Issue link: http://hvparent.uberflip.com/i/316749
hvparent.com n Hudson Valley Parent 47 2 e take pride in providing quality, individualized, and personal care in a truly warm and friendly environment. 465 E Main Street Middletown, NY 10940 (845) 343-8212 BRACES AND INVISALIGN FOR CHILDREN, TEENS, AND ADULTS. Dr. Pachter is a Board Certifi ed Orthodontic Specialist and a Premier Preferred Provider for Invisalign. Evan Hershkowitz, DDS, MPH 1001 Route 376 • Wappingers Falls, NY 12590 www.sevenseaspd.com • specialize in children, infancy through adolescence and children with special needs • a very caring, safe and stress free environment • state of the art facility • general anesthesia available in our fully equipped operating suite Ahoy Mateys! so intent on moving the ball into the end zone, why then would the team in the blue shirts try so hard to stop them? Or, if the Mets guy wants to hit the baseball, why is the pitcher throwing it so fast? My daughter, two and a half years younger, has shown more of a com- petitive streak. I started to wonder if she might be the one to fulfill those offspring sporting fantasies I'd had years before. We signed Charlotte up for soccer, and on a brilliantly sunny Saturday morning that was full of promise, I slipped pink and black cleats — so cute you might want to hang them from your rear-view mir- ror — over her tiny feet, and drove her to the field. Within moments, Charlotte's mood soured. She spent the last half of the game crying on the sidelines. But we Malones do not quit. Since my wife is better at coercing the kids — after all, she's responsible for getting them to eat a few times a day — she suggested that she take our daughter to soccer the next week. As I held my breath the next Saturday morning, Charlotte slipped on her shin guards and uniform and those cute cleats, and followed Mom out the door. Gavin and I stayed home, making Lego airplanes. I was tempted to call my wife every 10 minutes, but wait- ed until an hour had passed. "How's she doing?" I asked anx- iously. "Good," said my wife. "She's hav- ing fun." Warmth spread from my chest to my gut. "That's great," I said. "Oh, and she scored a goal!" My daughter scored a goal! The fatherhood fantasies I'd harbored for a decade were finally fulfilled — while I was sitting on the floor of our family room, making Lego airplanes. I was ecstatic for her, if a little sad for myself. And so it went: the girls off to soccer Saturday mornings, while Gavin and I turned the basement into a haunted house, or made the Statue of Liberty in scrap-paper mosaic, or built K'NEX robots for the first annual Robot Marathon in our family room. I thought Charlotte might actually grant me permission to watch the fi- nal game of the season, but I got the same determined shake of the head from her, and no explanation as to why soccer worked so much better with me back at home. My son snapped me out of my self-pity. We had sticks in the back yard to gather and sharpen, Gavin said. Cheering my daughter from the sideline sure would be fun, but mak- ing bows and arrows from twigs and fishing line is pretty cool, too. Michael Malone lives in Haw- thorne with his family. His books in- clude "Notes From the Captain Law- rence Tasting Room" and the novel "No Never No More."