October Highlights:
- Lilah gets her driver’s license
- Luke gets some playing time on his flag football team
- We celebrate my dad’s birthday
Lilah’s Driving Solo
After months of practice driving and weeks of Lilah fretting over whether or not she would pass her driver’s test the first time out, Lilah passed her driver’s examination with ease taking another major step toward her independence. In many ways, she’s a creature of habit and routine, coming and going from school, swim practice, piano lessons, and outings with her Kiwins volunteer group on the weekends. The only major change in her life is that she doesn’t need us to accompany her on her travels anymore. These days, she just grabs her keys, gets into her car and goes wherever she needs to go on her own.
Cathy and I are enjoying the freedom this has given us as we no longer need to worry about coordinating our schedules in order to taxi Lilah to her latest destination. The only thing I miss is that I now have fewer opportunities to chat with her about her life. Lilah says she loves driving solo now because she doesn’t have to wait for us to pick her up or worry about arriving anywhere late since she is now in control — I believe Cat was late to one of Lilah’s Kiwins activities once and I was late picking her up at the pool once, but in Lilah’s mind that’s two times too many.
The other nice part about Lilah driving is that because of changes in the law, teens can no longer be on the road after 11:00 PM. This means that if Lilah wants to go to a party on the weekend and drive herself there — and thus avoid the uncool factor of having us drop her off — she must be back home by 11. This means we don’t have to enforce some kind of arbitrary curfew on her social activities — the driving law does that for us.
Luke Gets Some Playing Time
This month, I finally had a chance to come out to a couple of Luke’s flag football games. He’s not in the starting lineup, but he typically gets a chance to play defense in the second half. He is typically assigned to rush the quarterback which is an interesting role for him since he often has to try to break through blockers that look like they weigh twice as much as him. The challenge doesn’t dishearten him however, as I witnessed him put pressure on the opposing QB several times, even causing an interception in the process.
Even though he doesn’t get as much playing time as the starters, Luke seems genuinely happy being part of the team. It’s also cool to hear him lead the team cheer at end of games. At the conclusion of each game, the coach selects a player to lead this simple cheer in a team huddle:
Eagles on me, Eagles on three…one…two…three…EAGLES!
Luke has been selected to do this on a couple of occasions and it’s amazing to see him come out of his general quietness, to bark this cheer out in a deep, manly and intense teenage voice. From my vantage point, it definitely seems like a committed and determined effort on his part to take control of the situation and lead his team in a full-throated celebration of the day’s victory. Fun to see teenage milestones of manliness coming out this way instead of the body odor that can follow him into the car after a hardfought game ;).
Lowkey Halloween
Unlike last year, Luke did not go trick or treating with his friends, opting to stay home with us instead and watch us pass out candy. For the most part, Luke hung out with Spike in our bedroom doing homework, while Jack refused to stay put, preferring instead to hang out with us in the living room and bark at the occasional trick or treater who knocked on our door. At least he didn’t incessantly bark, but he did feel the need to give two or three barks to each new visitor brave enough to step up to our doorstep.
Lilah, on the other hand, went out trick or treating with friends in another neighborhood — driving herself there, of course. Last year, she went out as Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a costume that, sadly enough, many people did not recognize. This year, she dressed up as a more contemporary character, Louise from the show Bob’s Burgers. According to Lilah, more people recognized this year’s outfit than last year’s get up so that was good.
That’s all for now…more next month!