Some days it is difficult being a parent. I'm sure you know all the trials and tribulations that go along with being parent to teenagers. All paling in comarison to when your child hurts. Derek, 16 years old and a Junior at Beverly High School has been trying out for the varsity baseball team. He got cut yesterday and in fact was told that he can't play JV either. Now you should know that Derek has been playing ball since he could hold one. I'm not kidding. As a baby, he threw a ball back and forth with his dad. He IS baseball. He has always dreamed of playing on the varsity BHS team. He has always been chosen for the all star teams in the city. He was sent to play on the Williamsport team (the world series of little leaue), he played Freshman and JV baseball at BHS. So, this year, he saw his dream within reach. He practically slept in his BHS baseball hat. It meant a lot to him. And he is crushed. I think it is truly harder on me. My heart hurts seeing him hurt. As a parent, you know what is in store for your kids. Life sucks sometimes. We all know that we have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, hold our head high and march on. But what a lesson. To see him hurting, hurts me. We really did not see this coming. We should have prepared him for the possibility of being cut from the team. But, frankly, it never dawned on anyone that knows Derek. Growing up IS hard to do, and it's even harder for me to stand by while they get knocked around. I cried a few tears last night (in private, I would never do that in front of him), I cooked his favorite dinner (which he couldn't eat), I hugged him (well, that's just downright embarrassing) and I reminded him that he is still the same wonderful person he was the day before, who has great friends who still like him just as much. And I told him that now he can start drivers ed and go for his license. Hey, gotta sweeten the pot somehow!

So, today, the sun comes up, life goes on even though my heart (and his) feels sore. blech.

And to elaborate a bit on the llama pattern on yesterday's blog, I purchased it from http://fourseasonsknitting.com. It is in Canada, so the pattern is very cheap in US dollars and the shipping was super fast! They have a lot of unusual patterns. You should browse around their site. It's fun.

Thanks for listening.