Club sign-ups

Last week, Little Clover proved yet again he is becoming his own person. Italian and I learned early on with him that he was almost a fully formed individual at an early age. We needed to make quick adjustments to our expectations and to our assumptions the second he showed athletic ability at the age of 6 months. Since then, our family life has been one of getting acquainted, with Italian and I setting the parameters and limits as best as we could and then making changes midstream to adjust for Little Clover's individualism. Mostly, though, we the parents set the schedule with some input from the little person.

Middle school doesn't really work this way. I thought we had our school year routine set, then Little Clover informed me he had been recruited to the Cross Country team, and he accepted. Practice and meets are now part of our schedule, with his first meet taking place last Thursday. To help his team keep a first place record, he needed to place somewhere between 20th and 30th place. With only having practiced once with the team, the coach cautioned him on running too fast out of the gate. He listened and kept to the back of the middle of the pack when the race began. As the coaches kept their fingers crossed for our runners to place in the top 30, Little Clover crossed the finish line in 8th place, helping his team grab first place. I wonder how he'll do with some practice.

From Irish Clover

Then I find out the next day, he's joined the ultimate frisbee club at school and needs to stay late on Friday. Who knew his school had an ultimate frisbee club?! I didn't even know he liked playing frisbee! All this growing up and making his own decisions is a bit hard for me to handle, so I'm focusing on what I can control - the sleeves to my sweater. With the weather cooling off (finally!) and fall around the corner, long sleeves would seem appropriate, but I'm going to buck the system and put short sleeves on this baby! It's my sweater and by golly, I'll decide what sleeves it should have.

Now, excuse me as I try to find out if Little Clover has made any other decisions about his life.