I love my son
I've been noticing lately, that come Tuesday, Aidan's not feeling well, or has hurt himself, or needs to take a nap. I was sick as a dog two weeks ago, they didn't get home in time last week, and when he walked through the door today after school, he was SO tired.
We've been taking Kendo together for about 2 years now, and I had a feeling that he was not into it anymore for a while now, but when I asked him, he'd always disagree - "No no, I really like it, it's fun, I'm looking forward to it next week", but I could tell his heart was in it. I"m not going to convince him not to go, but today I asked him straight out - "Do you want to stop?"
He wasn't sure what to say or think, so I let him think about it, and went downstairs. I heard him talking about it with Fae for a bit, and then the slow steps came down the stairs and he sat across from me.
"Dad, I don't know about Kendo, I like it, and I want to keep going...." and he let it slide.
"Buddy, look at me. If you're going because you think i'll be upset or disappointed in you, then you've got it wrong. I go because I get to spend me and you time, I could care less what we do as long as we do something. If you want to stop, then we can, but we can find something else to do together."
"Um, well, yeah then. I think I want to stop, at least for a while" and he starts tearing up. I move over to the other couch and before I know it he's practically in my lap. You have to understand, I'm a big dude, but he's not too small anymore. He kept saying "I don't know why I'm upset or crying" to which I explained that he had built it up so much and not wanted to talk to me about that the relief was overwhelming.
That and he still thought I was disappointed in him. Which I obviously explained I was totally not 
So he goes up to finish his homework and I start looking around for my taichi dvds to see if he's interested in that when he comes down and says he wants to take a Parkour class. For those who don't know what it is, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour, it explains it. Simple explanation, it's using the urban environment like a big gym and jumping, running, flipping and doing tricks with what's in the neighborhood. So we start looking at videos of the stuff, trust me, go to youtube and look it up - sick stuff, and after about 15 min or so, I tell him to change, and we head out to one of the parks in town to do some stuff.
Keep in mind, I've been in bed for about 3 days and I'm finally starting to feel like a sub-human, so getting my carcass up and out is a process indeed. We proceed to do jumps and small little tricks and interesting stuff on the jungle gym and just have some fun. He was breathing heavy and was favoring one knee after about 20 min, but we did it and it felt good. I talked to him about commitment and sticking with things, but I want to see how much he can accomplish just getting outside and doing this stuff, because truth be told, it was a lot of fun and actually loosened up some muscles in my back and legs
We'll see.