Happy birthday to Samuel

He turns five tomorrow. Quite a ritual awaits him at school. He’s to carry a globe around the classroom five times while his teacher and classmates sing to him and eat granola bars. Photos of his short life will be displayed.

Karin & I worry about the singing, which Samuel doesn’t always take to; but we’ve drilled the expectation into him, and he bears it stoically.

He now seems to like school. He was downright excited at the bus stop this morning after what must have been a too-long Fall Break.

(The driver took the wrong street but quickly turned around and came back for Samuel.)

He’s losing various perks: the WIC vegetables, the books from Dolly Parton, the visits from privately funded social workers. But he wouldn’t eat the vegetables, anyway; and he continues to peruse the books that arrive for Daniel.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

I ought to mention, today I saw one of the brightest “firework displays” of my lifetime: Madrid’s and Dortmund’s rehash of last season’s Champions League final. I have no love for Madrid, but my goodness, what talent, what tremendous self-belief. Pedigree is real.

Dortmund 3, Liverpool 2

“They think they’re so great,” said Karin, “but, really, they’re just wankers.”

We were at her mother’s house and within view of Notre Dame Stadium, toward which thousands of red-clad Liverpool fans were walking. They were going to cheer during the pre-season “friendly” between Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund.

Karin & I returned to our apartment.

Using the Internet, I watched the game’s second half.

Karin put up a portable baby play-yard with mesh walls that her mother had given us. Jasper and Ziva immediately tried it out.

Dortmund duly won the game.

Some say these “friendly” matches are devoid of interest. I thought this one proved at least one thing, that Dortmund is better than Liverpool when everyone is playing at a walking pace.

Stephen watched from inside the stadium. He sent me this photo of the Liverpudlian legend, Steven Gerrard.

Now that the game is over, everybody in our family is going to hunker down again to wait for Ada, Ana’s & David’s daughter, to be born.

Yesterday afternoon, the doctors told Ana & David that labor was going to be induced. But when Ana & David arrived at the hospital, they learned that many other pregnant women were ahead of them in the queue. So they went to the cinema and watched Crawl – a horror movie about alligators.

Quarterfinals

In the quarterfinals of the Champions League, a rather poor FC Barcelona team was ousted by Juventus, and Cristiano Ronaldo scored two offside goals to nudge Real Madrid past Bayern Munich. Real’s patsy, Atlético, also made it through, defending fiercely against Leicester.

Of the victors, only the Monacans don’t seem stale. They’ve scored, what, three goals in each of their last four knockout games? (They dispatched Dortmund in their quarterfinal.) They played in the final as recently as 2004, but in 2011–2013 they languished in Ligue 2. An influx of Russian cash restored their loftier standing.

I didn’t watch any of these games.