Swinging, bubbles and pigskin

By K.J. Cardinal

Anna had a rather eventful Friday, her last Friday before she turns one!

Angie and I had a little yard work to do in preparation for Anna's birthday party on Sunday. So, we took advantage of the nice fall day and spent a good portion of the day outside with Anna.

It had been probably a month or so since Anna had last been in the hammock and when I put her in it she really loved it. She enjoyed it the most when I was swinging it high and as the picture at the right shows, it seemed like the swinging motion got her belly and took her breath away a little bit.

After playing in the hammock for so long that she nearly rocked herself to sleep, Anna was in for a new treat...bubbles.

Anna actually first experienced bubbles last week at Val and Brian's wedding, but that was indoors and with a small wedding-favor sized bottle. So, she was VERY impressed with the big bubbles that I would blow her way.


Naturally, Anna would try to catch the bubbles in the air or pick the ones that didn't pop up off the ground. She didn't quite get the whole concept by any means, but I spent a good 15 or 20 minutes blowing bubbles with her outside and she was in her glory.

Angie then took Anna for a long walk in the afternoon, while I was able to get some work done. When Sammy got home from school she told us about the Spirit Day at school for homecoming and it naturally got me thinking about going to the homecoming football game.

I threw the idea out there to the girls and they were all up for it. I was psyched because I can't remember the last high school football game I'd been to and I'd never been to one at Hudson High.

Anyway, we bundled Anna up and headed down to the high school. Anna was so into it.

Her favorite part was definitely the cheerleaders. She would just stare at them without any sort of facial expression...she was truly mesmerized. Once she actually started clapping on her own as if to join in their cheer. Aunt Tiff and Aunt Kate were both cheerleaders when they were little, so I could see Anna following in their footsteps as a young kid...but she's gotta play a sport or two as well...and NO cheering IS NOT a sport.

Anna once again proved that she can fall asleep anywhere as she fell asleep on my lap despite the noisy surroundings of the game, fans, cheerleaders and a band.

A chilly night coupled with a 28-7 Auburn halftime lead really gave the girls no incentive to stick around. So, we bailed at the half, but it was still great to get Anna out to her first-ever football game and to go to a Hudson High sporting event.

I'm probably more excited about it than Sammy, but I am actually looking forward to her high school career so it gives us an excuse to go to some games. Hudson High is really good in some sports (soccer, hockey, softball...NOT football), so I'm sure they will put up better showings than last night.

As an aside, Newsweek magazine recently ranked Hudson High School number 689 out of more than 25,000 public high schools in the country. That is good enough for 15th in the state and in the top 5% nationally. That's rather mind-boggling for a guy that went to Farmington High School, which was sadly probably in the bottom 5%.