Life has, as seems to be the norm around here, been busy. In
the meantime Sam and Thomas have both managed to have had birthdays and have
respectively turned 13 and 15. Yes, we now have three teenagers in the house.
Huzzah?! The mind boggles and perhaps that’s why it’s taken me so long to get
my head into a space to capture this. Let's just go with life has been rather busy.
Tom achieved his milestone first so I’ll start there.
Tom at 13
Every time I sit down to write one of these little birthday
pieces I worry to some extent that I’m going to be repeating what I said the
year before. I guess it’s not my fault if they don’t change their personalities
too much in a year.
Tom remains the house clown, always on the lookout for the
next joke. He’s definitely a thinker, an ideas man. I’ve lost count of the
times that Tom starts a conversation with something along the lines of “Just
imagine right that …” and off he goes on a fanciful journey of the mind. I
can’t say that I can always keep track of exactly where it’s going, but I
always enjoy the fact that he’s so actively using his imagination.
Tom played a lot of soccer again this year. School went well
and he really enjoyed that portion of the football experience but unfortunately
the club experience didn’t quite match up. The club went from one team to two
this year, which whilst it meant that he got to play regularly, it didn’t
provide last year’s fringe players with a lot of positives. They had some
success, but unfortunately the coaching was sub-par (you have to be thankful
for someone that’s prepared to volunteer to do the job) and I don’t think the
boys learnt a whole lot. I had been asked to coach but with work commitments
and everything else that was going on in my life I wasn’t willing to commit.
That’s changed for next year and I’ve been silly enough to say yes. It should
be a very interesting and bloody busy year.
Tom continued with his cricket and has steadily improved,
though not as much as he could have if either of his brothers was interested
enough to get off their backsides and play some of the backyard variety of the
game. It makes you wonder where the next generation will come from if all the
kids get addicted to their computers and X-boxes. I think the highlight of the
first part of the season had to be the reverse hook that he played, much to the
amusement of several of the parents (and me!). It wasn’t so much a pre-mediated
thing as just an effort to hit a ball that was outside off stump. He’s nothing
if not unconventional! If only I could find some of that elusive free time to get
around the nets with him, we might be able to improve things even further. He’s
looking to play on next year, so hopefully he continues to improve. His batting
is getting there as he makes some runs most weeks, though a tendency to try and
hit across the line of middle stump has seen him come unstuck once or twice.
Academically Tom continues to progress, working hard (most
of the time) to achieve his results. It’s certainly a challenge off the back of
the dyspraxia and dyslexia, but he’s holding his own so far. There was an interesting conversation around
the dinner table the other night in which Sam and Michael were telling Thomas
which teachers would have high expectations of him because of the bar that they
set and which ones might not be looking forward to ‘another Temby’. I think the
reality is that Tom will carve his own path!
Sam version 2013 aka Sam at 15
I always think of Sam as the kid that marches to the beat of his
own drum, the one that likes to take up sports that none of the other kids
play. This last year hasn't been any different.
Over the course of the year since his last birthday Sam has
continued to quietly succeed. In terms of sports, he's continued on with his
Tennis. Having managed to get himself to a point where he's confident of his
ability, he played competition tennis for the first term of the year. He did
rather well, making it to the finals and then winning! He and his mates were
playing division 13 and with the start of the new season in term 4 he's
catapulted up to division 8 where he is continuing to win more games than he
loses. I don't think he's actually lost a singles game so far this season.
In addition to the tennis and sticking to something of a theme,
Sam has also been playing table tennis. Last year his team not only won, they
smashed it., going through the entire season undefeated. That earned them all
an MVP award which was a nice bit of recognition. This season Sam did well
again, though I don't think there's actually any finals but at the end of the
season Sam was presented with a 'Services to Table Tennis Award.' We're not
exactly sure what the criteria are, but it sounds good, even if it is, as
rumoured, for showing up to every game and practice.
In Winter Sam played soccer and Volleyball, the soccer being the
only cross-over with anything the other
kids play or in fact with anything that I played when I went through school
(even if I did flirt with tennis for a single term).
Academically Sam has continued to succeed, not quite managing an
academic award this last time around, but at least managing a commendation. Oh,
and he picked up another Mercy Key at the end of last year which was an
accomplishment to be proud of given they only hand out 10 across the year
level. To have managed it twice in two years was quite spectacular.
Then there's the other bits. Sam tends to have spent a fair bit
of time on You Tube over the last year or so, teaching himself a variety of
things. He's become something of an accomplished amateur card trick magician.
You have to watch out for his new sneaky shuffling and dealing skills as he
works toward palming cards and generally looking to leave you astounded with
what is going on. He's also something of an origami whiz. Apparently for one of
their art subjects this last term the topic was origami. When the teacher asked
if anyone in the class was any good at it, the entire class turned and pointed
to him. Oh and he's assembled his first computer too. He used the proceeds from
his birthday to buy all the components and then one night at the kitchen table
put the whole thing together. Now we just have to drag him away from it every
now and then.
Overall, we're very proud of our Sam and his accomplishments,
even if he has that teenage tendency to be extremely literal in picking faults
out of what you're telling him (especially if you happen to be his younger
sister!)
Happy Birthday Boys ... even if they were back in October!
