Lochlan 12th: Shoes & Relays

Talk about a crazy, action packed year. The year was stamped with one of the biggest moments during any childhood. The move from Elementary School to Middle School. First though, Lochlan continued training for his upcoming little league season. And probably his last little league season.  Moving forward to the spring, he ended up being put back down in AAA for no reason at all. Next! We moved on from a fun season of baseball, ready for what was to come with a new chapter in middle school.

Now lets go back to 5th grade. As I mentioned in their 11th grade post, Lochaln and his sister were placed together one last time for 5th grade. And we won the lottery with an amazing teacher. Someone who I’ve loved as a human being for all 11 years at the school, but this was first time she’s ever had any of the 3 kids. And for the record, yes I asked, but you don’t always get what you asked for. 5th Grade continued to be awesome year, Lochlan was able to get past the anxiety towards middle school prep. And finally relax mid-Fall to enjoy the festivities that awaited the future graduate. He along with his sister, finally found his love for performing on stage. He was one of Aladdin’s besties in the musical and for the spring play. I came up with the idea, thanks to the director, to do murder mystery play in a dinner theater setting.

Well, murder I guess has become a no-go topic in elementary school, even though the kids read books and watch shows in the classroom about murder mysteries. We moved on and ended up with Shakespeare classic morphed to exclude the suicide scene. Happy to report all three of my kids have now done A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Heck, Paley also did it a second time in the Fall of 2023. Lochlan was ready to embrace his role of Francis Flute, namely because he got to dress in drag on stage.

The show went great. Lochlan killed both of his shows and loved every minute of it. As Spring kept moving forward, he was one that was ready for Elementary school to being done. He spent the whole summer excited about middle school. Over the summer, he returned to Kennolyn for his 6th summer as a camper. Absent this time around was that tired face, that was ready to go home after two weeks. He was excited to see us but he really wanted to stay longer. The rest of summer was spent prepping for middle school. He was a little nervous about the challenge that was coming but he really wanted to have a great time. In the middle of summer, Clem and I came to our senses and opted to ask the twins about their potential transfer over to the sister middle school or to go to their home school with majority of their elementary friends. While Margot’s reaction was a lot quicker, Lochlan was a little more negotiable. At first, he understood and could see why going to the other school would be better. Ultimately, he sided with his sister.

It’s hard to believe our little man is now a 6th grader, and marching to his own drum. The one thing I still don’t get is how quickly he goes through shoes. Yes, he’s a runner, but he truly run his shoes into the ground, in a matter of weeks of wearing them. Now he has a lot of shoes and is prone to one pair. I think he’s finally out grown the notion of a “favorite pair of shoes” because they don’t last long. But he still wear the same ones over and over. Middle school started off great. The twins have no classes together and they probably won’t until High School.

Lochlan kicked off 6th grade by joining the cross country team. If you know this kid, he loves to run and started training early. His first meet was an eye opener for him. His friends commented he’s going to go out guns a blazing by sprinting the first half. Then Lochlan learned what cramps are, getting them at least twice during the race. The race was a great lesson and he learned how important it is to train with your team, because they help you improve. As the season progressed, Lochlan improved more and more. There were so many awesome runners in his grade group. One kid managed to grab first place ever race for the season in his grade group.

Looking forward at his 12th year, from cross country to track and field, this boy is ready. He’s looking forward to his first track season but also has interest in playing soccer for the middle school as well. His love for baseball is there, but not a priority this year. We are still exploring how to get back into the game. Then there is swimming, his sister will hopefully be back in the pool this winter coming up and I think Lochlan will be joining her. Lochlan blossomed greatly this last summer. He spent the summer season for rec swimming on local team on the B relay. He had so much fun on that relay team, but at the season championship, he got placed on the A team due to a swimmer not being able to swim at the meet. He especially love that he was swimming boys a year older, that he truly looked up to. They hit water, and the relay team took first place in the IM relay! He was flying high.

Lochlan still surprises us with his quirky personality. And he still lives with his little anxiety ticks and always learning new strategies to power through them. Middle School has been a learning experience on how to pay more attention to the choices you make. Lochlan has bumps in the road like all kids but is responding to the lessons he learns from his choices and the errors that come with them. One thing he has not lost is his strength to lift up his friends, classmates and teammates. He’s still a passionate player but it’s always nice to hear him trying to lift up his teammates from dugout or poolside, even when he himself needs to have a moment.

As he barrels towards the teen years, Lochlan is growing physically and emotionally. It’s a whole new world for these kids, a world that us Gen X’rs have no clue about. Growing up we may have been walking on eggshells around our parents. These kids today are going to be walking on eggshells for the rest of their lives. In our house, group chats lead only to one place. Things that cannot be undone. The twins are pretty good about keeping off the group chats, but every so often they end up on one. Lochlan is showing so much hope for the year and the future. Watching him grow is such a treat.