One of the reasons we love living in Oakton is there are so many activities offered in the area that kids can try to determine where their interests lie. Whether it is sports, performing arts, music or technology, there are classes and camps and lessons and ways they can figure out what they want to pursue.

Theoretically.

In the same way that Charlie Brown continues to believe Lucy will hold the football in place so he can kick it and not pull it out from under him at the very last moment, my husband and I continue to believe our daughter will participate in the activities for which we register her.

It's cute, really.

I still remember the victorious (if fleeting) feeling of scoring one of the much-coveted spots in a swimming class at Oak Marr Recreation Center. So what if it was at 8 a.m. Saturday mornings? Our daughter was going to learn to swim! On the first day of class, she marched into the water—where she stayed for all of about 13 seconds—before she marched right back out and declared she was done.

Then came gymnastics. She was really great at the balance beam and forward roll…the one time she did them. During subsequent gymnastics classes, she did not even begin to break a sweat. But of course I got a pretty good workout what with all the cajoling, begging, bribing and threatening…

It took about three class sessions with each activity before we'd finally give up and decide we'd rather not spend our valuable weekend time watching other people's children learning to swim and do gymnastics. We're expecting a thank you from Fairfax County any day now for all of our generous (albeit, unintended) donations to their parks and recreation department.

We stayed away from lessons for a full year until this fall, when we signed our daughter up for soccer, something her soccer-playing father is very excited about. But this time, we got smart. We made sure she was on a team with several of her preschool friends and had her dad volunteer to be an assistant coach. We bought her cleats and talked about what she could expect and even practiced soccer in our yard so she would be comfortable with it. When it was time for the first practice, we were all pretty excited.

And she remained excited during the entire first practice–a practice she spent watching from the sidelines while every other kid on her team participated. To be fair, she did venture onto the field at one point–to collect her snack at the end of the hour.

Even though I sometimes wish she'd just go along with the plan, I secretly admire this kid's chutzpah. She is a total piece of work, and I wouldn't want it any other way.