Thank you! If I had known ahead of time their father would be missing these milestones, it would be slightly better. But he swore he'd be back for the first day of school. No matter how much I try, I still get my expectations raised when it's time for him to return and it's mostly the date being pushed back at the last moment (twice) that aggravates me.

Thank you! Their father is Rwandan and I'm white American, so the boys are mixed race. The team Minor was on for the previous two years had very little melanin and, much worse, four soccer dads who were Trump supporters, one who was pretty obnoxious, and I was the team manager (I did the paperwork, paid the refs, and kept score so I had to go to all the games) so I ended up having to wear earphones to drown out their fascist sideline chatter. It was part of the reason to move Minor down a level and to a different team. Hoping this will be a better experience. I am not involved in this new team, which is a big help, so I don't have the coach's interesting personality to navigate, too.