Baseball Game - Take Two

We went to another baseball game this week. This time it was a minor league game. It was close to home, in a smaller stadium and much less expensive so we decided to take Luke and Max. I should have known better - we only made it one hour.

Everything started off great. We got our hot dogs and sat down. Max wasn't interested in the game, so the food helped get us through the first inning. During the second inning, Max noticed my Dr Pepper. It was sitting in the cup-holder on the seat in front of me. He asked if he could have some and I said no. He said okay and I thought that was the end of it. About five minutes later he starts making "mmmming" sounds. I look down and he's sticking his fingers into my Dr Pepper and then licking them. What? I can't believe he did that. I have to be honest, I'm a little concerned that he's so resourceful.

The Dr Pepper gets moved and Max starts to get restless. Thankfully, the Chicken comes out and the boys are entertained for another 15 minutes. When the Chicken leaves, things start to go downhill with Max, so we get some cotton candy hoping to hold him off for a little longer. But Max and Luke had no idea what to make of it. At first, they wouldn't eat it, they just wanted to pet it. We finally pulled some off and put it in their mouths, but they didn't like it. Again...what? Who doesn't like cotton candy? Apparantly, my kids don't so Merk and I ended up eating the whole thing.

Max made it to the top of the fourth inning. Luke was having a blast and would have stayed longer, but Max had started a major meltdown and we had to go. We'll go back, but it may be a while before we take Max again.

Bad Hair Day

And I thought I had crazy hair in the mornings!

Summer Blues

It's amazing the difference a few years makes.

I ran into a neighbor friend this week who has two children in grade school. We were talking about summer and soon realized how differently we thought about it.

For her, summer is about spending more time with her kids while they're not in school. It's enjoying concentrated time with them with the added bonus of family vacations, swimming and baseball games. She is dreading the beginning of school and wants to squeeze every last drop out of these hot, lazy days.

As the mother of preschoolers, I have a very different opinion. No question, summer is fun and we've done some neat things. But the day in and day out of summer is torture for me. We do playdates and see our friends, but the kids are basically sick of me. We've been together non-stop for 9 weeks. All the creativity I had at the beginning of summer is gone. We've done all the fun things I had planned. We've done all the crafts and read all the books. I'm out of ideas and we still have 5 1/2 weeks to go.

There are some good parts to our non-structured days. I'm embarrassed at how many times I've let them stay in pajamas until past noon. They've barely worn shoes since May. We've had more than our fair share of ice cream and we keep running out of sunscreen because of so many days spent at the pool.

So here's to summer and to the final stretch. I'll do my best to enjoy these last few weeks, but my heart really lies in the fall. We all need the structure, they need to spent time with people other than me and quite honestly, I need a break.

Potty Talk

For me, there are few things worse than potty training. Sure, the first time they go, you are filled with a special kind of pride and excitement. But it speeds downhill from there.

First, there’s the self-imposed isolation while your child runs around naked for about 5 days. This was the hardest part for me. Max loved it, but we’ve already established how much he loves “naked.” Luke of course wanted to get in the game and I spent the entire week telling him to put his underwear on.

Then came the questions. Will he be able to do it again? Should I use pull-ups? Would that confuse him? What about Church? There are about 16 kids in the class and I’m not sure the teacher will remember. What if he has an accident in public? How long can we be out in public before I have to start looking for a potty? Will he ever learn to poop in the potty? It’s overwhelming and all-consuming.

The worst was when I took the potty with us when we went to visit friends last night. By the end of the evening, he must have made 10 trips, four successes and six false starts. To top it off, he couldn’t decide where he wanted his potty to be, so he kept moving it around their house. It was everywhere, including in the kitchen while we were having dinner. By the end of the night we were all tired of Max and his potty.

But, that’s were we are. We’re in the second week now and things are looking up. Hopefully in a few more weeks, we’ll be free and clear. Then I’ll be crying about how sad I am that I don’t have a baby in diapers anymore. You can’t win.

Poor Scout

As we were eating breakfast this morning, I noticed that Luke only had his pajama top and underwear on. So I said to him, "Luke, we need to put your clothes on."

Max gets out of his chair and goes to take a look. He gets an angry look on his face, points a finger at the dog and says, "Scout ate your pants."

Poor Scout.

Cupcakes?

For some reason, Max is obsessed with cupcakes. He asks about them every day, probably around 30 times a day. For breakfast, he wants a cupcake. For a snack - cupcakes. If I ask him if he wants to take a nap, he responds, "No I want a cupcake."

All day long, he talks about cupcakes. The funny thing is, he's probalby had five cupcakes in his whole life. I don't know where this is coming from, but it's starting to drive me crazy. Except when he calls me Cupcake Mama. Then I think it's cute.

On Saturday, Merk is taking him to a cupcake store. We just got one in town. Who knew we needed a store that just sells cupcakes? Anyway, while Luke is at a birthday party, Max will be having a party of his own - with lots of icing.

Let's just pray he gets it out of his system.

New Things

I guess summer is a good time to try new things. This year, it seems like everyone is trying something new all at once.

Luke is learning to swim. I enrolled him in a swim class at the beginning of the summer. For four weeks, I thought he was going to flunk out. Every time, he would cry and cry and beg me to take him home. As hard as it was, we hung in there and suddenly, he got it. He just decided it was more fun to swim than to be scared and now he's swimming. I'm proud of him and you can tell how proud he is of himself.

At the same time, he decided it was time to learn to ride a bike. He started showing interest in his tricycle (for the first time ever) and he was riding it so fast it would tip over. So we took him to the store and he picked out his first bike. It wasn't an easy decision. Luke kept picking out the blue ones and I was just trying to find one that would fit him. We finally settled on a Hot Wheels bike and I made him ride it up and down the aisles of WalMart about 15 times to make sure it would work before we bought it.

Of course, he keeps informing Max of his bike's new features. I hear him point out the yellow flames on the frame or the fact that it has wheels. Max is a good sport about it. Although I've noticed he's been ringing the bell on his tricycle an awful lot lately. I think it's because he's figured out that he has a bell and Luke's bike doesn't. Brothers - they will always compete.

As if all this wasn't enough, Max decided it was time to potty train. I've known this was coming for the past month, but just didn't want to deal with it. For one, I think he's a little too young. More than that, I was not in the mood. Well, that didn't matter to Max. He's been showing signs for a while, but when he started taking off his diapers and bringing them to me, I gave in. So we're training and I think it's going well, even though his aim is way off and he gets more on the floor than in the actual potty, even when sitting down.

So that's where we are. I'm proud of my kids for their accomplishments, but it makes me kind of sad. They're growing up and there's nothing I can do about it. Luke has one more year of pre-school and then he's off to kindergarten. Once Max is out of diapers, the door will shut on the baby phase of my life and I think I will miss it. For now I'm just going to enjoy these long days of summer and watch my boys have fun being boys.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

On Tuesday, we took Luke to his first baseball game. I thought he was still too young, but his step-cousins were in town and they really wanted to go, so we joined them. Being the protective mama, I'm making all these rules, like we'll go as soon as he gets tired and he doesn't have to watch the game if he doesn't want to. We even took two cars so we could leave because I was sure Luke would want to go home early.

It just goes to show you that women know absolutely nothing about men, even the ones that once grew inside them. Luke had a blast. We stayed until the game was over and even then he didn't want to go home. He watched most of the game and jumped up and cheered at every home run. He ate popcorn, Cracker Jack and a hot dog. He even sang the song at the 7th inning stretch- only at the end, instead of saying go Rangers, he said go Red Sox.

We had a great time, even though we got home much too late for my tastes. I'm glad I went and got to see my son at a baseball game for the first time. It was a rite of passage I feel privileged to have witnessed.