With the NCAA Tournament underway, Tobin wears a UNC t-shirt or jersey most days a week. And this week of his life was made extra special because a couple days ago, he attended the Tar Heels' first tourney game in person. Matt will share more about that awesome experience later.
While Tobin hasn't worn holes in those shirts yet, his pants are suffering from an epidemic of holey knees. I was culling his clothes the other day and counted five pairs of pants or jeans with sizable holes in the knee. And curiously enough, the holes are only in the right knees. Only about two of these would be worth patching--were I to attempt such a thing. I think they're more likely to be converted to cut-off shorts. In any case, they won't be handed down to Evan as pants so I'm trying to store this in my memory for when I open the 5T box for Ev in a few year and wonder, Where are the pants?!? Recently, at the end of a laundry week, I sent him to school in holey pants. I was kind of self-conscious about it but then I noticed several other boys in his class had holes in their pants' knees too. When I chatted with his teacher, she assured me this was a busy boy phenomenon. It appears the holes can be explained by style of play and, upon further inspection, that my boy is growing very quickly. His pants are suddenly at or above his ankles. Fortunately, I had some larger pant sizes in reserve (courtesy of Mimi's shopping last fall) and it's getting close to full-time shorts weather anyway. He couldn't be more excited about this, as one of his favorite things to do lately is change into shorts when he gets home from school.
I've had a couple more chances to volunteer in Tobin's class this past month. There, I'm watching him become a big kid before my eyes. He acts differently than he does at home. It's not a stark contrast but there's a subtle difference in his mannerisms. He's comfortable and confident at school too, and it's amusing to watch him be silly with his friends and attentive with his teachers. I've even seen him roll his eyes and laugh in an exaggerated way when one of his friends said something funny. I still think of him as my fairly reserved, kinda shy little guy so I especially enjoy watching him loosen up.
Another area where Tobin comes out of any perceived shell is with sports. Whether watching basketball and checking his tourney bracket or playing PIG or HORSE (or any other similar-length word of Tobin's choosing) with his dad, Tobin does so with gusto. This past week, he started practice for his second season of T-ball. In his league, he had the option of trying out for a more advanced division--since he played T-ball last year--but Matt and I decided another year of T-ball/modified coach's pitch was appropriate. He was the youngest player on his team last year so all of his coaches and most of his teammates have moved up. But our first impression of his new team is that it's going to be another great year. Really, we have no reason to expect anything else as all of our organized sports seasons (two soccer and one T-ball) have been so much fun. The only thing better than watching Tobin watch sports is watching him play sports. He gets so excited when he does well and he truly takes missteps in stride. I was just asking him which position he liked playing best in T-ball. He said, "Well, I've only played two positions in practice this year: first and third. I think I like first base better because you have to catch more. And I'm not very good at catching, so I need all the practice I can get."
That sums up so much about how Tobin approaches sports . . . and life.
No comments:
Post a Comment