobbit cake.  Normally, I only do themed cakes for kids... but I took this as a challenge.  What exactly is a "hobbit cake"?

He was out of town for his actual birthday on Wednesday, so we celebrated yesterday.  I reread the first chapter in Fellowship of the Ring for ideas.  Thinking that hobbits probably didn't have "birthday" cakes, but rather a wide variety of more savory cakes and knowing that lots of food should be involved.  It was a fun day of planning... lots of questions about hobbits from little boys.  Too bad hobbits aren't real and we just spent a whole day learning about the characteristics and culture of a fictional creature.  In the end though, I'm pretty sure at least the 3 that can talk now know how old Daddy is.  I'm also quite certain that they will be very excited whenever we decide to start reading The Hobbit to them.

We started our planning with the boys making cards for daddy, while I searched for more ideas about hobbit food.  Honestly, that first chapter of the book tells a lot about the party, but not the specific food types or kinds of cakes, aside from every available food in the local vicinity and plenty more from neighboring areas.  Potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, cheeses, beer, wine, tea cakes, etc, I can remember well enough from the books.  Here's the catch though... this particular hobbit doesn't care for cheese, mushrooms, or carrots, and as you probably already know if you're reading this, we only drink milk, water, and grape juice in our house.  OK.   Try something English!  We decided on Bangers and Mash (which we have had at the Rose and Crown, in the United Kingdom Pavilion at Epcot.)  This had the added perks of: #1 everything is prepared separately, #2 is basically sausage, which the boys love and #3 Blaise only likes his potatoes smashed.  It was a big hit.  Sides of salad and potato bread fresh from the bread machine.  We also had strawberries in the house (they were on sale earlier this week), so I whipped some cream and we had strawberries and cream for dessert.  Still no brilliant cake idea, so I just made a chocolate birthday cake... to look like a hobbit hole.  LOTS of questions about hobbit holes, for hours after I mentioned it.

Hobbit hole cake... complete with a cabbage garden.  Please disregard the weird colored chimney and patio stones.  We need to buy more food coloring.

I think they liked it.

Naturally, we don't normally have all these things in the house, so I had to run out and pick up a few things... sausage and whipping cream mainly.  (And Zyrtec, see below.)  Cullen had mentioned he needed some new undershirts, so I grabbed those while we were out and the boys wanted to know if that was Daddy's birthday present.  I said, I guess it can be.  We're really not big birthday present people, we just buy each other what we need when we need it.  They, not surprisingly, didn't think that was adequate, so they picked out a few bags of Easter candy as well.  We got home and they wrapped it all.  By themselves.  Without any help at all.  They asked for wrapping paper, and I suggested they just use white paper and decorate it.  They did just that.  

All in all, a great celebration last night, but mostly it was just really nice to have Cullen home.  We don't like it when he travels.  Maybe if they were older we would have had sparklers too... I doubt we could come up with fireworks that look like a dragon.

Zyrtec... allergy season is upon us.  Heavily upon Scott in particular.  Boy is miserable, but of course, he loves to be outside.  We are switching to Zyrtec to see if it helps more than Clariton and we'll probably be heading to the doctor to ask about allergy shots if it doesn't help more.  This week, Scott caught a tree frog while they were out playing in the yard.  Blaise caught about 10 caterpillars, which he pronounces catapulters.  It's not hard, you have to walk through a cloud of them, the tiny green variety, every time you go on the back porch.  Interestingly they decide that each of these creatures they catch is going to be their "pet".  So they built a little home for the tree frog in the red bucket and managed to come up with enough boards and sticks to cover it... well enough it didn't escape or suffocate.  I convinced Scott to let it go this morning, since it's been raining, "so it wouldn't drown."

Scott and Blaise and their "pet" tree frog.

Michael needs to take gymnastics... at least that's how it looked the other day.  This one is wild.

Saving the best for last... the long awaited... FINALLY... at 16 months and a week Daniel walks!  It's also been observed that he has a good arm, so don't  upset him.  He can throw wooden blocks, books, food, and just about anything else as well as he can throw the ball.  

Baby "El"

Our mid-way ultrasound was yesterday... so we brought all 4 big brothers along to see their new baby.  They had a blast- at least Scott and Blaise did.  Michael seemed pretty interested too, though I doubt he knew what he was really looking at and Daniel, well, he was happy and smiley the whole time :)

This baby, due on Michael's 3rd birthday, July 24th, has been nicknamed baby El.  This is short for elephant.  When we first find out we are expecting we take a little trip to our local Hallmark and pick out a TY stuffed animal for the baby.  I prefer to find out the gender when the baby is born, and this way we have something gender neutral to call the baby until he is born.  I think it really helps the boys connect with the baby as a real person sooner too.  Anyway, the stuffed animal we found this time in Hallmark was an elephant, it's very cute, I promise and will probably be featured in the birth announcement in July.  It's also fun to see the boys grow up with their first stuffed animals.  Michael is very attached to his "Michael Moose".  Daniel was a chipmunk, so he has Chip and Dale- you should have seen the boy get all excited when he saw Chip and Dale in Disney World, first on TV in a little cartoon and then again lifesize.  Priceless.  Yes, he recognized them, because they've been his snuggle buddies since the day he was born.

Back to Baby El.  While the gender is still a mystery, this little one is quite healthy and kicking around like crazy.  I feel him often now and it makes me smile.  Here are a few of the pictures from yesterday.  The standard profile shot, a thumbs up from baby, and check out that bicep- the big boys got a kick out of that.

Also, in case you want to join the fun and guess the gender and all that good stuff ahead of time, I did set up another baby pool.



Finally, I have an important prayer request... we also found out yesterday that I have placenta previa.  This means that the placenta is very low and is covering my cervix.  In most cases as the baby grows the placenta will grow with my uterus and move up and out of the way.  If it doesn't this could mean complications, mainly that a natural birth would be completely out of the question.   We will have another ultrasound in a couple of months to check on this... so please pray that it moves up and we can move forward with our plans for another natural birth.   You might also pray for me to be at peace about the whole thing and not spend the next few months worrying about something I have no control over.  :)  You may or may not know that one of my favorite parts of pregnancy is the actual birth (yes, I'm weird, but that's another post), so this is kind of very important to me.

Random Silly Outburst

I thought this was amusing... after I said it.  Yesterday, as Scott was doing some schoolwork and all 3 of his brothers were napping, I was picking up puzzles that Michael and Daniel had spread all over the dining room.  As I stacked them all back in the puzzle shelf, I looked at them and said, "We really can't have a girl."  Scott was completely bewildered by my comment.  He really wants a sister.  I explained to him my train of thought... we have this nice, very full, collection of baby puzzles and if we had a girl, I know many people would think we need to have at least one or two girl puzzles.  Where on earth would we put them?  If we have a girl, she'll just have to do the farm, shapes, jungle, fish, etc... puzzles.

There you have it, if we have a girl, no puzzles.  No pink Duplos.  No pink blocks.  We already have kitchen/cooking toys and plenty of Little People.  All we'll need is clothing and a doll.  I'd appreciate it if we could at least mostly avoid pink in the clothing area too... keep in mind, it's me who will be doing the dressing most of the time, so stick to purple and girly greens, yellows, and blues.  For the record, my current feeling is boy anyway, though I've been known to change back and forth until about a week before the baby actually arrives.

Go ahead... laugh at how ridiculous these thoughts are.  The important thing right now- I can feel this sweet little one swimming around and having hiccups already.  Not often, and not hard, but I can feel the little bumps :)

My Dad

Dad visiting in 2005 to help renovate our bathroom.

When I think about my dad I remember this huge man, standing in the kitchen, beside the microwave after a day at work, waiting for dinner.  I remember myself coming into the kitchen to hug him and wrapping my arms almost all the way around him from the side, then pausing to pat his belly.  In some ways, things were simple then, to me anyway, I was probably in middle school.

Mom and Dad on Vroman's Nose in NY fall 2007

It's easy to see now that things were never really simple for him... oh maybe when he was lettering in football, basketball and baseball in high school or in football and baseball at the Coast Guard Academy... but after that life has certainly had its share of challenges.  Honorably discharged from the Coast Guard because of epilepsy and sent home from his life's dream to find a somewhat mundane job repairing photocopy machines, he found his pleasures elsewhere.  He married my mom and I came along quickly and was quickly followed by my brother and then my sister.  Our family has had our share of difficulties too, cancer not being the least of them as we lost Dad's dad to cancer when I was only 6  years old and struggled through my mom's eventual victory over cancer when I was in high school. 

My wedding June 2004

I have always admired my dad because through all those challenges- he was always there for us.  We didn't necessarily talk all that much.  Mom was decidedly the bigger talker.  Even with few words it was evident through his actions that he loved us and he would always be there.  Yes, if you knew him much at all, you knew he had a love for the computer and especially role playing games and was quite practiced at shutting out the world around him to tune in to the machine- a skill I think I've acquired from him myself, I'm not into role playing games though, for better or worse.  His ability to tune us out didn't change the fact that he was home, everyday at 5:30pm, after spending the day working to support us.   When we got in trouble, when my parents fought, when money was tight, he never left, he just kept right on working.  He was always there for us.

Dad goofing around with Scott- Christmas 2010.

Of course, he loved to have fun too, so he found a way to play and work at the same time- umpiring baseball and later officiating football.  Sports were always a priority for him.  I loved going with him to watch him  umpire baseball games.  I mostly went to the Little League games, where I could raid his car for cash to buy candy at the concession stands.  I know he enjoyed his fan section.  He continued to enjoy his fan section in 2010 when it had grown to include my then pregnant self and 3 of his little grandsons and even Stage 4 cancer couldn't keep him from officiating football.  I realized how important the fan section was to him back when I was in high school.  I played field hockey, was on the indoor track team, and played softball.  At almost every game, towards the end, right around 5:00pm, I could look over to the stands and there he was standing behind everyone else having come straight from work to watch me play. 

Dad officiating at Indian Land, August 2010.

Cheering for Scott at one of his first soccer games, fall 2010.

He also loved to have fun with us, by taking us places.  His umpiring money took us to Disney World when I was 9.  I know it was hot, though that's not what I remember about the trip, where we tent camped, in July, in Orlando.  I remember his excitement about everything.  Space Mountain, which despite the love of roller coasters he had instilled in me by age 3, turned me off to roller coasters for 3 years.  I hope I didn't let him down too badly- I love it now.  We had a blast on the Pirates of the Caribbean, Spaceship Earth, seeing the "Laser Light" show at Epcot, and spending a day at one of the water parks- where I braved the vertical slide and didn't let him down.  My most distinct memory though is of walking around World Showcase and trying all kinds of new foods at the different "countries" with him- he did always enjoy food too.  This past week my family took our annual vacation to Disney World and tried something new, in memory of Dad we got Churros from the Mexico Pavillion in World Showcase in Epcot.

 

Teasing each other over whip cream and pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving  2011.

There was so much more to Dad than just fun and food, of course.  I can trace my Christian testimony to my early childhood as I remember him reading to us from The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes- I can still remember the pictures, without looking at the book- which is still on the bookshelf at my parents house.  I also remember him reading the scene from the Hobbit where Bilbo and Gollum have a riddle war (I was around 6 years old at the time), but I suppose that's a separate story.  Church was always a priority for Dad.  He loved to sing.  He was always in the choir and usually had solos to sing during the summer months when the choir didn't practice regularly.  I liked riding to church early with him, just the 2 of us, when he had to be there for choir practice- come to think of it, I enjoyed riding with him all kinds of places, we spent a lot of time together in the car.  He would talk about his Bethel Series study, the memory verses he was working on when the Billy Graham Crusade came to Albany, or we would listen to the Bible on tape- and I could never understand why anyone would want to listen to the instructions for how to build the ark - it's all in cubits - or really any of Leviticus, but he seemed to like to, and now I understand there are important lessons for us even in those parts of Scripture.

At Riverbanks Zoo, having fun, September 2009.

The biggest impact he had on my personal commitment to Christ, he probably never even knew about.  His love for singing and his love for Christ came together when he performed in a musical drama (depicting the life of Christ) called "The Witness."  It was when I was watching one of the performances that the weight and magnitude of Christ's sacrifice, for me personally, became something real.  Sure I knew all the answers, long before that, but that was when it became real, when I realized it was all my fault, but Jesus loves me anyway.

 

Clemson vs NC State, November 6, 2010.

That's why this past week, when I sang (or croaked, I can't sing anything like Dad can)When We All Get To Heaven, with my boys, who are all less than 6 years old, and talked about how Papa will "see Jesus and sing and shout the Victory!" I was astounded that they insisted that Papa doesn't sing.  They've known a different man than I did, but I was determined to convince them otherwise.  Thankfully, I have a video of my wedding, where he sang and sang well, though maybe not quite so well as he is singing today. 

Passing on his love of football to Blaise, November 2010.

  

Yes, Dad will be missed, terribly, by many.   I have no idea who I'll go to when I have a question about the rules of football now, and my boys won't get to hear him sing or play and wrestle with him, but it is a great comfort to know that he is in heaven and we will see him again someday and we'll be able to sing with him.  And so I want to celebrate his life and his arrival in that blessed place more like a wedding party than a funeral, though the tears have come and will continue.  

Christmas 2010.

Sorry for the randomness with the pictures... I wish I had some older ones, but haven't ever bothered to scan anything.

   

Meeting Daniel, November 2010.

Hanging out with baby Michael, September 2009.

  

Meeting baby Michael, July 2009.

 

Playing with Blaise at Christmas time, 2007.

Meeting Blaise, May 2007.

Being silly with Scott, Christmas 2006.

The family August 2006.

Meeting Scott, March 2006.

Baby Man Turns 1

Baby Daniel about a week old.

It's been a whole year?  He was so little, when he was born, he had big hands, was a little jaundiced and he didn't open his eyes much... quite the surprise coming 2 weeks early on us instead of a week late.  We were so unprepared and then I was tired for the birth, but it was a good one anyway and Grandma and Grandpa were in town to take care of the big brothers and meet him right away.  

We really weren't sure how to celebrate his birthday... Grandma and Grandpa are out of town on their own vacation and the other side of the family is busy getting ready to celebrate Uncle Mike's graduation from University of Phoenix and his 30th birthday.  Naturally we kept putting off deciding what to do, knowing that it makes little difference to a 1 year old how you celebrate his birthday.  

The final verdict- celebrate Clemson style.  We needed to make a trip to Clemson anyway to pick up some licensed merchandise and we weren't going to be able to get the game at home.  The first plan was to find some friends in Clemson and watch the game at someone's house.  Then Friday night we snagged tickets for less than half face value and figured we'd just go to the game :)  

Daddy wanted to know why no one else got chocolate.

Tailgating downtown - boys love their Chic-fil-a.

Happy Birthday Boy during the whole 1st half

 We had a great time in Clemson.  We met up with 2 of Cullen's college roommates, saw the band, made our purchases, and had fun watching the game.  That "most exciting 25 seconds in college football" thing still gets my heart going fast.  Daniel was happy and smiley and thoroughly enjoyed the whole 1st half of the game- then it was nap time and he was tired... I walked him to sleep way up at the top, but my back was killing me, so I couldn't be still enough, long enough for  him.  Cullen took a turn walking him and he survived the 2nd half- thankfully, so did our Tigers!

After the game as we headed out of the stadium Blaise provided quite a bit of entertainment for us.  As Cullen and I were loading the stroller and buckling Daniel and Michael in he stood towards the middle of the walkway and held out his hand for high fives, big grin and all.  I can't resist putting a picture of that here too.

Blaise high-5ing

By the time we got back to our car and out of town and stopped for dinner... we didn't make it home early enough to do cake and presents.  No worries though- we can always have cake for breakfast right?  Cullen's Papa would enthusiastically agree, so that's what we did.  Presents first though, because the big brothers couldn't wait any longer on that one.

Daniel hitting his present.

Michael helped a little and so did Blaise.

Oh look, now everyone is playing with it.  I think I convinced them to let Daniel play with it a couple of times today.

Smiley baby.

 Finally breakfast... they ate their eggs quite quickly.  Wisely, I decided to strip him down to his diaper before giving him his football cake.   Please ignore the boogers.

First tastes...

Yeah, this is good.  

Oh, wait, I don't think I really want it on my hands...

When can I have more of that?

This required a bath, which Daniel couldn't be more thrilled about.

Daniel's other birthday present- his big chair from Grandma and Grandpa came this week.

Mostly pictures today, but that takes less time to read anyway right?  At a year, Daniel is still the happiest most content of our children.  His smile still lights up the room.  He does know how to hold onto things tightly, in order to prevent them being grabbed by someone and he holds his own around his brothers.  He's always ready to get right into whatever they are doing.  I've seen him climb into the pile when they are wrestling and crawl right up and knock down their towers.  

Daniel seems younger than his brothers did at a year... I have a few theories.  #1- he's supposed to be the baby, so he better stay young.  #2- he's not walking yet?!  He cruises and will walk holding onto your hand or a toy.  He stands up, but there too, he still likes to hold on... guesses as to when he'll take his first steps?  #3- he's only had 1 haircut, compared to the 4-6 his brothers had had by their 1st birthdays.  #4- still nursing regularly, where everyone else had weaned or was very close.  It wouldn't be a bad thing if we could keep that up through flu season.

I think he's pretty average sized, around 30 inches and probably just a tiny bit more than 20lbs.  Things he loves and does often/well include being with his brothers, being outside, the bath, the toilet- specifically flushing it to hear the sound, waking up early, eating peas, smiling for the camera, pushing cars, banging on things, playing with blocks... yes, he's a boy.  

We are excited to see his little personality develop more and more over the coming year and are so grateful to God for blessing our family with our smiley Baby Man.  We pray that Daniel would know Jesus intimately at a young age and that God would use him powerfully for the kingdom.

Soccer

Soccer season is officially over, now we can go back to having dinner on Tuesday nights with only the typical amount of chaos.  Closing day was supposed to be October 29th, but got delayed due to weather until yesterday.  Both Scott and Blaise played this fall with Victory Sports Outreach, which is a really great league that I can't say enough good things about. (Check them out at www.victorysportsoutreach.org.)  Teams practice once a week for an hour, with a devotion afterwards, then they play Saturday mornings with a devotion beforehand, going through the colors of the wordless book - Gold stands for God's Glory, Black/Darkness stands for sin, Red stands for Jesus' blood, White stands for Cleansing, and Green stands for GROW- Go to God in Prayer, Read the Bible, Obey, Witness.

Blaise played in the 4K league for the Flames- the red team.  Blaise had a blast. His whole team was such a great group of good natured little boys.  They really had fun playing and enjoyed themselves.  Blaise liked playing goalie and was pretty good at it too.  He did a fair job running up the field and chasing the ball as well.  Cullen got to be the assistant coach, whenever he wasn't traveling for work.

The Flames

Blaise

Blaise in action, running with the ball.

Scott's 5K team was the Chargers and they were the green team- which was perfect for Scott.  His favorite color is green, in case you didn't know that.  Scott had a fun season.  His team only had 5 players, so they all got to play for the entire duration of every game.  They started the season pretty strong... although one player was missing for the first game and then one other player had butterflies and refused to play at all.  I filled in for the coach that day, since he was out of town, and told the team they would just have to play without a goalie and keep the ball at the other end of the field.  They were pretty excited about that idea and did a really great job.  I whispered to Scott that if the other team did get away with the ball, he would have to outrun them and be the goalie- he was thrilled.  He ran so hard that game- refusing to even stop for a water break.   For the record he had at least 4 saves during that game.  Scott seems to be a defender, or at least he understands a few things about defense: if the ball gets near your own goal, kick it out of bounds quickly.  He's really come a long way with soccer this fall and is willing to get in there and play.  Most importantly, he's come a long way with sportsmanship.  He really hates to lose.  The Chargers won their first 4 games this season, then lost the last 3.  He refused to talk about the first loss at all.  During the 2nd loss, he got knocked down (it was a pretty rough team they were playing) and he didn't want to go back in the game because they were losing and he knew it.  Yesterday, at the closer, they were losing and he still had a smile on his face and was having a good time.  One thing I found entertaining... soccer in the mind of a 5 year old is really about food.  There was one Saturday when no one brought snack for the team (do the math, there are 5 players and 7 games), Scott was not the only one who had a minor melt-down after the game, when the kids realized there was no snack.  Again, yesterday, as we were going to the game Scott says from the backseat, "This is a really fun soccer day, do you know why?"  We have a few guesses, which are all wrong.  He finally tells us, "Today we get to eat lunch at soccer!"

The Chargers

Scott

Scott going for a goal.

 The fan section... was a little more limited this season.  Closing day was rained out and postponed, but that was the game that all the grandparents were going to be able to come to.  Nana and Papa still made it to one game early on and of course, the brothers and I were always on the sideline cheering them on.  Michael can't wait for his turn to play.  I have no idea what we're going to do next year, when he is still too young to play.

Getting ready to watch Blaise's game... which hasn't started because the players are all at the devotion in the back of the picture, so I have no idea what they are actually watching at this point.

Scott's games were during nap time... Daniel FINALLY learned to sleep in a carrier!

Now for some thoughts regarding children's sports...  I've been thinking about why we sign our kids up for sports.  I love sports- just in case you didn't already know that about me.  That might be reason number 1.  Other reasons include: the kids are interested in playing, either asking to play or saying yes when asked if they would like to, for our family to be involved in the community, making friends, to learn sportsmanship, to have fun, to try something new or learn more about the particular sport...  For us, it has really very little to do with how good they are at a particular sport.  Thinking about this I realize that maybe this applies to other areas of life as well.

As a kid I was never very musically gifted... okay, even now I'm not musically gifted.  My mom made me take piano lessons in 1st and 2nd grade.  Later I wanted to play saxophone (I don't remember exactly why, but I remember it was somehow trendy and probably a stupid reason) and I was told I had no ear for music and it was a waste of everyone's time to even let me try.  This was 5th grade.  Fast forward to 8th grade.  My sister started clarinet.  I still wanted to try saxophone, so my mom got me private lessons- outside of school, because they still thought I couldn't play.  In less than 3 months I was playing in the 7th grade band.  Those piano lessons from 1st grade helped a lot, I already knew how to read music.  No, I never did much with it- played in the school band for 3 years and continued private lessons for another year beyond that.  Yes, I still play occasionally, mostly hymns and Christmas music (although I did download music for Tiger Rag and the Clemson Alma Mater this fall) and only for my kids.

Back to sports... play for fun and the other positive things you'll get out of it rather than the pride.

Football.  Did you know that I played Pop Warner Football when I was in the 7th grade.  Full pads football with the boys.  I was a lineman, on both sides of the ball.  Played linebacker at least once too.  I don't have daughters, and I'm not judging my parents, but I would NEVER allow my daughter to play organized tackle football like that- looking back and weighing the positive things about it, I'm drawing a blank and I'm pretty sure I just wanted to play for prideful reasons.

Scott's been talking about playing football and he can't wait til he can play flag football.  Now that it's my son that's talking about playing football.... the very physical and dangerous nature of it has become much more real.  I noticed that there were a fair number of girls on the flag football team that practiced after our soccer team and I wondered where I would draw the line.  Most of the concerns I would have with tackle football are not relevant to flag football in the early grades.

Next book... Happy 1st Birthday Daniel- coming to a blog near you,  hopefully on Saturday, unless I'm too busy celebrating with him :)