The incredible
thing about raising children is seeing things through
their eyes. You see how they see things for the first time. You have to
put to words concepts that you had assumed were innately understood,
like “competition” or “yield.” You shout for joy when your three year
old reads (from memory) “watch your step” on the bus. You encourage
imaginative play like it’s your day job.
You see all the bad, too, like when you miss the hunger or sleep cues and pay for it.
This
week we made some adjustments to the evening routine. I’m no longer
coercing Austin into walking the dog as soon as we get in the door. He
has been angry quite a lot these days. It turns out when we don’t walk
the dog and instead feed Austin real food instead of snacks at 6pm he is
in much better spirits. It turns out his mercurial behavior is linked to his
exhaustion and hunger. D’uh! And yet as a creature of habit, I tried to
force him to keep the routine.
Jeter
is unimpressed with this arrangement, of course, but he will soon
realize he has to wait until daddy gets home for his walk. We have later
afternoon walks for him, so it’s not a matter of urgency.
Last
weekend Austin ran his first race. Hayden was building it up, but we
were both nervous that his soccer team meltdowns might reoccur if he
didn’t perform well. Wonder Woman, his current favorite superhero (don’t
know why ;) was there, along with Batman and Captain America. That
helped, but we were still nervous. “Just have fun Austin. It doesn’t
matter if you win.”
Well,
he won. He beat everyone in the three year old heat including the big
kid up there on the right. He kicked it in to high gear down the stretch of the
considerable distance of 100 yards and, with literally hundreds cheering
him on, he WON!
