Choose Strong
For Tim.
Tim was pumped after Tuesday's grappling. He won
by a cross choke and declared himself first
submission artist in the family. (On Thursday, he
was almost caught in a rear choke by a smaller but
much nimbler opponent. He was not happy: "I want
to learn. Teach me more.") Meanwhile, I was a
little surprised by the sense of family pride a
10-year-old could feel. He told me he wanted to
know more about the clan's history which even I
don't know much.
He lost his last baby-tooth a couple of weeks ago
and that morning we had a good laugh at the lazy
tooth-fairy (Mom) who neglected her duty to place
a gift under his pillow. He grew two inches over
the past two months and, while still overweight,
dropped by three percents on the BMI chart for boys
his age. He has a sweet tooth and I know he eats
candies behind my back. Meanwhile, I observed that
he limited portions at meals very well. He gained
about one pound over the past four months without
any discomfort.
His temperment seemed changed, too. He used to
argue, swear, or otherwise drive himself into
hysteria when Mom pointed out the details of the
errors in his math homework. Most errors were due
to carelessness and I noticed that pointing out
these kind of errors could really make him mad.
We tried another approach where we simply give
him a list of the problems he got wrong and let
him figure out the details. That seemed to work
--he was able to correct almost all mistakes.
And he became much calmer.
In addition, he seldom whines during our Mission
Peak hikes these days, not even when I put on a
pair of Xero shoes on him. I feel lucky to be
Tim's dad ;-)
