My daughter has been bitten by the basketball bug. Last week, she attended a girls’ middle school basketball game. The gym was beautiful. The play was not. My daughter didn’t care. The next day, she said she had to go to practice, loaded up her backpack, ran out to our back deck with a bouncyContinue reading “Winter Dispatch 1: Basketball Jones”
Author Archives: Jonathan Sircy
Fall Dispatch 3: Learning to Ride
When we got home from the state fair (the subject of a forthcoming dispatch), a bike was sitting in our driveway. My wife’s cousin had gotten it for our daughter. It looked cool. She was excited. There was just one problem: my daughter didn’t know how to ride a bike without training wheels. So sheContinue reading “Fall Dispatch 3: Learning to Ride”
Fall Dispatch 2: Halloween
Halloween has come and gone. What a difference a year makes. For the past several years, our daughter dressed up as a kind of cat: a tiger, an American short hair, etc. It was fairly easy. Face paint? Sure. But it was pretty low maintenance. This year, she only had one costume in mind: HarryContinue reading “Fall Dispatch 2: Halloween”
Fall Dispatch 1: School Pics
My daughter brought home her first-grade pictures yesterday. They already seem like museum pieces. Comparing her kindergarten pic and this first-grade one clarifies how much she’d grown. Her face is fuller and her smile more mature. She’s not a little kid anymore, and her pictures document that transformation. But even over the past month, myContinue reading “Fall Dispatch 1: School Pics”
Birthday Party – By the Numbers
7 – the number of years my daughter’s been alive 4 – the number of days after my daughter’s actual birthday when we held her birthday party 24 – people who attended said party, including the guest of honor and her parents (i.e. us) 7 – the number of Harry Potter books my daughter nowContinue reading “Birthday Party – By the Numbers”
The Cloud
I gave thanks for my daughter’s upcoming birthday in church yesterday during our congregational prayer time. Everyone in the congregation applauded. I was sitting in the choir pews on the platform. My daughter was sitting in front of me. With our former pastor’s daughter gone, my daughter is often the youngest person in the congregationContinue reading “The Cloud”
Into the Labyrinth
Today, my daughter entered the labyrinthine world of Dairy Cow Showing, but she wasn’t entering alone. My wife has blazed a trail for her. So significant is dairy showmanship to my wife’s identity that Alex Trebek asked her about it on Jeopardy in the show’s obligatory get-to-know-the-contestant segment. A cloud of family witnesses surrounded myContinue reading “Into the Labyrinth”
Back to School
My daughter is back at school. Give thanks. Send up prayers. We were away for the four days leading up to the semester, which meant no parent/teacher conferences. All that we knew was that my daughter’s best friend from kindergarten would not be in her class. I feared the early morning battles, the struggle toContinue reading “Back to School”
Summer Dispatch 5 – Literary Heroes
My daughter finished the third book of the Harry Potter series, The Prisoner of Azkaban, yesterday, and she proceeded to start it all over again. In a way that hasn’t been true with the first two books, my daughter has started identifying with Hermione Grainger. I gotta tell you, it’s a great thing to see.Continue reading “Summer Dispatch 5 – Literary Heroes”
Summer Dispatch 4: Art Camp
Last year, my daughter attended a three-week day camp I held at our church. She was the youngest kid in the crew, but it was small and she got on well enough. Her dad was there the entire time, after all! This year, we signed her up for a one-week art camp in a nearbyContinue reading “Summer Dispatch 4: Art Camp”
Learning Together 