Game Ball

Before Jack's T-ball game last Monday night, his coach approached me and mentioned that Jack was scheduled to play catcher one inning during this game. Up to this point when he was asked to be catcher Jack refused. I told the coach I would do what I could to get him to try it, because this might be his last chance before the end of the season.

I called Jack over before the game began and told him that he had the chance to play catcher today. He said he wasn't interested. I may or may not have offered a small bribe if he would give it a try...I wanted him to at least give it a chance, try something new, stretch himself. He still said no, so I left him with the parting words "ok, well, you think about it."

When the first inning began, there was Jack, gearing up to be catcher. (Money talks with Jack and the bribe was monetary.) He did it. He played catcher. And it turns out, he loved it.

Now, if you remember, Jack's tactic at the beginning of the season was to avoid the ball at all costs. We have had a complete change since then. His favorite position now is first base-the one with the most action. When he plays first, as soon as the ball is hit, his two little hands, one of them baseball glove clad, go up in the air, waving to the player who has the ball to throw it his way. Big change from the start of the season.

When he runs the bases it's all focus. Getting from first to second without getting out is serious business. But once he is there, if you watch closely, you'll notice that he takes a minute to recognize he is safe and then he jumps up and down and dances and just basically shows in his own sweet little way that he thinks he rocks. And then sometimes he turns and gives me a big smile and a thumbs up. And I admit, I swoon every time. Whose cute kid is that?

So, after trying catcher for the first time and reportedly getting some great hits (this is what his coaches told the team-Jack got some great hits!), Monday night Jack earned The Game Ball. The coveted sign that you played a great game. One kid earns it each game and this was Jack's night. Oh the joy that comes from being recognized for doing something great. Jack literally bounced the rest of the night and even for several days after. He was SO excited.

Easter Fun

With Dallen being down for the count for two weeks, I was also mostly down for the count. I spent 10 days doing hardly anything but sitting on the couch with him watching movie after movie or "rocky-byeing" him.

So, when I talked to my mother in law on Thursday last week and she told me all the Easter fun she was planning for her Easter dinner that she was hosting, the bug started to kick in. In a bad way. I knew I needed some projects.

When Friday morning dawned and Dal was miraculously feeling better (exactly at the 10 day mark, just like they said), we hauled ourselves to Target to get some supplies and to be ready for some Easter fun.

A whole weekend with nothing going on other than 2 Little League games meant we had lots of time to fill with Easter excitement. It was wonderful-we haven't had a weekend that empty in a while.

Here is a sampling of our Easter activities:

"What is that?" you may ask. That is a s'more made with Easter marshmallows. It was REALLY good.

Or, for those of us (Josh) who really wanted to walk on the wild side, a s'more made with a peep:

 We also made sock bunnies to decorate our Easter table with:

And a fun peep inspired centerpiece. I don't like to eat those things but I sure do think they are cute to look at!

The Easter bunny showed up. Easter Bunny Snood that is. Nathan always has big ideas. Sunday's included making himself Easter bunny ears and then putting on "Bunny and Chick School" for Jack and Dallen all day long. They played and played and played and had so much fun together. Nathan and Jack were bunnies and Jack was a chick. They did everything from math to show and tell to PE. It was wonderful and cute.

Other festivities not pictured: Dying Easter eggs, having a spur of the moment spiritual lesson about the events leading up to Easter that the boys were really engaged in, Easter cookies made with Reese's Pieces Eggs, Easter egg hunt, and Easter Egg cake balls. Yes, lots of food. Also lots of fun.

A Whole Lot of This Going on...

Ice cream sandwich eating that is. Way more of that going on lately than normal. Dal had his tonsils out last week. We were fully stocked on popsicles, ice cream, jello, pudding, and yogurt, but when it came right down to it, what he really wanted were the ice cream sandwiches. And we let him eat as many as his little body could handle. At least it's food and hey, it has the name sandwich in it, so it counts as a meal right?

He had his tonsils out on Tuesday, April 12th basically because they were huge and he tends to get sick a lot. It was sort of optional and really I wish somebody would have said "this must be done" instead of leaving it up to us, but in the long run we decided to go ahead and do it. 

That was 10 days ago and it has been a long ten days. For him and for me and for Josh. When we first brought this little guy home from the hospital we noticed that he had a real knack for knowing exactly the moment that Josh and I crawled into bed and then immediately he would start "nnnnnyyyyeeeeing" and "eeeerrrrrrgggging" so that we had to get up and take care of him. It seems that knack came back this week and I have to say, we were up in the night more with him this week than I think we were even when he was a newborn. It's been a long week.

But today he is feeling much better and we are hopeful that it will all prove to be worth it. In the meantime I have come to realize how much so many people here mean to us. One friend brought him a couple of books, another brought him a stuffed dog tied to a bunch of balloons. This dog really brought a lot of comfort to him this week: (he named it Balloon since it came tied to Balloons)

Another brought more ice cream sandwiches, another brought dinner, others called to check in. And it really hit me that we are leaving all of these wonderful people. Sigh. We love these friends. And I am really grateful that Dallen is feeling better.

Couple of Pictures

A few folks have been asking to see the following:

These are for Dal's room at our new house. I am doing a monster theme and have some other fun projects planned, including a third monster (frame is painted and ready, I just need to make the monster). I have had a lot of fun making these and discovered that my appliqueing skills are better than I thought, although if you looked too closely you would see that they are far from perfect. As a side note, women who are 6 months pregnant should not sit on the floor to sew, and yet I do it all the time. I don't know how to sew any other way. All in the name of cute projects

And because you know my mother keeps asking (ok, she doesn't really, but she does say she wonders what my gut is looking like these days) this is me today-27 weeks pregnant, aka hello third trimester. No, that is not a high quality picture, but I thought it was cool that it looks like a star is growing out of my eye, so I decided to use it anyway.

I have to say, I think I am enjoying this pregnancy more than any other so far. (Other than the morning sickness in the beginning.) I think maybe my body was in better shape from the start-I don't know, but I still have ab muscles which seems weird this late in the game with a 4th child and I haven't gained all that much weight at all so far, knock on wood. And I have been determined to feel cute this time around instead of large and frumpy and so far, so good. I love it. I feel good.

Yesterday I found out I am anemic and the nurse said "the Dr. would like you to start taking an iron supplement in addition to your prenatal." So, uh, I was thinking maybe if I actually started taking my prenatal I would you know, have enough iron. So I did the past two days and what do you know, my energy level seems to be up. Guess I should keep taking those...

Corvette Diner or We Don't Suck Anymore Part 2

About 9 months ago I posted that we had stopped thumb sucking in our house entirely. Well, it turns out that I lied. I should have known it wouldn't last-Jack's thumb sucking habits were pretty intense.

At his most recent dentist appointment (about 6 months ago) I told the dentist to go ahead and do the metal insert in his mouth that would prevent him from sucking anymore. And then they told me the out of pocket cost...$500. I quickly changed my mind and decided we would try some (more) home remedies first.

And then it took me about 4 months before I finally bought what I should have bought AGES ago-Mavala STOP. This is probably my favorite product ever invented. (Thanks Laura for recommending it. You are my hero.) Only $13 on Amazon.

You paint it on just like nail polish but it has a REALLY bitter taste (apparently, I didn't actually try it). Being the sneaky mom I am, I went into Jack's room one night while he was sleeping and painted it on, thinking he would fight it if he was awake.

About midnight we woke up to crying from Jack. When Josh went to check on him he found Jack marching around his room spitting. He had tried to suck his thumb and had NO idea why it tasted so bad. When Josh told him what was going on, Jack was mad. And threw a slight middle of the night fit. But then he went back to sleep and literally did not complain once ever again about wearing the Mavala. I painted it on about twice a week and what do you know, a little over a month later he is completely stopped sucking even without the help of the blessed Mavala.

And so, as promised, our family took a celebratory trip to the Corvette Diner. This is a 50's style diner with a big turquoise corvette up front and wild and crazy waitresses who do things like dancing, singing "weenie songs" if you order a hotdog and decorating little girl's hair with straws.

We had dinner, but the best part are the shakes. They are real, honest to goodness shakes and they are yummy. I mean, just look at Josh. Doesn't he look slightly shake inebriated?

There is also an arcade with all kinds of fun games. No, this is not an inexpensive reward for breaking a bad habit, but hey, I saved $487 by not having the buy the mouth contraption so I am so WAY ahead.
Plus, we had all sorts of fun!