Fall and fútbol season

The sound of wind gusting through the trees, wine bottle lanterns clanging softly as they sway to and fro from the patio cover, and the warm air as it rushes through the screen on the patio bedroom door, passing like a wave over my body starting on my shines and finishing at the top of my head; every hair tingling my skin in its wake. It is fall in Sonoma county and some of the best weather of the year. I have two tired boys passed out next to me, one on either side, their bodies motionless, chests rising and falling softly with each slow and slumbering breath. It is these fleeting moments that I wish I could bottle every sensation, emotion, and feeling and save it just to savor it on demand. I would label the bottle, "Perfection." It is these moments that I realize nothing else in this world matters, but this perfect moment. These two boys of mine, my Alpha and Omega, are all that I need to make my life complete.
 

I realized that this night is the first in two years, two months, and four days of life for Orion, to be without his mom. We sent Melanie off to North Carolina to meet her newest nephew, Sebastian Ko, so it is just us boys left to our own device for the next few days. Orion is a major mama's boy and will often refuse to fall to sleep unless his mom is in the room, and if she does not come, it can be several hours of battling sleep before he admits defeat and lets exhaustion take him. This was a real point of concern for me once he realized his mom was gone. Orion has absolutely amazed me with his level of comprehension. We have been telling him that his mom would be gone for three days, however, I did not really expect Orion to understand that. Orion woke up the next morning, looked at me and said, "Dada. Mama gone three days." and that was that. We called her on the phone once and latter spoke to her on Skype at bed time. He kissed his moms face on the computer screen, said "BYE!" while waving to her and has been content ever since.

  It has become abundantly apparent that Apollo is shy and timid. He has been that way most of his life, but we had hoped it would start to fade away by now. He is just so aware and self conscious and really thinks about things too much. I do not want to change who he is, yet I want to break him out of his shell a bit. School has been helpful, however he will require a more concerted amount of effort to achieve this. Soccer seemed like a logical starting place, so I signed him up. Apollo has never been ball crazy like Orion is, and I have often tried to get him interested by trying to play catch with him or kick. Both with very limited success. Apollo takes instruction much better from others than he does from his mom and I, so I am banking on coaches and teachers to help push him over the hump. What I hoped Apollo would gain the most is the ability to let go a little bit and enjoy himself in a group or team environment. Plus the fact that the two favorite games at his school are fútbol and zombies, learning to play soccer will turn out to be very beneficial. 
  We are three weeks in to his short 6 week soccer season, and although I am enjoying every second of it, Apollo is still undecided. He has fun most of the time, but I have to confess that his mind wanders a lot and I catch him daydreaming about other things. Although he has made his way into the cluster of kids during the soccer games, and actually has kicked the ball a few times, he will also watch the ball go right by him.  It takes a lot of self control for me to just let go and not micro-coach every thing he does on the field. I want to keep it fun for him, so I have been coming up with creative ways to teach him how to play soccer on days that he does not have practice or a game. I feel the lessons he will learn in sports will be invaluable and I plan on signing him up for several sports every year. The thing is that once he gets the hang of something, he tends to excel at it, for example, riding a bike. I am not sure if he will ever be super aggressive, but he can sure kick the heck out of the ball when he tries.

  Orion's language ability is expanding daily. It is interesting watching how he learns to speak. He will repeat anything Apollo says, and will say it perfectly. I call it the parrot effect. Yet, once he learns the word and uses it on his own, he does not pronounce as clearly. Eventually, the sounds form correctly and the words begin to be intelligible. As I stated before, his comprehension is off the chart. He hears and understands everything. He will hear us talking about something as mundane as needing a towel. He will disappear down the hall and return a moment later with a towel.
We have had a fog machine in our backyard for a few days and the boys have been playing with it daily. I had to take the jug of "fog juice" and stash it in a closet. Today, the machine ran out of juice. Apollo opened up the the reservoir and said, "Its empty Orion. We need more juice." Orion ran in the house, down the hall, into our bedroom, and into the closet. Moments later he came running back outside carrying a gallon jug of fog juice. "Apollo!" he yells, "Juice!"
  My favorite moment of the week came during one of our daily wrestling/tickling matches. I had Orion in absolute hysterics. "Dada," Apollo said while laughing himself, "You made Orion over laugh."