Sports
Jackson wanted a different type of trophy, so he signed up
for teeball. His coach was really good. Some of the players
on his team had obviously been playing quite a bit. Jackson
could hit the ball well and run fast. His throwing and
catching got better as the season went along. To my surprise,
I found out that teeball parents are mellower during the games
than soccer parents were.
Zachary hates to be left out of things, so we signed him up
for 3 year-old soccer. He got to wear Jackson's old cleats
and he got his own team shirt. In this picture he is getting
ready for his first game.
The hardest thing about 3 year-old soccer is getting the kids
to stay on the field. There are always a few kids who don't
want to play at all. The coaches mostly try to herd the
kids in the general direction of the opposing team's goal.
Every time Zachary would kick the ball, he would figure his
job was done and come running off the field for a snack. My
biggest job was convincing Zachary that, while he has to take
turns in everything else in his life, in soccer you don't take
turns. You just go up and kick the ball.
Trip to California
In October we went up to the Bay Area to see my family. The boys
hadn't seen their cousins for quite a while. We went over to Mark's
house for a barbecue. Jackson and Zachary loved playing with
Julia, Stephanie, and Ryan. They even tried to go swimming in
the unheated pool at Mark's townhome complex.
Here the family is sitting down to a lunch of hamburgers and
beer. Diana came down with her now fiance Matt. They are
getting married in August 2002. Maria and her man Todd are also getting
married, in February.
During our Bay Area trip, we also stopped by to see some of
our old NASA friends. We stayed at Mike and Marisa's house.
The boys just couldn't be happier running around with Allison
and Courtney again. There were some accidents. Zachary kept
falling off the swing for instance.
Halloween 2001
When we got home from our Bay Area trip, it was time for the
Halloween season. There were pumpkins for everyone. Jackson and
Zachary personally designed the faces on their pumpkins.
Here are the finished pumpkins. Zachary's is on the far left.
Jackson's is on the far right. I tried to do one of those
half-carved-out-so-the-light-shines-through type pumpkins, but
it didn't work out that well. Lisa went for the "Let's pay
some attention to me" approach.
Zachary got to wear his costume to daycare the day before
Halloween. It was really cute, because the kids began referring
to each other by their costume names. "Batman took my
cookie". "Where's princess?". "She's in the bathroom". For anyone
who doesn't know, Zachary was Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Here are the boys in their costumes ready to go out
trick-or-treating. Jackson chose to be Pikachu again this
year. Zachary's costume was barely big enough to fit his
enormous body inside. The trick or treating was pretty
much the way it always was. The boys burst out the door, but
fifteen minutes later they got tired and wanted to go home.
Odds and Ends
They do some wierd promotions at Jackson's school. One morning
Jackson informed me that he was supposed to wear a tie to
school to show that he was "drug free". The symbolism escaped
me somewhat, but I let him wear one of my ties. When I picked
up in the afternoon, he was wearing it around his head like
Rambo.
Bath is one of the anticipated social events of the evening.
They sometimes stay in the bath until the water is ice cold.
Lisa buys them tablets that can turn the bath water different
colors. For awhile Jackson insisted on having black bath
water. Here's a question, what do you notice about this
picture? Zachary's head is bigger than Jackson's.