If you are frequent reader you may know that my three oldest kids are competitive youth athletes. Our oldest son is well on his way to a college track scholarship competing at a Varsity level in both Track and Football. Our second oldest son is a 7th grader who plays football, basketball, and runs track as well. He's had the privilege of competing with both the 7th grade team and one of the two 8th grade teams. Our daughter competes in dance and her favorite style is HipHop.
Cordelia's big season kicks off in January with competitions in the Chicago-land area. She's been working for months with the rest of her dance team to prepare. However, She'll be missing the start of her season. Cordelia is in a cast. I feel so bad for her, she has a stress fracture that will likely keep her away from dance until February.
She was in pretty good spirits about the whole thing for the first two days. However, the realization of just how very long she is going to be unable to do something she really loves is now starting to hit her. She's not really admitting to her disappoint directly. Her "freak out" moments have involved day to day stuff like apparel issues and bad hair due to the difficulty in washing it. It seems her various pairs of skinny leg Levi jeans aren't an option with the cast and she's made it very clear she's not happy with relying on me to wash her hair in the sink.
I've been down this path before. When my oldest suffered a stress fracture in his back in 8th grade, he had what we all refer to as his "chicken pork" explosion. Like his sister, he was growing very frustrated with his inability to do what he loved and began demonstrating his frustration in by complaining about the day to day. One evening he asked what was for dinner and when I replied "pork", he flipped out. "Chicken, Pork, Chicken, Pork that's all you ever make!" Everyone knew it wasn't about the pork and chicken, even my son.
While Santa won't be bringing Cordelia exactly what she wants for Christmas; she can be assured Santa has boxed up a lot of love, sympathy, and a few free passes in the "crazed outburts" category.