Family Matters, Week of 7-28-06

Every week I write about my family. I moved this to Fridays because I’m lazy.

Annie (4yr Old Energy Drink)

Annie is officially a cheerleader. She’s been to two practice sessions (her third tonight) and is loving it. The first thing she does when she gets home is show me her new cheers and Abby is there right along side her.

My girl, I tell you, you can literally see her processing information on a new level than she was just a few weeks ago. Every day you notice the inflections in her voice, the words she begins using, the little shortcuts to get by. The latter, in particular, is interesting to me. She knows her letters but, as all children it seems, the L-M-N-O-P string messes with them.

A similar occurrence is with the “Let’s Go” cheer, which goes something like ‘L-E-T-S-G-O means Let’s Go!’

Annie’s rendition goes something like “L-E-S-Go means let’s go!” At which point we try to back up her up and start again, but the cheer is simply too fast to allow her to slow down. Ah, frustration.

But nevertheless, she’s definitely loving it and will continue to do so until she’s tired of it.

Abby (2yr Old Explorer)

Abigail is doing something that no other 2 year old has done in Oak Ridge—joined the junior cheerleading squad with Annie. I’m not sure if its called the Junior squad or what, but she’s joining the team and my mother-in-law has graciously provided the $40 to get this process started.

Of course, me and Ericka are highly skeptical that Abby will make it beyond a few practices before she gets tired of it, but the fact is Abby is learning the cheers and is tremendously cute doing them.

And if you weren’t aware, learning and cuteness are two factors which can greatly sway virtually every parenting decision regarding your children. Think about it.

Anyway, until the hammer falls and Abby begins disliking cheerleading (I give her until the first game before her mind wanders) she’ll be right up there shaking her butt. And how cute is that?

Ericka (her myspace)

Ericka is experiencing what we’ve dubbed the Cheerleader Momma Drama.

“Have you heard about so-and-so?”

“No, what is it?”

“Well, she calls herself a coach but she isn’t doing anything! She just watches her kids cheer in the other group.”

“Well, I never.”

“I know!”

And so on, and so on.

Still, Ericka seems to get a big kick out of the cheerleading experience and she is very much looking forward to picking out uniforms. These are the aspirations of a momma.

It was then that I realized my once-girlfriend once-wife is now a full-fledged mom. Of course she’s been a mom for a long time, and a great one at that, but what I mean is it’s the first time in which I could relate something I associated with mothers (the obsession over something like a uniform) with my own wife.

And you know what? It’s kinda cool.

Until next week, keep it loose and keep it tight.

Flirting with time, but maybe,
Time baby, is catching up with you