We are currently in the middle of quite a bit of insanity. I'm not talking about the normal everyday life in my house......it's TOTALLY nuts right now. And it's all thanks to my very enthusiastic, very lovable, very ACTIVE Big Brother.
We work hard to expose him to as many things as possible. We want him to get to see what his choices are. He is far more coordinated than his mother and likes to play sports. So he does. He does gymnastics all (school) year round at The Little Gym. He also does some gymnastics over the summer, both through Little Gym and through another gym in the area (Hills Gym). He plays on teams all year long......Swimming in the summer (this replaces the need for swimming lessons which he doesn't have time for), Soccer in the fall, Basketball in the winter, and Baseball in the spring. He generally enjoys playing all of these sports. He's also a top student in school and works hard to keep it that way. Additionally, he's a Tiger Scout (Cub Scouts of America) and he enjoys the activities through them as well. In other words, Big Brother is a VERY active child. And, most of the time that's a good thing.
But right now, we are experiencing so much Big Brother that Dad and I are going just a bit nuts. It started on Tuesday.......Pack Meeting for his Cub Scout Pack. These happen monthly and he always has fun. This month there was a mandatory parent meeting so things could be set up for next year (fill in the spots that have been vacated by graduating scout parents or filling in the gaps for those parents whose children have chosen to leave scouting). Since I'm "Scout Mom" (Dad stays home with the twins on scout nights), I'm the one who attended this activity. When we got home, we just started preparing for the next day.
On Wednesday, it was baseball practice day. It was hot and humid. Dad took Big Brother to this. He attends every practice and game and it's good Daddy/Son time for the two of them. When they got home at Big Brother's bedtime, they were hot and sweaty. Big Brother took a quick bath and then went right to bedtime routine to get ready for Thursday.
Thursday is gym day. Both at school and gymnastics. Big Brother attends the select classes at his gym (he is a surprisingly good tumbler) and his class lasts for 75 minutes. It was my turn to take him. As soon as that was over, we went to grab a quick bite at McDonald's (BIG plus for Big Brother) and then I took him to a surprise with his fellow Tiger Den members -- we went to a remote control racetrack. He watched these grown men practicing and tweaking their cars to make them run as fast as possible. They got to practice racing themselves with the Den Leader's car (he goes to this track regularly). He had so much fun he refused to leave. But finally I convinced him that it was time to go. By the time we got home it was, again, time to just get ready for bed.
But you see, his activities aren't done yet. He has a baseball game tonight (under the lights) which isn't expected to end until 9:30. His bedtime (after books) is 8:30. Then tomorrow, he has another baseball game in the early afternoon followed by try-outs for the "All Star Team". He has decided he wants to try out and, according to Dad, he has a reasonable chance of making the team (but he's not a shoo-in). Tryouts continue on Sunday, and the kids are encouraged to attend both days of try-outs. Then, on Monday evening, he has another baseball game. On Tuesday, it's time to go back to Cub Scouts for his weekly Den meeting. On Wednesday, we expect he's going to have baseball practice. On Thursday, he's back to gymnastics. And then on Friday, he (and we) FINALLY get to relax before heading over to the pool on Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend (assuming the weather cooperates) to get him used to being in the water again before Swim Team practices begin just after the holiday weekend.
And he's in first grade with homework and a demanding set of coursework requirements.
NO WONDER I'M EXHAUSTED!
When you look at it on paper, we really haven't signed Big Brother up for too many things. In addition to school, he plays one team sport at a time (with a little overlap between baseball and swimming), does the gymnastics (which he does NOT want to give up), and Cub Scouts. Swim team is the only one of these that we don't offer him a choice. Everything else he chooses to do.
Next year or the year after (at the latest), he's going to have to begin religious education -- he's already behind there. He wants to take music lessons, but we haven't started with that yet. He will be trying to learn guitar over the summer. If he enjoys playing the guitar, I will look into finding a place who can teach him classical guitar -- he can take that and apply it to playing rock if that's what he would like, but the technique will help him in all things music.
I am very happy I have such an active son. I'm so happy that he is such a social butterfly and wants to do all these group activities. I'm happy that he's so well-rounded that he excels in several of these activities without sacrificing his school performance.
You see, my life isn't ALL about raising Autistic kids!
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