Davidball

David loves baseball.

I say that sometimes and I get an, "Oh, that's nice" response.

Maybe if I write it in caps ...

David LOVES baseball.

We will play for hours in the backyard -- sometimes he'll just "work" on something specific: bunting, sliding, hitting from both sides of the plate, pitching. And sometimes we will play "real" games.

Now, he may love (LOVE) baseball, but he's also only 5.

And he understands the rules enough to manipulate them to his advantage so he doesn't lose.

He gets 100 balls and 100 strikes.

A recent game score: Me - 1, Him - 119

If he hits the ball in the shed, it counts for 5 points.

There is no such things as a foul, unless I am at bat.

I have to simultaneously touch him and the base for it to be an out.

If he slides into second, he is automatically safe.

It always reminds me of Calvinball from Calvin and Hobbes -- You never know when the rules are going to change. Or what the new rules will be.

(neat fact: David's middle name was to be Hobbes, after the tiger, until I mentioned it to people near the end of my pregnancy and everyone told me how much they hated it. Never tell hormonal, pregnant women that you hate anything.)

Which is why Kate and her magic wand (a stick she "swish-de-swooshes" to turn it magical) fits in so nicely too. And makes Davidball even more interesting.

If Kate uses her magic wand on the ball, it is an automatic home run.

If she is holding her magic wand, she can go from first to third.

If she "swish-de-swooshes" the ball with her wand while the pitcher is holding it, it is an automatic strike.

Magic Kate will occasionally "steal" bases (here meaning literally pick them up and run with them).

Davidball is actually really fun.

(and how I will be spending my summer)

It's my fat girl

Kate no longer takes a nap.

So, to say that the past couple weeks around here have been rough is probably an understatement.

Most of the day goes by in a bit of a whirl wind - trying to keep the kids active, busy, entertained and from trying to kill each other and of course all the other stuff that goes into the day ...

And, most of the day goes pretty well. We have the occasional melt down and they still do take the occasional nap.

Most of the day until dinner.

Dinner is usually the worst part of any day. By 5:30 - 6pm David and Kate (and Mike) are usually exhausted and short fused. They are also fantastically picky eaters, so, trying to figure out something for dinner and getting them to eat it isn't fun.

I don't want to two meals at dinner. But, I have to be realistic - do I really expect them to eat steak fajitas? I try to get them to at least try whatever it is that Mike and I are eating. But, even that some days turns into an ordeal - David crying, Kate crying ... And, I don't want that either. I don't want dinner time to be something negative.

But, tonight. Tonight was different. Tonight was fantastic.

Dinner went well, David even tried the sweet and sour chicken I made. We talked about our days. And laughed.

At one point during dinner, Kate started yelping. We reminded her that there was no yelling at the dinner table.

"It's my fat girl. It's my fat girl."
more screams.
"It's my fat girl."

Oh, Kate ... it's your echo.

I don't know how I got echo from "fat girl", but sure enough, that was what she was trying to tell us.

After dinner, we played hide and seek, cleaned up and got ready for bed.

I know it seems trivial. Maybe even a little silly.
But, a nice stress-free night after a couple rough weeks felt so comforting.

First Day of School

Today was David's first day of preschool.

I paced most of the morning.

I was nervous about how he would react, how I would react, getting out the door ...

There were some tears this morning. He didn't want to wear his sneakers. I snapped at him and then promptly felt like shit. And, then he told me he didn't want to go ... So, not a great morning, but we made it out the door.

Kate needed to bring her backpack too.

Mike surprised us at school.

And, then it was time ...
We walked him to his class. He chatted with his teacher, put on his name tag, gave me a hug and was off.
just. like. that.

Class was only an hour today for the first day. Kate and I went shopping and picked him up. He told me about the new friends he made. How one little boy didn't listen. How you shouldn't run.

The first of many experiences he will have without me.

the Imaginator

We came in from outside today and David rushed Kate and I into his room.
"Get in. Quick. There's something scary. It's a lizard. Quick."

Once we were safely inside, he closed the door. (sigh) "It died."

He opened the door and let us out.

We were getting lunch ready. After lunch, we would be heading to the zoo.

But, again David came scrambling into the kitchen.
"Quick. It's another lizard."

Kate and I made our way to Davids room. Kate was toddling along. I'm not sure if she understood the gravity of the situation.

He closed the door. (sigh) "It died."

No sooner are we out of his room than he sees another scary thing - an eel.

hmmm ....

Are they really scary? (and, more importantly, are we going to be running from eels and lizards all afternoon?) Maybe they are just some misunderstood animals who happened into the hallway. So, I asked David what he thought. Instead of running from the eel we decided to pet it.

It wasn't scary after all! It just looked scary. But, really the eel was quite nice. He gave David a wet eel kiss on his cheek.

We came out into the kitchen to find quite a zoo. David informed Kate and I that there were 4 lizards, 4 eels and 4 tigers playing baseball in the house. The tigers were pitching.

We decided what anyone else in this situation would do - we would take them to the zoo with us and drop them off.

David sort of forgot about them when they got into the stroller, but they have yet to show back up here, so I assume that they are happy at the zoo.

The zoo was fun today. We are enjoying Mike's last week home before the new school year starts again.