Little Boy in a Green Cast

My son, Nathan, has fractured the growth plate in his ankle. He was playing tag at a birthday party on Saturday and stepped in a hole in the lawn and twisted (so we thought) the ankle. When the swelling didn't go down after three days, we thought something might be up and it was. Considering how active he is I am surprised (and grateful) that he hasn't fractured his entire body at some point in his give-everything-100%-attitude lifestyle.

This is a big bummer. He is an incredible soccer player and he just got his jersey for the start of the season. One coach said he "wanted to cry" when he heard that Nathan wouldn't be able to play for a lot of the season. The other coach said he had the best kicking leg on the team and . . . well, there was nothing left for him to say after that.

So we are trying to help him deal with the extreme disappointment he feels. He says he will still go to soccer games to cheer on his team. He chose the green cast not because it was his favorite color, but because it was his team's colors. I hope going to the games helps more than it hurts.

In other silly news, my daughter, Samantha, has a bus driver named Fran. I said, "Oh, it's a woman busdriver." She said, "No . . . . " and then added "At least I don't think it's a woman." So we don't know whether Fran the busdriver is male or female. The other thing is that Fran will wait for no one. If you're late and running down the street to catch the bus, that's just your tough luck. Fran ain't gonna stop for you. Forget going to your locker after school to get your books. Fran's going to leave you at the junior high so you have to call your Mom to come get you.

Over at the high school, junior Adrienne is ecastic to have honors English with seven of her friends. She is not excited to start the dry land portion of swim team in which she will have to run and do other hedonistic exercises. Adrienne and running are like oil and water. The first class of her day is called Primping 101 and it takes an entire class period, I'm telling you. In this class, she works very hard to get everything just right. If it is not just right, we will all hear about it.

My cute little first grader is very tired going to school all day. I love her to be tired because she goes to bed at 9:00 pm instead of 11:00 pm, which she did all summer long. If she can just stop the laying on the floor and whining like a sick dog, we'll all survive it.

That's the first week of school at our house.