Good kid

I am not always as good a person as I want to be. Sometimes I don't put others before me and wish I did, sometimes I forget something thoughtful that I wish I had done. I think I'm better than when I was younger, but it's still something I want and try to be better at.

So it makes me glad when I see my children being better about it than I; makes me optimistic for the future and hopeful that whatever I and we have done wrong with them, we are doing some things right.

- Jack and Kate argue and bicker like any siblings, I imagine, but on several occasions recently I have seen Jack (who's older and should be better, Kate's only 4, I understand) be the bigger person (since he is). At the Great Strides CF Walk yesterday, she liked his sticker more than hers and was crying about it (she was very behind on sleep). He immediately traded with her, and I think he clearly liked the one he gave up better.

- On Saturday, at the Baseball League All-Star Day, his best friend Nick (at least it's his favorite friend, I think he might be closer with Brian, but Nick is the boy everyone loves...natural athlete, that's how it goes) was on the semifinal Tug of War team, and Jack wanted to stay around to watch. Nick's team lost in the championship, and I saw Jack go over and pat him on the back and say he was sorry or something. It's just not the kind of thing you automatically expect from a 7-year-old boy, and it was pretty cool.

- At the conclusion of the Great Strides Walk, eating our lunch, Jack noticed a big posterboard where people could write on it "Why they walked." He pointed it out to me, and I said, Oh, that's nice. I wasn't necessarily going to go any further with it myself, but Jack knelt down, grabbed the marker, and carefully wrote out, "I walked for my Dad's brother, Scott." Put the marker down, got up, and we all headed home. Feeling pretty great.