Softball, Anyone???

For anyone who knows me, my favorite part of summer is the softball games. It used to be me playing, but nowadays it's my two eldest. This year, they ended up in the same city league, on different teams. This happens to be a day when they played each other, and Hannah got loaned to Amber's team because they were short one player. This is Hannah the spaz warming up--she actually caught that one.
Wamber has recently shown an interest and an aptitude for the catcher position. She likes it there, for some unfathomable reason. Anyway, she's not bad at it for a nine year old, and here she is in all her gear.

The Grand Poobah loosens up his troops.....

When Wamber walks, she does it the right way. She tosses the bat and runs down there to first. I am of the opinion that this is because she had no bad slowpitch habits to break. The kids who have played slowpitch, they saunter on down to the base, after they go almost into the dugout to hand the bat off. That is one of the hardest habits to break them of.

This is Wamber sliding into home. She is safe, but the batter struck out. One curious rule in fastpitch is that if the catcher drops the third strike and there's no one on first base, the batter can run, and the catcher either has to tag them out or throw them out at first. This enables the fabled Strideout RBI, which actually exists, folks. In this video, first was occupied at the time, so the batter has struck out, but Wamber stole home and was safe.

This is Hannah's bee-yoo-tee-ful hit. She hit this low, outside pitch and just sailed it out there. A little bit of practice running bases without slowing down on approach, and she'll have a home run on a hit like this. She got a triple anyway.

Hannah's friend Dani is catching for the defense here, and she wasn't going to let Hannah steal home on her. She must have caught or blocked about 8 pitches and run her back to third several times. Here, Hannah finally makes it. (I think that's Wamber batting, too.)

Kate Plays Teeball

OK, if you have never witnessed the panorama that is teeball, then you are missing out. It is seriously one of the most hilarious things you will ever see (aside from little kid soccer). Little kids are so funny. Sometimes, you get hypo parent who thinks their 6-year-old is already another Natasha Watley or Derek Jeter, but most of them are just as excited when their kid actually notices the ball coming toward them (and gets up off the ground where they were sifting dirt in time to swipe at it after it has gone by). My favorite, though, is when they hit the ball and then set the bat down and look around before sauntering off toward third base, people screaming all the way. The kid is always so pleased with himself, and the adults are going nuts. My kid, however, is the knd who runs to first with a big cheesy grin on her face. The most important part of any teeball game, as everyone knows, is who brought treats and what are they???

Here is Kate on third, looking.......nervous?
Kate getting ready to hit the ball.....

Kate's favorite position is catcher. The most important position on the team, as evidenced by the fact that it sees the most action. Good job, Kate!!

Josie Swims!

Josie got her first taste of swimming pool over Memorial Day, and she is the only one of my many children to actually stand in the pool. She loved it! David, on the other hand, squeals like a little girl every time he has a bath and his head gets wet. *sounds of disgust here* Isn't she cute with her little swimsuit and big balloon butt?? The other kids, of course, got to use the big kid pool, but Josie and David made do with Little Yellow. (I realize that this one is out of chronological order, but you'll just have to deal with it.)

Check out my mongo tulips. They are mutants.

Birthday Part 3

Wamber turned nine on Saturday and we partied like rock stars. She had fruit kebobs and rainbow sherbet for a treat, and Hannah managed to skewer more than just fruits here. She also had an awesome fruit pizza for a birthday cake. Pretty cool, huh? (I'm really full of myself on this one--it was my first attempt, and it was really good!!) We even put candles on it and she blew em out. Mmmmmmmm......

Two words: Coconut Bowling. The kids loved the coconut bowling, which involves rolling a coconut down the sidewalk at 10 water bottles. It's scored like bowling, and it was really fun. Amber bowled a 64. The coconut split at the end, or I'm sure they would have spent an hour rolling that silly thing up and down the sidewalk. They also really enjoyed the cooler full of water balloons and the sprinkler under the trampoline.

We also had awesome teriyaki barbecue steak and chicken. Those steaks were sooooo tender and dang delicious. This is a really really good marinade (I marinaded the steaks about a day and a half) if anyone's interested:

1 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 cup water 3 T oil

3 T vinegar 1 t onion powder

1 t garlic powder 1 t ginger

Baby Does Dishes

This was absolutely hilarious. I have to keep Josie occupied in another place while I load and unload the dishwasher, because she plays in it and runs off with stuff. Well, I didn't get there quite as quickly as I usually do, and this is what she was doing! I guess she had been watching me, and decided to do it herself. Here she is, putting silverware away in the drawer. She didn't lose interest, wither--I had to have Hannah get her when she started putting the dirty ones away too. Watch out, Wamber! She'll be getting your allowance before long!

Wamber Plays Soccer (and Josie Swims)

Wamber is one of the tallest on her team this year. Kind of weird, since Hannah has always been one of the smallest, and I'm not much taller. Anyway, she's not a killer yet, like Hannah, but she's starting to go after the ball better and such, and is having a really good time.
This is what they do before a game. Wamber is on the end.
One more shot of her--she's thinking about whether she can get to the ball in time. She almost did.
Josie had her first encounter with a pool Saturday, too. Unlike certain other of my children, who shall remain nameless, Josie stood right in the pool and splashed. NOT like Weinee Boy David and his sisters, who wouldn't do anything but stand at the side and touch the water (or Kate, who still won't let anyone splash anything anywhere near her). Ooops, I guess I just named them. Oh well. they'll get over it.

Josie Gets Her Birthday....10 Days Late

I knew Josie was over the last of the flu when she started growling again. So, we did her birthday thing on Saturday the 23rd. She got her own cake, and the others of us got cupcakes. I figured that no one would want to share with her once she'd finished with it, but she wasn't as destructive as some I've seen.
Ooooo....fire!!
Hmm. Guess I'll taste this stuff. Maybe some more. And some more, and some more....
Hey, gimme that back. I'm not done yet!! That's more like it! A fist is better than a finger any day for cake!
Ahhhh..... Now I need a bath. Big time.

She took a while to figure out how to open presents, but soon got the hang of it. What was funny, though, was David. He sat right next to her and took away the little pieces of paper so she wouldn't eat them. He'd tell her "thank you" for each one. Soon, she started handing them to him and saying "thank you" to him!

Worst Week Ever

Poor Josie!!

Well, we'll try again for Josie's birthday. Three days before her birthday, Josie got really sick. She actually pooped through three diapers in half an hour. This means that I had to change her onesie and her pants each time. She had a double ear infection, which we treated on Tuesday, and the stomach flu on top of that. The medicine the doctor gave her made the runny stuff worse, so she was drying out fast. This was scary, since all she wanted to do was lay on the floor and stare at nothing. Or sleep all day. Very listless, and no tears or wet diapers (other than poo). We took her back the next day, her birthday, and switched the antibiotics, since Augmentin is notorious for causing belly problems. Josie actually lost about 3 ounces in one day. She was in really bad shape, and just started coming out of it yesterday. She is still taking super long naps, though, but she got really torked off when we offered her the Pedialyte so she's back on formula at least.

And, as everyone knows, when the mom gets sick, everything grinds to a halt. So it was when I got the stomach flu from Josie a day later and spent three days in much the same state she did. It took four days for my appetite to even think about coming back. THen, Grandma came down with it yesterday and spent a whole day in bed, too. Amber had a milder version of it that kept her home from school on Thursday and Travis tried to catch it, but missed. I hope it's a very long time before my family has another week like that one. Daddy doing poopy baby laundry is not a good thing, since he has no idea what Shout is for. Hannah and Daddy did their best, though, and it's thanks to my kids and their dad that the house wasn't a total disaster and mouths were fed (those that were eating, that is).

To top things off, the win blew 900 miles an hour for five days straight, and Hitt Pitt opened up a gravel pit right behind our subdivision. Now we get lots of lovely noise, and plenty of airborne dirt to brighten our summer days. Wonderful. It's really fun to back out of your garage and see the dirt sheeting across your windshield, or walk on your grass and see little poofs of dust go up. And I managed to miss the deadline on three WIC checks while I was sick. Great. At least there was no plague of locusts.......

Kate Does Sports!

Kate is my little introvert. She wanted to play soccer really badly this year, so I signed her up. She's afraid of the ball and getting kicked. I've told her countless times that this is what happens and that's why she has shinguards, but she is happy just running around and looking at the ball. Really. She'll kick at it if it comes near her, but she isn't aggressive at all. I should put David out there with the ball and something of hers. She'd shred a brick wall to get to him. Today, she told her Daddy that she's afraid of the ball but she wanted to play goalie. Go figure.

It was a typical spring morning in Idaho: breezy with a chance of snow. However, the fam braved the elements and came out in force. Yaaayyyy! Go Kate!!!

Toddler Rules of Possession

If you have a toddler or have even had contact of any length with one, you know how possessive they are. When I came across these, I laughed so hard I couldn't sit straight for an hour. It's perfect. It also, sadly, illustrates what two of my kids are like right now. The two who are home. Together. As you can probably imagine, two such outlooks in the same room don't go over really well. Josie is getting big enough to protest vehemently when David tries to drag her off, so his sneaky days are done. She also bites. She'll sneak under the table when the kids are eating and bite them on the knee if they don't hand food down to her. Since I don't let them feed her like a puppy under the table, they get bitten until I can fish her out of there. After I can stop laughing, of course.

Notice how all the older kids are sitting. They like to think it helps, which it doesn't, but they feel better with something proactive to do.

Here they are, the Toddler Rules of ownership!!

1. If I like it, it’s mine.
2. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine.
5. If I had it a week ago, it’s mine.
6. If it’s mine, it must NEVER appear to be yours in any way.
7. If I’m doing or building something, all the pieces are mine,
8. If it looks just like mine, it’s mine.
9. If I saw it first, it’s mine.
10. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
11. If it’s near me, it’s mine.
12. If I think it’s mine, it’s mine.
13. If it’s broken, it’s yours.

The Birthday (Part 1 of 3)

Well, I've got three girls with birthdays that are about two weeks apart. Nice planning, huh? So, we get a little creative (so we don't bore the grandparents who have to come to all three shindigs) by not doing the same thing each time. Kate is first, her birthday is today.

Here's a shot of the loot....

In case somebody might not recognize the setting, we are at Leo's Place, that haven of little kid birthdays. I like it because the mess is in someone else's place. Yayyy! Also, the little kids like the playplace, and I don't have to invent party games (which I detest). This is mostly everyone, except Amber, and a couple of Kate's friends, who were behind Hannah when she took this. They look thrilled, don't they?

Speaking of the photographer......she wanted the arcade, but I think spending ten bucks for tokens to win stuff that's worth a cominbed total of $1.28 is stupid. I gave her the camera instead, and it kept her occupied until soccer practice.

We bribed Grandpa to come with some caramel eggs we found in the closet, overlooked due to Grandma's Hidden Object Syndrome. I only put things in one place and I still didn't manage to find these, buried under the shoes (Travis did it, I'm sure). You can see the eggs by his plate... Josie is practicing for her own birthday cake here. She had a great time with that cupcake, and she even ate some of it.

Kate had a loose tooth in front that she'd been working on for the past day or so. It was at the point where she didn't want to pull very hard, but it was turned around in her mouth, so I held her down and yanked it out. She was mad at me for about 2 minutes until she realized that it didn't hurt and wasn't even bleeding. Plus, she could now bite down without pain. I guess this is the birthday when Mommy held her down and pulled teeth out of her mouth while she was protesting as vehemently as she could. Oh well.

Walking!!!

Josie is walking now--she is 11 months old and by far my youngest walker. She is immensely proud of herself, too. In just 2 days she has gone from barely balancing to steady across the whole room. Sometimes she even growls while she walks. Her favorite thing to do is drape the power cord to the Fry Daddy round her shoulders and wander off with it.

I had to take the french fry cutter, pizza wheel and my good whisks out of that bottom drawer.

Hannah , Amber and Kate are now playing soccer. I only have shots from Hannah's game so far--will get others soon. Hannah dosn't like her uniform this year--pink and navy, can't imagine why not! Wamber got hunter green and Kate got silver and black. Hannah was really jealous because green is her current favorite color. Anyway, she is doing really well, and I think she is quite a good soccer player. She sure is faster than most of the other kids.

That's her in the middle....she wants contacts now. I told her that she has to get to the point where she can swallow her Benadryl before I'll even consider it.

Easter Weekend: Animals, Eggs, and more!

When we do Easter, we really pack it in. It worked out this year that we did Baby Animal Days on Friday, Easter eggs on Saturday (with BBQ at Grandma's thrown in) and Easter was Sunday. David's favorite part of Baby Animals wasn't the fluffy things like ducklings, oh no, he wanted to hold the snake again.

Josie, however, likes everything she could get her squeezy little hand on--she tried to squish the poor duckling's head and poke the chick's eye out. The big hairy bunny, she wasn't so sure of--it took her a minute to finally decide to touch it. (Yes, I know it looks too hairy to be a bunny, but it really is. It's the hairiest bunny I've ever seen!)

My kids would never let me ge away with not dyeing eggs. They always lose and break them, but they insist. This year, we got a new demise for the egg--Sammy grabbed it and scarfed it down. They always have a good time doing this, and the newspapers made me feel better.

Notice baby helper down there, trying for a piece of the action.

Behold: the finished product. (Notice that I have to cook many eggs, and this doesn't include the broken-in-the-pot ones, or the one David dropped)

Not only must we color eggs, we must hide them, at least until we have lost one inside the house. This finally happened at Grandma's this year, so I'm not worried about finding it this Thanksgiving. The weather was the best I've seen on the Saturday before Easter in years, so they did most of their hunting outside.

Josie didn't get wheat you could call a normal Easter basket. No candy. She did get some fun stuff, though, including puffs (which could be considered baby candy) and a play cell phone all her own. My favorite is her hair--it kind of looks like the ears on one of Jody's dogs.

And, of course, Easter is the time we do our family pictures, and I happen to like this one a lot.
And, at last, by popular demand, the Growling Girls returns. This time, she is imitating her hero, the Pirate Captain Wildhair:

Kid Tricks

This is really funny. I have a little girl that growls. THe first time she did it, i almost died laughing, but it took me a while to get it on video. Now, when someone growls at her, she growls back. I hope you can hear it well enough.....

Josie's hair is getting to magnificent proportions now. It's kind of a new thing for me to have a baby that has enough hair to reach her nose before she's a year old. I have to pull it back every day, or she can't see. (Looks like she's planning something, doesn't it?)David and Josie are good buds. He was giving her truck rides the other day...

I have no bumper pad on my crib, so sometimes Josie gets to experience new and exciting sleep positions. We had to extricate her feet on this one, because i didn't want her rolling over and twisting anything.

Next up, we have David's Movie Watching Nirvana Nest. What else need to be said here? I have kids who pack everything they own everywhere in the house with them. (Notice Racecar McQueen pillowcase--it matches the sheets and his blanket. Usually, he has at least twice that many stuffed animals going.)

This one is still giving Travis fits. He got out the Farming Game one Sunday and played it with all the kids. For those of you that aren't familiar with it, it's a lot like Monopoly, except you are running a farm and Mt St Helens erupts at least three times during the game. Anyway, David wnated to play it all the time. Every time he saw his dad, it was "Can we play the farm game?" He can't count the money, but he can sure stick on the little vinyl thingies!

Gearing Up...

OK--I have three girls now, who are interested in doing things. Every thing they hear about. Even Cal Ripken baseball, because it came home in a note from school. so they must do it. AYSO is the closest I will go to that, and all three wanted to play soccer. Who am I to say no in the face of such dedicated pleading? It gets them out of the house and running around, plus it's stinkin' hilarious a lot of the time. Anyway, I forgot about practices and crazy coaches. They are in three different divisions, which means three different days for games. Ha. Hannah practices two nights a week, and still has piano and mutual too. Good thing the crazy softball coaches are not in charge this year, or Hannah would never see the inside of the house. They are having open gym once a week for a while. Anyway, I got accused of overscheduling, but I tried to be sneaky, so that's what I get, I suppose. Last year, piano and soccer practice were both on Wednesday, and games were Thursday. Aha, I think to myself, I will schedule piano on Tuesday this year, because there's a two hour break between that and mutual. This time, the soccer practices on Tuesday and the games are on Wednesday. I really tried, honest. The Demon God of Forethought hates me. No such problems for Wamber, however. Her coach is not insane. Hannah's had his team list for about 5 minutes before he had everyone called and practice set up for three days later. He's good, though, and she likes him a lot, so I'm willing to put up with a bit. She's only doing three extracurricular activities, but it looks like an awful lot because everything ended up on the same two days. Kate is going to play this year--I can hardly wait. This ought to be really good. Oh, Hannah's team is pink this year. Hee hee hee! It's powder pink, not cool hot pink. Hee hee hee! She's pretty disgusted with it, but Kate is jealous. Wamber just kind of slides along, Wamber-fashion, not saying much, but I think she's excited to be playing too. She told me she wanted to play softball, but only if she didn't have to hit off a tee. I assured her that she was old enough for the pitching machine now. Maybe I can motivate Hannah if Wamber gives her a little competition in the throwing with accuracy department.

What a Week

We have had a week in our family. First, David decided to walk into the wall at Grandma's house. He caught it on the corner, and it was really odd because he was headed to go downstairs and just missed the doorway. He was turned around and talking, and just missed it. I told him that proves that he can't walk and talk at the same time, and he just gave me a look that said "Huh??" He had a stupendous lump on his head, with a scab from a dent. He didn't break the skin, but it still scabbed over.
Of course, Grandma decided that a band aid was the way to make him feel better. He chose it himself, and I had to talk very fast to get him to let me take it off to go to bed. You can tell how big that lump is by the way the light shines off the bandaid.
Then, Wamber goes outside to play. It was n't even that cold out, but that night, she complained that her chest and shoulder hurt. I gave her some Advil, and put her back to bed, thinking she had overworked a muscle or something. The next morning, she was still hurting to take a deep breath, and was actually in tears, so I took her in to the doctor. Come to find out, she has pneumonia in her right lung, and an ear infection to go with it. The doctor said he doesn't see that very often. Wamber missed 3 days of school this week over that one! Here she is in all her patheticness:
Here is a shot of the happiest kid to ever take a bath: