Two-wheelin' Leah

Monday night after making a couple of visits for work, I hurried home to get dinner on the table so we could have FHE and get the kids to bed. When I pulled into the garage, there was no sign of Harwood life. I didn't think much about it--I just figured everyone was in the basement or at the neighbors. I just started preparing dinner. After a couple of minutes, I heard a raucous in the garage, so I went to see what it was all about. I opened the door to the scraggly, but ever so cute little face of Leah beaming with the most excited, accomplished expression. "I know how to ride a bike without training wheels. I just kept trying so hard," she said. There in front of me was my barely-turned-three-year-old, excited as ever to finally be joining Ben's bike world. While I was at work, Brent took the kids over to the school to teach Leah how to ride a two-wheeler. He said she picked it up so fast. What an awesome dad to take the time to teach her (when he could have chosen a handful of other things to do), and to also document this momentous occasion. The major challenge at hand is for me to devise a plan to keep tally of both Ben and Leah on wheels. Wish me luck.

Soccer Ben

This is Leah assuming the set picture pose she observed while team pictures were taken. She specifically asked me to get a shot of her just like this. She's quite a spitfire. It will be fun to see what she does on the soccer field some day. She definitely could hold her own when Ben and the other kids played around on the field during half time and quarter breaks.

Ben had his second season of soccer this year which he thoroughly enjoyed. In the beginning, he mastered running ahead of the ball to the other team's goal, but half way through the season he figured out how to get in the middle of the mix, and he went wild on the field. He was like this tazmanian devil working his way in and out of the pile. One game he scored five consecutive goals. After his big MVP moments, he ran to the sidelines and loudly announced, "Mom, I've scored like all the points for my team." True it was-- we'll have to work on humility along the way. It was a fun September at the soccer fields. Brent got sort of roped into coaching at the last moment, but it was a huge highlight for Ben to have his daddy right there on the field with him.

Ben on his first day of school

Ben is now a school boy. After spending a good portion of the summer discussing school behavior, school rules, school safety, and basically school everything, the day arrived. Ben had his shots, a new haircut, a new backpack, a couple new outfits. You would have thought he was beyond ready. The night before the first day, Brent gave Ben a blessing. We laid out Ben's outfit for the morning. Everything was ready. The next morning when I went to wake Ben up, I asked him if he remembered what was happening that day. He could not, for anything, come up with that day's special event. When I finally gave him a hint, he looked at me, as if shocked, and said, "You mean today I'm going to school?" I'm beginning to wonder why I try.
As a family, we walked Ben across the street to the school. He was so excited at this point. I could feel the vessels thickening in my neck, and I knew I wasn't up for a hysterical sob fest, so I kissed him good-bye, and watched him find his name tag at the table. I quickly made my way for the exit with misty eyes, realizing that this moment was the beginning to the end. Life's changes sure do bring a lot of anxiety and growth.

Weekend at the Sand Dunes