Jade Isabella Elhajj: 6 pounds, 13 ounces, 19 inches. She arrived at South Miami Hospital this morning at 8:18 a.m.

This is the last day of summer and what a summer it was. The kids really came into their own this year, especially with water polo. I didn’t realize it, but water polo is a vicious sport. Most of the really violent action takes place under the water, where unsuspecting parents can’t see.

After one match, Aaron admitted to biting another boy who had been choking him.

He was standing poolside with both Holly and I, and we were both taken aback. Holly said she thought biting might get you expelled from the game, possibly even the tournament. Aaron’s eyes got big. 

She suggested he find the boy and apologize. Aaron, always a good egg, readily agreed. Just then he grabbed a little blonde boy who was walking past and said, “Did I bite you?”

The boy grinned and nodded his head and Aaron quickly apologized. It took about ten seconds. They congratulated one another on the outcome of the game and then the boy walked on. When he was clear, I scrutinized Aaron.

“Did I bite you,” I repeated. I gave Aaron a skeptical look.

I was glad he was willing to take responsiblity for his behavior, but what kind of apology was that? He was acting as if he were completely unaware of his own behavior. Yeah, hey — the coaches are telling me that I bit you out there! My God—can you believe it?

Aaron looked at me blankly for a minute. “He’s a twin,” Aaron said. “I wanted to make sure I was apologizing to the right one.”

Ha! I knew that. My little man.

Water polo was especially good for Kennedy this year.

She really got more aggressive, really getting in those boy’s faces, which is huge for her. The kids are twelve and both played in the fourteen year old tournament this year. The picture at the top is her doing battle with the fourteen year olds.

Holly says most of the girls drop out after they hit twelve, but I am hoping Kennedy will continue for another few years.

We also went to A-champs, the big senior competition for swim team in our area. The kids had only gone to B-champs in past years, so this was a big deal. They are both turning into fine swimmers.

This was also the summer we went to Texas, which was really hot.

And Holly and I went to Portland with Pace for our 14 wedding anniversary.

A-Bomb–otherwise known as Mr. Pink.

Kennedy gets a good start.

Aaron “flipping out.”

Chin up, girl. Yo. “Not as the giant of their dreams, nor the dwarfs of their fears.”

Thirty painted toes.

Momma.

More swim pictures from the entire 2010 season.

12-16-2005 018, originally uploaded by tim_elhajj.

At Present Tense (past imperfect), we like to honor the veterans.

This is a picture of my son in the engine room of the USCGC Bayberry, from when he was stationed at Port Seattle. I like to think he’s giving the thumbs up to past and present veterans everywhere, especially his wife Carry, who I have heard Tim affectionately refer to as the CO.*

*That’s CO as in Commanding Officer, for all you non-miliatry types out there.

November is for gratitude, but December is for service. If there is a better way to perform service than being a father, I can’t think what it might be.

Here is a picture of Tim and his daughter Jasmine, rolling around on the floor.

Is there anything more fun than baby faces?

Last weekend we finally went to Miami to see Jasmine. I just got a new phone with a camera, so I took a bunch of shots. More on flickr.

Lots of baseball, despite a sidelining injury.

A weekend of close games.

Finishing touches on the chicken coop.

Momma Carrie’s time is drawing near.

How exciting!

I open the file and find the following pie chart that graphs the niceness quotient of my family:

If you can’t read the key, all you really need to know is that Kennedy is the big green piece. It’s an active pie chart, which I’m not even sure I know how to make.

If you look at the stats that drive the chart, Kennedy is a 2000 on the niceness scale, while Holly is a respectably close 1999.  Aaron and I fared much worse.

Under the chart, the text reads:

“As you can see here, I am the nicest person here.”

I love that girl.

Kennedy got her braces off Friday. Just in time for Halloween treats!

For Mother’s day this year Kennedy and I made a dyn-O-rama. I am not even sure where I got that name, but that’s what we’ve been calling it.

Earlier in the week Kennedy told me she wanted to make Mom a little three dimensional scene like the nativity scene we put out at Christmas. Kennedy often makes off-beat suggestions like this and I have learned to go with the flow.

She suggested we work with wood. I suggested cardboard (sometimes you have to buck the flow). When Holly and Aaron went to the game Friday night, Kennedy and I got busy.

I let Kennedy pick out the materials at the craft store. When we got to my work, I asked her to draw some figures in action poses. She drew Holly reading a book and herself dunking a basketball. I created a picnic table for “Holly”  to sit on and a backboard for Kennedy’s avatar. We used the office color printer to print family photos from my flicr page and then cut and pasted the heads on our avatars.

We finished up late and then came home to ended the night watching Oklahoma on an old VCR tape. I told her how much fun I had with her and she agreed.

“I thought it was going to suck,” she said, without the slightest bit of malice.