2 posts tagged with "atticus"

As I'm (hopefully) winding down this bout with COVID, I'm excited to start my second season as a dad and dancer this month. My youngest son, Atticus, has danced professionally for a number of years, and one of the opportunities his dance company offers to students and their families is called Dads and Dancers (I like to refer to it as DnD). Basically the students and their dads (or another family member) practice up a dance piece every week over the winter months and then perform it a few times during competition season.

No "newbie" jitters this year​

Last year was my first year with DnD, and I was nervous! Not so much that I couldn't handle the choreography, but because Atticus is super competitive, and made it clear that I better "bring it" or I'd basically be a huge, embarrassing failure - not just to him, but to the whole dad group, and essentially all humankind.

Even though the weekly practices weren't at my favorite time of week (Friday nights), I had a great time getting to know the other dancers and their dads. I especially enjoyed the "safety meeting" we had after each practice (which was an off-site hangout with pizza, wings and beverages :-). And heck, the dancing went pretty well too! Here's a shot of me doing my best to hoist Atti in the air so he can show off his splits:

This pic is hilarious to me as I get ready to start this year's DnD season because Atti is as tall as I am now. Maybe he'll hoist me in the air this year!

COVID diet continues​

I mentioned that over the past few days I've had a very limited appetite thanks to COVID. I'm a little concerned because today some foods taste...odd. Specifically, tonight Aimee prepared some chicken for dinner. That tasted fine, but I always eat chicken (and pretty much every other food but scrambled eggs) with an obscene amount of ketchup, and this time the ketchup tasted like copper! I almost spit it out onto my plate! I sanity checked this by having Cam and Aimee taste test the ketchup, and they thought nothing was wrong with it. This is the only food that has tasted funky, and my sense of smell is fine. So what does that all mean? No idea. But it's kind of freaking me out. Anyway, today I ate:

• 1 mint cocoa

• 1 caffeinated ice

• 2 pieces of pizza

• 2 chicken nuggets

• 1 apple

• 1 taco

A friend asked me, "What exactly constitutes your so-called COVID diet? Seems like you're just eating smaller amounts of unhealthy foods." Exactly, friend. Exactly.

Well, my wife has created an expensive, flying monster - actually, three of them.

At the end of 2021, I went flying at iFly Minneapolis for the first time, and loved it so much again I came back for another round two days later. After seeing the pictures and videos from those experiences, my sons Cameron and Atticus expressed interest as well, so this past weekend we headed out to iFly Minneapolis for their maiden flights.

My sons have extremely different interests and hobbies, and honestly, cannot get along for more than five minutes at a time. So as a dad, I was cautiously excited that this might be something the three of us could enjoy together. On our drive to iFly, that excitement quickly turned into concern when I started doing some quick mental math on what it would cost me if they both started wanting to do this on a regular basis.

We got checked in at the front desk, then fitted for our flight gear. I have to say, we looked pretty sharp:

As we waited to be ushered into the training room, the boys were in different places emotionally. My older son, Cameron, had been 100% psyched about this experience from the minute I had told him we were going, but my youngest son Atticus had some reservations. I could tell he was nervous because he was a little bit quiet (he’s never, ever quiet) as he studied the current group of students doing their flights.

Our instructor brought us into a training room to watch the short safety video. Atticus watched with quiet intensity. When it was over, our instructor came into the room to review the hand signals we would use while in the tube. I was so proud of Atticus for shouting out correct answers to all the questions. I could tell he was taking this seriously and wanted to do his best.

We got our earplugs in and helmets on, and were escorted to the room on the side of the tube to line up for our flights. My son Cameron went first and had what my wife would call “a big dumb smile” the whole time. To see him light up like that is one of those moments that, as a parent, you forget about how much a thing costs because there isn’t a dollar value you can place on that level of joy:

I took my turn next, and got lowered to the floor of the tube to resume work on specific skills. Per the video below, I’m trying to gain better control of left and right turns, as well as moving up and down and back and forth. I’m getting the hang of it, but still feeling like I’m an airplane constantly seconds away from a crash landing. It helps having videos like these so I can see where to make small corrections towards better flight control:

Last up was my youngest, Atticus. He actually came with me during my second iFly trip and was pondering joining me for a flight, but ultimately decided to pass. However, once he saw the trainers doing front and back flips, he changed his mind again and wanted to join me, but by that time it was too late. This time, however, he was all in - and judging by his expression, all business:

When he came out of the tube, he was all smiles. He sat down next to me on the bench and gave me a hug while he continued to beam. I had to laugh because even though in the waiting room you can’t hear anything, both sons kept tapping me continuously, wanting desperately to tell me all about their awesome experience.

We lined up a “high flight” for each boy’s second ride, and I loved watching them smile even bigger and wider as they sailed up high in the tube while twirling around in circles, Superman style. As they awaited their third and final ride, Atticus started tapping me on the shoulder and flashing me a peace sign followed by two “zero” signs. I gave him a gesture indicating I was confused. I thought maybe he was asking for a two-minute ride by flashing me “2-0-0.” He leaned forward and shouted loudly with a big grin, “TWO HUNDRED MORE TIMES!”

And while I would’ve loved to be able to take us all on another 200 rides, our adventure for the night had unfortunately come to a close. Suffice to say, I think it’s safe to say that we’ll be back again soon. I was encouraged to setup a Tunnelflight profile, which will allow the iFly instructors to vouch for my progress and help me advance to the next levels of flight. I'm definitely interested in keeping the skills progression going, especially after seeing my final flight of the night below, which I think demonstrates a little improvement!