Weekend with cousins

One of my cousins moved down to Charlotte a year or two ago and we decided we'd go visit her and her lovely family for the weekend. It's nice to get to see family whenever you can. We had a great time going to see The Little Mermaid presented by The Charlotte Ballet and then getting to hang out and catch up while the kids played non-stop.

After church on Sunday we went out to eat and the kids got their very own table. They were so cute.
Here are my cousin's kids, who obviously know what to do when someone is taking their picture, and our kids, who look like they were to busy eating to bother.


Also, Goose had another baseball game tonight. He got to play catcher. His Uncle Todd would be proud!

The girl was too busy with crackers to pay attention.

Baseball practice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for all the exclamations in the title, but somebody is excited about a certain little guy starting what is sure to be a long and lucrative career in baseball.

Alright, that is highly unlikely, especially when his dad keeps hitting him with a baseball.

Anyway, my little guy started his baseball career this evening. You are looking the future #20 for his little team. #20, not after his daddy, who is, and forever will be, #2, but #20 after his distant relative Goose Goslin, who finished his career in 1938 as #20 for the Washington Senators and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1968, who, like my Silly Goose, batted left and threw right.

The little baseball team is adorable, and there are already some ball players. My little guy was pretty good, but I'm sure will get better. We generally just do fast pitch in the yard but tonight they broke into 3 stations, one for soft toss, one for tee, and one for live pitching in the cage. Yes, that's correct. In the cage for 5 and 6 year olds.

The first station for the boy was the tee.

He's never really hit from the tee so it took him a couple times to get used to it. Plus they had to keep moving things for him at all the stations because he bats lefty. The tee just never was in the right place for him to get his feet right. That mat was always in an awkward place.

Then he did soft toss, and was, to be honest, not great. But he'll get better.

Then it was his turn in the cage.

He did really well in there. Sometimes if he swings too many times in a row and you don't remind him, his feet get out of whack and his stance is bad. It was all I could do not to yell say, "check your feet and bend your knees!" after every pitch. But Coach would remind him and my boy would smack it. Coach said, "Man, every time you pay attention and get set, you hit it. I don't think you've missed one!"

Emily said she told him in the car on the way to practice that she didn't know who was more excited, him or me. He said it was definitely him.

That makes me happy.

That's Show Biz!

My precious angel was sick Sunday as you may have read so I kept her home yesterday to keep her from spreading the plague to her little 2 year old germ factories. I kept the boy home too because I didn't feel like driving all the way out to their daycare for observation just in case he was infected as well. We did a lot of playing and, considering that we didn't turn on a Daniel Tiger until after 3, I think we had a successful sick day.

We generally have a very musical home with lots of singing about all kinds of stuff - going to the potty, all their nicknames, basically anything we are doing. Lately though we've been (still) singing Christmas songs. When Emily and I came downstairs yesterday we were treated to a full spread of (plastic) food set up for us on the coffee table.

Too bad for Emily that she had to go to work. I got breakfast and a show!

Presenting "Sing We Now of Christmas" featuring Stinker Pants and Baby Girl!

I love the accompaniment from the girl with no pants, leopard print shirt, and pink cowboy boots. Luckily we didn't have to go anywhere or see anybody.

Old Friends

We spent the evening at a local playground with a college friend who I haven't seen in 10 years (how are we this old!??!). All of our kids had a nice time playing, and we had a blast catching up. Fun!

New Favorite

I think I have a new favorite picture of the kids and me.

So cuddly!

Nature on our porch

Last night I was letting Beau out after a fun couple days of this:

Swim Lessons!

and this:

K-Prep end of year celebration at the Kids' Museum!

and this:

Fun with daddy! She so fast she's blurry.

and something startled me. Up in the corner of our "porch," well, stoop might be a better word, was something big and dark. Big if at first you thought it was an insect. After catching my breath and a closer inspection it appeared to be a little fledgling. Here is what I saw:

I made Emily get out of bed and come down and check it out. We decided (correctly after reading angry posts from birders about LEAVING IT ALONE!) to leave it alone. After much googling for images of fledglings, we concluded it was a Carolina Wren. Emily was worried it was dead so I stared at it for a while trying to see if it was breathing, to no avail.

When we got up this morning we were both relieved to see that the little fella was gone.

But, guess who's back tonight! It looks like our household just added one more creature. (Emily just asked if I thought we should get some worms for it. To which I replied with an eye roll.)

Big Day!

We've been able to see one of the ferris wheels at the State Fair on our way to and from school for the past week and a half, and the little guy wanted to ride it as soon as we got to the fair. Eric took him… look how excited he was!

Look at how high up they got! The little white dot holding a baby is me with my heart in my throat. Nana and Pops were wildly amused at how freaked out I was.

I guess his last day being three was a good one!

The Age of Aquariums?

We spent a long weekend in Gatlinburg with some old friends (and had a blast!). One of our outings was to the aquarium. It was very impressive. One of the cool things they have is a group of smaller tanks set up so that kids can climb under and come up in the middle of each one. The little guy really enjoyed that. There was a similar set up in the penguin exhibit.

His favorite part, though, was the spider-crabs. He called them "Grumpy Spider Fish." I'm not sure that they are really ill-tempered, but they do look the part. The little dude posed for a picture with one making his best grumpy face.

Orange you glad it's July?

The little guy decided to match today, so he wore orange. Once both kids were dressed, I realized that they were both wearing orange outfits, so I had to take a picture.

Sometimes we cringe when he goes to school (or anywhere, frankly) with his carefully selected clothes. However, today he played with a little girl who was wearing a purple shirt, purple shorts, and flip-flops. I guess it's normal?

We get a daily newsletter from their classes at school. Last week it said the kids talked about good sportsmanship and what it means to be a good sport. When he got home, I asked him what it meant to be a good sport. He said "Winning." Eric was so proud.

Duck... Duck... Baseball?

It has been fun carpooling with Em this week and dropping off and picking up the kiddos from daycare. I usually deal with the big one and Em takes the little one in. It is nice seeing him interact with all the other kids and getting to talk to him about his day on the way home.

Today he told us he learned a new game at school.

"We learned Duck, Duck, Goose today."
"Really? How do you play?"
"You pat heads."
"...You pat heads? Is that all?"
"And you say 'Duck..Duck..Duck..Goose!'"
"Then what?"
"Then you run!"
"Oh, fun. Where do you run?"
"Well you run around! You run and, um, you run to ah, um... third and then you run to second! And then to one-thirty! That's a long time. Yep, that's whatcha do!"

Hysterics ensue.

After dinner we took a walk. The little guy is always picking up sticks and bringing them home. Apparently the apple doesn't fall far. Here's one of his trophies.

By the way, the azaleas are just gorgeous right now. Come visit!

Rail transportation engineers

The boy and I have been having a great time playing with his trains the last several days. The process seems to go like this: Goose will put together a long string of tracks that will includes splits and such, then he will holler for me to connect his track. Here are a couple of our masterpieces.

When we're not inside designing tracks we are outside. This past weekend the weather was gorgeous. So nice we walked downtown and supported a couple of the local businesses. Most specifically the frozen yogurt shop! That is one huge bowl of yogurt for the little man.

Puzzling

Today the kiddo stumbled upon a couple puzzles that our homeowner's children have and he set out to work them. I don't think he'd ever really worked a real puzzle before so I was anxious to test out his genius. The first one is a map of the US and he was terrible at it. I was only decent at it because I know where the states go. After we worked it I looked on the box and saw it was for ages 6+ so I didn't feel as bad about him not being able to do it. Plus, the puzzle artists destroyed West Virginia so I didn't want to work it anymore anyway.

The other puzzle was for ages 4+ so I thought we'd give it a try. I decided to help a little less, but do more coaching. Who knew you're not born knowing the best way to work a puzzle?

We finally got it finished and I was proud of the little guy. It took a while, but he worked it all himself, finding the pieces and putting them in the puzzle. Here is the almost finished project.

Those last five pieces went the fastest.  Maybe 10 minutes or so.

Skating lessons!

Hockey Player Baseball Player Football Player Silly Goose (which seems to be what he wants us to call him these days) had his first of four skating lessons today.  It was a sweet little class and all the instructors have the patience of saints.  There were two other boys Goose's age in the class and all the other kids were older.  Sadly, he was the worst.  He survived without any aches or pains though, but that's mostly because he was doing this the whole time.

However, because of his reluctance to stand, he monopolized the time of the college girl who was helping teach the class.  Here she is (lower right) trying to get him to stand up the way they taught them.  (Like a puppy, one foot here, now stand!)  Maybe I should add "Sly Devil" to his ever growing monicker.

He did get standing a few times (albeit with someone's help) so not all was lost.

Three more lessons to go so we'll keep you updated.

Baby Girl just slept the whole time bundled up in a fluffy blanket.  She was probably the warmest of anybody there.

Love is in the air

Two posts in one day.  What is going on?  Because I'm spending most of the time with the kiddos these days while someone has to bring home the bacon, I thought I would chime in on our happenings.

The man child has been talking about hockey ever since we went to see the 'Canes practice everyday last week, though he didn't want to go today for some reason.  Like we said in that post he's been skating around the house in his socks and you should see his poor knees.

Recently his "guys" have begun skating around on all kinds of stuff and having lots of meetings, just like the hockey players at practice.  Today they found a clear tupperware full of baby toys to skate on.  After a quick meeting and the ice getting swept (long story) the guys decided to give each other a hug.  Luckily I was there to capture the tender moment.

Blackboots and Fire Chief share an embrace

His toys are now hugging all the time.  And this from one who is so stingy with his own.

Weddings!

We got to introduce the new one to about a quarter of her extended family at a wedding this weekend (congrats to the happy couple!). The big one spent the night dancing with his cousins (no photos of that, sorry!) and the little one got to snuggle with her great-grandmother. Everyone was happy!

Friends and Neighbors

The little stinker has become friends with two 5-year-olds on our street. When the weather is nice, they all ride their bikes together or play soccer or baseball. It's really sweet. The little guy was prepared for everything today-- he's got his bike helmet, our neighbor's baseball glove, a tennis ball, and if I'd snapped the picture a moment later you'd have seen a soccer ball come flying out of their garage. What fun!

Spicy!

The little guy is loving some spicy food right now. He shoveled salsa into his mouth like a pro tonight-- even though he had to guzzle milk afterwards and he said his mouth was on fire. I'm so proud (not as proud as my dad, though).

He also got some new maracas from his Kindermusik class... a circle and a triangle! Lots of fun can be had with those.

Count!

I don't know if it is good parenting technique or not, but the booger gets a countdown whenever he needs to do something.  He's often just slow and needs a little prodding.  Like, "Pick a pair of pants, buddy.  Come on man, we gotta go.  Alright.... One.... Two....."  Luckily we never really get to three.  

Sometimes he'll even ask us to count when we're not in a hurry.  Maybe he's just like his old man and needs a deadline.  Here's a video of a new game he made up today.  I'm not sure why he needs a count or what I'm counting to, but whatever floats his boat.

Fancy!

The little booger decided that his water needed a little pizazz tonight, so he garnished it with a magnetic N.

Pretty snazzy!

Squee!

We've mentioned a time or two that the little booger loves to watch the big kids across the street play basketball. They were outside playing when we got home today, so we sat on the steps to watch as usual. Something was different tonight, though, because after a few minutes one of the big kids ran over and asked if he wanted to come over and play!

The little dude was so awestruck that he just looked down and shook his head no. I swear he blushed. About a minute later, though, he changed his mind and headed across the street. One of our neighbors had a small, foam basketball and a toddler-height basket that he set out just for my little guy. The little stinkpot was so happy he glowed! (I was pretty thrilled, too. What great kids!)

Anyway, I didn't take any pictures of him playing with the big kids so here's one of him trying to sled down our hill after dinner.

That was a bit less successful that his amazing basketball adventure.