2013 Taco Bell Track Meet

It's been a year of "firsts" for Brandon.  He lost his first tooth.  He started his first year of school. And he just attended his first track meet.

He informed me afterward that he wants to go back next year.  I'm not sure yet if he was more excited about the free taco he got, the free Icee, the free water bottle, or the actual events he participated in...

A couple of weeks before the meet, a school friend's dad taught all the kindergartners how to do the long jump.

Brandon was nervous about the softball throw.  He wasn't nervous about not being able to throw the softball far, he was nervous about hitting someone.  Two nights before, I was practicing with him on the back lawn.  He was using a 12-inch softball and throwing it to me (or rather, over me).  Corrine came to stand beside me, and he panicked.  

"Corrine, you can't stand there.  What if I hit you?  You need to move."

Corrine wasn't worried and wanted to stay put.

I interfered, "Corrine, I want you to go stand by the house.  It will be safer."

So, she obediently went and stood by the house, which was off to Brandon's right.

He wound up for the throw (he's a lefty)...and that's when Murphy's Law came into play.  

If he had been on first base and Corrine on second, it would have been a beauty of a play.  It was fast and straight and it landed hard.  Unfortunately, she didn't have a mitt, and even if she had, I don't think there was any way she could have gotten it up in time.

Her nose took the full force of the throw.

That girl has a fine set of lungs.

"My noooose.  My nooose!" she screamed.  "Ooouuuch, ooouuch, oooouuuch!"

Brandon and Claire both started crying.

"I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to, Corrine," he bawled.

"Mommy, hold me, hold me," sobbed Claire.

Allan came over and took care of  Brandon, while I tried to ascertain in Corrine's nose was broken.  It was swollen and bleeding.  "I can't feel it.  I can't breathe through it!" she cried.

She didn't want any pain reliever, and I don't do Arnica (I'm not opposed to you doing Arnica, I just tend to be skeptical of things I don't have scientific proof for.  Maybe I will change my mind one day.).  She didn't want ice, so I just put cold compresses on her face.

For the next 45 minutes she cried.  And Brandon cried.  And Claire cried.

I was expecting her to have a black eye or two, but when she woke in the morning, you would never know that anything had happened.

"It just hurts when I push up on the end of it," she said.  "And it's still hard to breathe through it."

So, that's the long-drawn-out explanation of Brandon's nervousness with the softball throw.  Thus, he was quite pleased to find that everyone had to stay behind the chain-link fence while he was throwing.

There were kids crawling everywhere.

I was amazed at how efficient the meet was run and the sportsmanship.

The sportsmanship displayed was first-class.  There were dads, moms, sisters, brothers, and cousins  cheering for every mom's brother's son's dad's cousin's neighbor's daughter.

Brandon's efforts earned him three shiny blue ribbons.  And a big smile.