foreshadowing

Kate and I were off to ice cream on Saturday night.

She needed to change her clothes again.

I threw on a t-shirt.

Kate finished changing her clothes, turned and looked at me.

"Are you going to change your clothes? Is that what you are wearing?"

I get these visions sometimes of 16 year old Kate.

(lord, help us all)

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)

My have a joke

"My have a joke. What time is it with trees?"

"What time?"

"They get all tangled up!"

laughter. laughter. laughter.

I think you have to be 2.

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.

simple pleasures

It's bedtime for Kate.

We climb into her bed to read a couple books.
She and Abby snuggle in close while I read.

"All done Kate. Time for bed."

"Mommy here." She points to the pillow.

"Would you like Mommy to stay a couple of minutes?"

She smiles and puts her head down. I reach up, turn off her light and lie down next to her.

"belly. belly. belly." she says as she rests her hand on my stomach and closes her eyes.

"Good night Kate. Mommy loves you very much."

Smiles and hug from Kate.