The Nino turns seven today. It seems like just a few years ago that he made the arduous trip from in utero to my daughter's arms. I feels like yesterday when I quit coaching soccer to help raise him, to help guide him as he began to crawl then took those first tenuous steps, steps on the floor, steps into toddlerhood. Wasn't it just this morning that the three amigos dwelt in our bachelor pad and he was still in diapers? It was Luke, Brian, and me living together in my house for an entire school year, a two year old, a teen aged boy, and a middle aged man. That was a very good and very challenging year of our lives. It was during that time that Luke and I became 'best friends'. It was also during that time that Luke grew very close to his Uncle Brian. They are very close to this day with Luke copying his Uncle's mannerisms and turns of speech many which are not typical of the phrases one wants to hear coming from a little kids mouth. All parents/grandparents will tell you how 'smart' their offspring are, how brilliant they are so I won't delve into that musing because we have all heard it before and all roll our eyes, at least on the inside, when we hear that phrase uttered. Rather, I can tell you about his personality, reference two of many examples that will hint at the character he is. At Thanksgiving time, he had a school assignment to write about things for which he is thankful. He wrote, "I am thankful for my parrot." When we saw this, we were dumbfounded. He does not have a parrot nor has he ever owned a parrot and we really don't know why he would be thankful for a parrot. For an another assignment, he had to draw a picture of where certain animals lived. For the rabbit he drew a casserole dish. The nearest we can figure why he drew the dish is because the family had a rabbit casserole a few weeks earlier. One can only imagine the look on his teacher's face when she saw that on his paper.
For his birthday, I bought him a couple of gifts. One is a mini Swiss army pocket knife similar to the one I bought his mother when she was near his age. My dad enjoyed passed down his love of knives to me, I passed it down knives to my kids, and I am continuing the tradition with my Grandson. When he goes fishing next summer, he will have a knife to cut the worms instead of ripping them apart with his fingers.
The other gift is a Brazil soccer jersey with the name Neymar printed on the back. Most Americans are clueless as to who Neymar is but not so Luke. He can tell you what teams Neymar plays for and the number he wears for his teams because Luke loves soccer. He knows many of the professional players by name and can tell you the team name for most of the teams in the English Premier League just by looking at the Jersey.
One morning when he was about four years old, he popped up in bed and said, "Are they Wolves playing Manchester United today?". When I told him yes, he asked if he could get up and watch the game. I nodded. He ran to the living room, turned on the TV and watched the entire, ninety minute game.
We were watching an English game together one day, sitting together in my comfy recliner chair, he always squeezes in on my left, when he asked why the referee was calling some fouls but not all the fouls. I was shocked that he even noticed this nuance of the game. I explained to him the concept of the advantage clause as written in the laws of the game. A few months later, we were watching a game when someone observed that the referee did not make a call for an obvious foul. Luke went on to explain the advantage clause down to the up to 5 seconds the referee uses after a foul has occurred to determine if the advantage clause should be invoked. The people in the room were quite amazed.
The Nino has lived with me for almost his entire life. The only time we did not live together is when his mom was on her own for about a year. His parents are now looking for a home of their own, a home where they can be family with their own home and their own backyard in which the Nino can play soccer. He told his mom that either doesn't want to move. On another occasion he told her that or he wants to live close so he can walk over to my house every day to see me. This won't be able to walk over ever day because they will be living a good distance to the North of my home.
Having a little kid in the home is entertaining. You never know what they are going to say or do. They bring with them a measure of uncertainty that keeps everyone on their toes, bring with them a magic that imbues the household with life and somehow makes everyone around them feel younger and energized. I can't imagine my household when he and his parent's finally get their own place. I don't want to think about void that will be in my heart when I don't get to see his smile every day that I walk through the front door, don't get to hear his little voice say, "Hi Papa", don't get a hug before he crawls into bed for the night. For if I did dwell upon that thought for but a few moments, tears would surely spill from my broken heart..
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