"The Catch"

Evey, age 7, pictured this weekend in the backyard play area.

Just talked to my mom before the start of the Argentina/Germany game. She told me something that made me smile.

A week or two ago, Evey was feeling a little blue, probably sad that her brother was being mean to her, or something. She decided to write letters to both my mom and her Aunt Jessica. I read them both, we sealed them and set them aside for mailing. (Not sure if we ever mailed Jessica's.)

The other day my mom stopped by the house (and made us spaghetti, coleo and linguini salad... all excellent.) Evey gave her the card. I wasn't around when this happened.

Mom just told me on the phone that she opened the letter when she got home... and it made her cry. Happy tears. I guess there was a nice note to "Noni" and a drawing of the two of them holding hands. My mom said it made her day.

***

There is a joke here at the house between Evey and I, and it's about the blog post I have not written.

I will finally write it... today.

This was two summers ago. Evey was 5. I had one of those stress balls, a little firmer than most. A good ball to throw around at each other. It was solid black.

I was on the top deck in the backyard. Evey was in the yard. She was tossing the ball to me, I was gently tossing it to her, trying to get her to catch it. She wasn't having much luck.

We were about to go inside. I told her to go further up the hill in the backyard, farther away from me. One last try, I told her. I was going to throw it high...

I throw it straight up in the air, a pop fly, as hard as I could. I'm guessing the ball went 30 feet in the air.

Evey shuffled back, then forward, put her hands up towards her chin... and POP! Caught the ball, trapping it between her hands, her chin and her chest. I was shocked, and so was she.

This catch has become "The Catch" at the house, and Evey has been asking me for two years if I've written about it on the blog. Finally, I can tell her "yes." And now you know the non-story that is the Catch.

***

Went and saw Edge of Tomorrow on Friday. I thought it was decent.

I've been on a Tom Cruise kick lately, since I saw Oblivion. I thought Oblivion was surprisingly great... and it occurred to me that even though he's weird, he does mostly exciting action movies.

So lately I've watched Valkyrie, Jack Reacher, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and now Edge of Tomorrow.

Edge of Tomorrow was Groundhog Day meets Independence Day. I love time travel movies. And it was interesting seeing the Groundhog Day twist on time travel thrown into a sci-fi movie.

Overall I'd say it was a good flick. There was once I was actually on the edge of my seat. And the bad guys looked pretty cool.

(Of those other Cruise movies, I'd say Oblivion was the best, followed by Ghost Protocol and Jack Reacher. Valkyrie was good in its own way, but it's based on a true story, and the topic -- a failed attempt on Hitler's life -- is hard to enjoy in a 'hey, I'm having fun watching a movie!' way. And that's the mood I've been in for movies lately.)

***

Boyd, armed and dangerous. Mostly dangerous.

Boyd has been relishing in his terrible twos lately. His favorite victims are his sister, our sleep schedule and world peace.

He's all boy, though, that's for sure. Just likes to smash, throw, hit, yell, etc.

We took him to Lupe's pool yesterday and that's the best he's ever done at the pool. He can't swim but he does like to jump in off the diving board. Once he jumped in off the side when I wasn't there to catch him. He was wearing a life jacket, but Adrianne had to reach in and fish him out.

He won't be this age forever, so we're trying to enjoy it for what it is. But I know Evey, for one, is looking forward to Boydee version 3.0.

***

Boyd's room is all comic-book themed, which warms my heart. Adrianne found a lot of these oversized classic Marvel comics covers for wall art. Boyd knows who all the characters are. I think it's cool that I own half of the actual comics that are hanging on his wall...

One of the comics is Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos # 13, which, as you know, is famous in comicsdom as the first time Nick Fury and Captain America ever met.

Bucky, Cap's sidekick, is on the cover. Boyd likes to ask me who the little boy in blue and red is on the cover... I tell him, 'That's Bucky.'

Boyd now knows who Bucky is, at age 2. I didn't know who Bucky was until I was probably 10 or 11! (Because as you also know, Bucky was dead for most of the last 60 years... until Ed Brubaker wrongfully brought him back to life as the Winter Soldier a few years ago.)

Boyd has a Captain America shield. He'll tell me, "Dad, you be Captain America, I'll be Bucky!"

Terrible Twos or not, that's pretty darn cute.