Surgery

Brian is having ACL reconstruction surgery on Thursday.  I had to laugh because originally he told me I didn't even need to go to the hospital with him, that he was going to drive himself home.  It's his left leg, so he thought he'd just drive with his right.  After going to his pre-op appointment, his opinion of the surgery has changed, somewhat.  He will have to be on his back, with his leg elevated, for 7 days after surgery.  SEVEN days!!! He has to have his leg strapped into a range of motion machine for 23 hours a day.  Ummm... how am I supposed to sleep through that?  I also told him that I hope he can get up to go to the bathroom, because I have my limits.  The following is an animated video of ACL reconstruction surgery.  The difference between this video and Brian's surgery is that he is having the ligament harvested from his hamstring, not the patellar tendon.  (We couldn't find a good video of his same surgery.)

Football!!!

Whaaat?!?  Who's that football player?  

Jack started playing tackle football this year the beginning of August.  They practiced 6 days a week, 2 hours a day for the whole month of August.  I have to say, the more I know about football, the more I respect the difficulty of the game.  Imagine having to teach a game to 6-7 year olds where everyone on the field has a different job.  Jack is a lineman; which is somewhat funny given his size as the 2nd smallest on the team.  He is really good at his job though.  He's gone up against the biggest kid in the league and took him down, over and over.  Jack has perfected the "submarine" move.

 Just after the huddle.

 Couple of things you should notice:  1.  Look how small Jack is, in comparison to the other players.  He and Tristan both ask me ALL THE TIME, "When are we going to grow?"  umm... I don't know.  2.  Look how long his pants are.  Those are XS.  When I can't see him on the field I look at everyone's feet and look for the only kid in "long pants".  His knee pads are shin guards.

 The weather is starting to cool off, a bit.  It was still 85 yesterday at the game.  The first game was played in 100 degree weather.  We had a bucket of water with sponges that we would squeeze out over their helmets and the water would go down the holes in the helmets.

 Here he is in a rare moment running off the field.  He plays both offense and defense. Plenty of kids are on the sideline, just not Jack. Two games ago, they sent him out and the team played one play.  Then I hear, "Get Plummer back out here!"  What happened was, the kid Jack was blocking got through and sacked the QB because the kid who took Jack's place didn't make the tackle.  Look... it's serious business in the 1st-2nd grade football games.  They play to win, not so much to worry about the kids' feelings. 

Jack's team is undefeated.  We only have 1 more game and then the playoffs.  One of the parents suggested that, when they're 2+ touchdowns up, they could let other kids run the ball.  So, two Saturdays ago, Jack got to run the ball and almost made a first down.  He went about 8 yards.  This was his run yesterday.  He got a few yards.  

Click on the picture to open the stop-motion movie I made of Jack's football run from yesterday.