Maybe I'll KICK you in the grace

This may come as a shock to you, but I am not terribly coordinated. In fact, I am what is commonly referred to as a klutz. 

When you're a kid, you don't figure out stuff like this right away. You run to get in line for kickball, and maybe you fall down 3 or 4 times before you get to the line. Once you make it into one of the last slots of a team, you watch kids run a few steps, solidly connect with the incoming ball, and send it reeling into the outfield. Then they have their glory run around the bases, everyone cheering. "I can do that," you think. 

As you stumble toward the plate, you trip over an untied shoe. Once that's remedied, you wait for the ball to roll in, and you extend your leg and foot with all your might, missing the ball entirely and launching your body into an awkward partial flip. You try to right yourself, and there's the ball, directly underfoot. Your teammates stare, amazed. Humiliated, you try to kick the ball anyway, and it rolls over to your direct left, where the teacher is standing, questioning her decision to come to work today. 

That's funny, right? Laugh it up, haters. 

Eventually, you learn it. You understand that you are uncoordinated, and someday you will make EVERYONE pay when your class has a spelling bee. Oh, they'll see then. But game days, you learn to develop mysterious stomach ailments or tough skin, to handle being picked last and then imploding across the coach's sport of choice. 

My senior year, they thought up a cruel punishment. "Anyone who sits out will write essays" they warned us, lady mullets bristling with foreboding. Seriously. I wrote essays for a YEAR.

My daughter Brynn, on the other hand, seems to maybe be one of the others. She can walk or run without tripping, and she can do flips and seems to be coordinated, at least so far. All this to say, Brynn will be starting ballet on Saturday, and I'm pretty excited. I think I see how one could live vicariously through their child. Maybe she'll even play volleyball someday, that exotic and complicated game of skill... maybe. 

In other news, if you haven't seen our family pix yet, mosey over here to see some of our favorites or here to see all 124. The fabulous Shelley Paulson shot these in December at Hermann Park.