Zack says...

On Monday night:

Dad to Zack:   Why do we have Family Home Evening? (Which is a really funny question because we DON'T have FHE, except on rare occasions when I get my crap together.)

Z: To...celebrate...literature...with Jesus?

D:  Uh, yeah.  So, what song do you want to sing?

Z:  (Without pause) She'll be coming round the mountain!?

FHE is awesome.

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The other night I put Zack to bed and before I could get downstairs to watch my shows I heard him start to cry.  I went back in to ask him what was wrong and he basically told me he felt bad for dad.  I asked why and the gist of it was that Zack felt like he had been neglecting his dad and not spending enough time with him because he was busy with other stuff like playing with friends.  I assured him that his dad was OK and knows that Zack loves him.  I encouraged him to make sure and thank Steve for all the nice things he does for Zack. He is so cute and tender hearted!

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This summer we decided it would be fun to put Zack in tackle football.  We had no idea what we were in for (at least I didn't), and the commitment that this would be for our whole family.  Practice started at the beginning of August and was 5 days a week, every night from 6-8.  Missing a practice was out of the question, it's just not done.  Steve took Zack to every practice and stayed for moral support.  I thought he was being a little overbearing until I went to a practice and witnessed the spectacle myself.  If a kid is late, he runs.  If he makes a mistake, he runs and sometimes the whole team has to run with him.  The coaches yelled (I mean the kind of yelling where you loose your voice) at and berated the kids constantly.  On the first practice of the season, 2 kids puked.  These are 8 and 9 year old kids.  When school started, practice changed to 3 nights a week with games on Saturdays.  Steve and I didn't really see each other much because he would come home and go straight to practice.  Also, we didn't end up eating dinner until about 8:30 every night.  The stress level in our house was already really high due to having a new baby who was always sick and not sleeping and this just tipped the scales even farther.  I was not happy. 

But... Steve and Zack had some really great bonding over this experience.  I think it was really good for Zack to learn discipline and really be immersed in something he couldn't just quit when the going got tuff.  And it was really tuff!  There were about 24 players on the team.  There were about 8 kids who didn't get much play time at all and Zack was once of those, although he was on a special team (kick off return) so he got a little more time than the others.  Zack worked really hard and in the last game of the season they let him have a starting position (on the corner, playing defense).  At the end of season awards banquet the coaches said something nice about each team member.  They said that Zack was the most improved player of the year by far.  He started off a little slow but worked hard and earned that starting position.  We are very proud of him for his hard work and perseverance.  When we ask him if he wants to play next year he is unsure.  We will see how he feels next summer.  If mom has her way he won't play but if dad has his way we will be a football family forever!

Our handsome boy!

I should also mention that their team won every game but one and went to the championship playoffs in 1st place.  They won the first championship game and then lost the second and last game to the West team.

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Zack was a football zombie for Halloween.

Zack with his Pinewood Derby car.  He didn't win any speed awards but he had an awful lot of fun making his car with his dad.