We went to the First Grade open house for Jake the other night. His teacher was very cool – I think she is going to be good for him. And, since we didn’t get the polite smile and nod followed by “Yeah, we should probably have a meeting…” that happened at every such event last year, we were pretty elated.

During the ‘check out the classroom’ portion of the evening, I did some chatting with the father of two of Jake’s Tee Ball teammates from last Spring. He told me his daughters were just starting up soccer and wondered if Jake would be playing. I honestly hadn’t even heard about a league, so it had slipped past me, but I think the only thing he’d really want to play for would be the trophy at the end of the season. And I don’t know if that’s enough of a prize for all those practices and games and arguments. I mean, it’s not like when we were kids. These days, everybody gets a huge-ass championship style trophy. His tee-ball trophy is bigger than just about any sports trophy I ever saw. By third grade I think he’ll be bringing home a freaking punchbowl.

I can see it now – in this era of overenthusiastic parents trying to manufacture “well-rounded” college fodder – swimming trophies, baseball trophies, football trophies, soccer trophies, tennis trophies, sack-race trophies, ping pong trophies and hot dog eating trophies (that’s a sport, right?)

We’re gonna need a new shed – we’ll call it the accolade room.