Baseball!

This year we lucked out and Tyler got to move up to the Pinto league (due to lack of kids for our town's teeball team) and we couldn't have been happier. This is where Tyler "belongs" for lack of a better word. Another year of teeball just wouldn't have suited him. We also lucked out with our coaching staff. They were all amazing and just what I wanted/hoped for a coach. I am even more appreciative of our coaches after witnessing one douchebag extraordinaire coach for another team. This guy was "amazing" to put it politely. Oh well enough dwelling on that. Let's talk about our awesome team. They finished the season 8-4 and the playoffs 2-1. They played hard and played fair which is all we could ask of them. We are already excited for next season!

Tyler, so proud of his plaque:



The entire team after their playoff game ended, enjoying ice cream which I think is the reason some of them even played. ;)

Random catch up post - fun stories about Tyler & Delana

I keep falling off the planet here and for that I do apologize. It seems like every time I turn around, something new is coming. Anyway, today I was going back on my infamous mom board searching on the word "Tyler" and here's some stuff I've missed in my absence here

January 31: I love Tyler's confidence!

Last week he INSISTED on wearing a Christmas shirt to school. It wasn't just a red/white/black/green shirt, it was clearly a Christmas shirt. It was the Gymboree or Crazy 8 one that says, "I'm Santa's favorite!" I asked him, "Are you SURE you want to wear this? It is a Christmas shirt and Christmas is over." He said, "Why wouldn't I want to wear it?" to which I replied, "Well buddy I just don't want you getting upset if someone would tease you about it." He just said, "Mom I don't care about that. I want to wear this shirt today."

Okay then. Rock on with your Christmas shirt dude!


December 15: Tyler brought home a picture from his buddy today

It said:
To Tyler J

We pay together

From Jacob

Unfortunately Jacob made the "p" backwards and it maybe looked a little like a "g". Yeah I got a good laugh!


November 5: So turns out Tyler talks too much
(This is in reference to parent teacher conferences with his 1st grade teacher Mrs. Cook.)

Hahaha, this not surprising! She didn't say it was a problem but that "he likes to talk" and then she just went on & on about how all the teachers love him & think he's just so cute with his glasses. She showed me how they do the AR stuff and explained why it was put back into the classrooms instead of in the library (like it is for the older kids) which was because some of the 1st graders aren't getting into the system right and were getting zeroes so the teachers asked for it to be done in their rooms so they can help them a bit easier. Let's see what else...oh we talked about his behavior/maturity and she told me that "Tyler is a leader" and "very smart." Yeah....that's what I like to hear.


October 15: What Delana wants for Christmas according to Tyler

So on the way home tonight, I started the what do you want to ask Santa for conversation trying to plant some ideas. Tyler gave me some ideas pretty quickly but Delana wasn't saying much. I heard Tyler whispering something to her and then he said, "Tell her Delana. Tell her what you are asking Santa for." She didn't say anything so I asked Tyler to tell me. He said:

WARNING: PUT YOUR DRINK DOWN! You've been warned! I'm just saying!

"She wants a pecker for Christmas."
I said, "WHAT?"
Tyler, "Mom she wants a pecker. That's what she wants."
Me, "Tyler I don't think so."
Tyler, sighing and with eye roll "Mom, she's been wanting a pecker since she was one!"

Can you just picture my kid telling your token dept store Santa that his little sister wants a pecker for Christmas? Goodness!!!


September 1: Delana and flag football

Last week at practice, there were extra flags and so of course Delana wanted a set to wear. OMG, it was adorable!

Anyway, fast forward to last night. Delana remembered and asked for flags again. The she promptly told the coach, "I'm going to show (up) those boys!"

July 18: Tyler was just downstairs making what we thought was a birthday card for Bryan

since his birthday was this past Friday. And I guess it is still kind of a card.

On the outside it says:
Daddy, have a nice summer

On the inside it says:
I love you daddy (awwww!) beekus you are druk

Yes, seriously, my son wrote this. Then underneath he drew all 4 of us and he put drinks in me and Bryan's hands.

Okay there's some fun highlights of oh the past 6 months.

5 hour energy and then some

Yesterday I mentioned how much Tyler has improved in football since the start of the YMCA flag football league. It is really amazing actually. Today during Delana's nap he requested to "pass some football" and of course I obliged. It was a beautiful day out and I was more than happy to get outside and enjoy it. He goes through spells of catching/not catching. It seems if he catches one, he catches 10 and vice versa. So in the first half (Tyler insisted we play halves, with a halftime break and some kind of scoring system he made up on his own) he dropped nearly every pass. We took a break on the swing by the fire pit, errrr.....locker room and then started the second half. This half he turned it ON and caught 4 or 5 passes in a row right from the start. He then informed me: "Wow Mom! I guess I had my 5 hour energy today."

This wound up being a good thing because later on that afternoon some of our friends came to visit and Tyler really needed that energy. (If you know Tyler, you sense the sarcasm here - the kid has 15 hour energy!) We had a great afternoon/evening visiting and playing. It was really funny because for the first time the boys did their own thing (cars) and the girls did their own thing (coloring. I was unable to get a pic of the boys - imagine that but my friend Aimee got a great one of our 3 girls coloring.

Fall festival and other things

Tyler's elementary school's PTO puts on an annual event and well it's called...guess. It's a very nice event and I can't understand why more kids/parents don't attend. They put inflatables in the gym for the kids to play on and have many games for winning prizes/candy. Then there's a Chinese auction as well. Last year I won a gift certificate for dinner out but this year I wasn't so lucky. Ah well. The entire event is just FUN for the kids and the PTO raises a little money from it. I'm all about getting something for my buck that isn't a candle, pizza kit or some other useless ornamental somethingorother I really don't need.

Our day actually started out much much earlier than that because Tyler had his last football game at 9:00. If they had won this playoff game, they actually would have played another game this coming Saturday. I was torn between wanting them to win and hoping they wouldn't (BAD MOM!) because it's been a lot of running around for us. Well they lost so it's over. I feel really bad for the boys because they didn't win a single game this entire year. Oh well, they learned a lot and improved so much over the course of the season. I saw it in all the boys and especially in Tyler. He is catching really well and I swear this kid is going to be a punter - he has a great boot. (They don't punt or kick at all in the games, he just loves to do it and he's pretty good.)

After the game, we attended the previous mentioned Fall Festival and then headed home to hopefully watch the Ohio State Buckeyes kick some butt. That didn't quite work out as planned. Overall though we had a good day despite the outcome of the game.

Corduroy Makes a Cake (or Tyler reads his first real book)

First grade has proven no different than Kindergarten in terms of what they expect the kids to learn. I am in awe just about every day when I go through his folder. I just want to yell, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THEY ARE LEARNING TENS AND ONES? SPELLING TESTS?!!!" I know for a fact we did not have spelling tests until 2nd grade. I remember it very clearly because well, I tried to change a word on a pretest "knead" that I spelled "need" and Mrs. Murphy caught me trying to fix it. Man I was humiliated.

Okay, anyway, how about I talk about what this post is actually about. Tyler read what I consider to be his first official book tonight! He's been reading little stories that were sent home last year and this year in his readers. You know, 5-6 pages of sight words basically. And he's even read a few books that are more what I consider to be preschool age appropriate. But tonight, he read a 32 page book (well probably more like 20 b/c some of the pages didn't have words) with minimal help from me. It was a Corduroy book if that means anything to you. I admit it didn't to me but I guess there's a whole series of books about this bear named Corduroy. The one Tyler read was "Corduroy Makes a Cake."

Oh and he read it to Delana too. It was so cute!

When I grow up....

I don't really remember what I wanted to be when I grew up when I was little. I know in Junior High I had thoughts of being a lawyer. I will say though the one thing I never dreamed of being was a doctor or a nurse. Why you ask? Well because I can not stand the sight of blood. Yeah, imagine that!

Anyway, last night Tyler declared his current aspirations for when he grows up while we were in line at the McDonald's drive-thru following the PTO meeting. (And for the record, a PTO member wasn't something I aspired to be either, LOL!)

"Mom when I grow up, I'm going to drive a bus on Monday through Friday then on Saturday and Sunday I'm going to work at McDonald's. *pause* But I'm not going to take orders, I'm going to make the ice cream."

And there you have it - my son's lifelong goals. Shoot high buddy! Shoot high!

Look Mom, no training wheels!

I guess it's pretty evident what this post is about. Some time last week, Tyler asked that we take his training wheels off. Bryan obliged but Tyler really wasn't able to ride that well without them. Well today he finally made some progress and mastered it. Considering I didn't learn how to ride a bike until I was oh about 10, this is really amazing to me to see an almost 6 year old pedaling away like he has been doing this all his life. Delana is doing similarly well on her tricycle this year. Last year she could only master the backwards with the feet trick. But this year it's on - she's pedaling forward and doing great.

Here he goes!


SCREECH! Putting on the brakes




This evening was probably just about as perfect as it could get. And we took advantage of it big time and as you can guess, it was mostly spent with the kids riding their bikes. What a great day!

Riding off into the sunset

First baseball game

Tyler had his very first baseball game today. Unfortunately Bryan had to work and was unable to attend. But Mom was there as well as Delana, grandma Vernann and Aunt April. Tyler did fantastic! He started out playing second base, then he was the pitcher and finally played in the outfield. I think he liked second base the best. He said he didn't like pitching because it was hard to see. The kids have to wear a helmet with a mask on it when they pitch for safety. Add that to the fact that Tyler wears glasses as well and I'm sure it was quite uncomfortable.

Classic Tyler in this pic - he got a little bored.


I was a little disappointed in how things were run - they had 5 batters per inning and then switched sides. Personally I didn't feel like it taught them a whole lot. Plus no one got out and the kids were mostly held at first base when they hit. It was just strange to me. I'm all about the kids learning and equal opportunity but I think the concept of OUTS should have at least been part of the equation.

Okay, anyway......back to proud mama. Tyler hit two times during the game and he did GREAT! I was seriously so proud! SO PROUD! He rocked. The first time he had a nice hit but the second time he CRACKED it. It went to the outfield before it even started bouncing and then it went all the way to the fence. That's my boy!!

First time hitting:


CRACK!



My favorite baseball players
Cade, Tyler and Lexi

Baseball!

Tyler's team had their second practice last night and it's amazing to see the improvement in all the kids already. I have to say it is VERY hard to observe only. I really should have volunteered to coach - maybe next year.

For those of you that may not know, Tyler loves baseball. He gets it honest - he's grown up with it, heck he was at Jenny's games in utero listening to Mom cheer (and maybe get into a small argument with someone *blush*) and then attending Jenny's games or my women's league games ever since. We were very disappointed to learn that last year he missed the cutoff for turning 5 and was unable to play. His exact words were, "mommy I'm very sad I can't play baseball." Then on his 5th birthday he woke me up extra bright and early to announce, "Now I can play baseball!" Talk about heartbreaking.

Oh well, Tyler just got another year of practice and practice he did. He attended a 4 weekend long camp at the YMCA and spent most of the summer whacking balls (and his friend Davis's eye and Delana's tooth out - both completely innocent accidents) with us in the yard.

This year though, he is old enough and very excited. It's so cute to watch him really enjoy a sport. He tried soccer but it just wasn't his thing. But baseball - oh yeah, he loves it. It helps that he's pretty damn good too. *halo* Last night he played 2nd base, 3rd base and 1st base at different times during the practice. I think he liked 1st the best. It might have just been because he was beside Cade though who was playing 2nd at the time.

Actual happening in our house

Tonight after the kids were done with their bath (yes I still bathe them together - they love it!) I took Delana to get her jammies on and Tyler headed to his room to do his jammies. Tyler likes to use his little heater we have in there to warm him up after his bath and usually Delana joins him in his room for the same reason. Tonight was no different. I went into our bedroom to finish putting away Bryan's work clothes & Tyler and Delana were in Tyler's room. The door was closed, of course so that the room would stay warmer. I was probably in our bedroom for about 10 minutes. I then went into Tyler's room. I opened the door and Tyler is still unclothed, sitting in front of the heater and Delana is right next to him. They're both looking down at something.

I then asked a completely innocent question:
"Tyler what are you guys looking at?"

This was NOT the answer I expected:
"Oh I'm just showing Delana how peebugs grow."

It took me a moment to compose myself mainly because I was fighting an internal battle over whether I should freak out or laugh out loud at the innocent-ness of this event. I took a deep breath, collected myself, and calmly said: "Tyler we don't show others how our peebugs grow. We do that in private."

Add THAT to the list of things I never thought I'd say in my life.

A geology lesson

Today on the way home from basketball, Tyler asked an extremely random question. At least I thought it was random, coming from a 5 year old. He said:
"Mom, what comes after all the rocks in the earth?"
I'm thinking....only my kid would ask this. But I do know the answer, thanks Mr. Stafford. It's lava.
So I answer, "Lava buddy"
Now you know that isn't sufficient
"Mom, what's lava?"
"You know buddy, what comes out of the volcanoes. It's melted rocks"
"Oh well, will it burn you pretty bad?"
"Yeah buddy it will burn you pretty bad."
"Oh okay, so kinda like what burned Annikan?"
A-ha - I knew it. Everything in my son's life relates to Star Wars somehow.
I figured that was the end of it. He was quiet for a while. Well by quiet I mean he was humming a Star Wars theme song - the one he claims is going to be for Episode 7.

Then "Mom, what comes after lava?"
Uhh....yeah mom what DOES come after lava. I thought I knew but I didn't want to be wrong so I told him I'd look it up later. So thanks to Google I'm happy to report that I once again know the layers of the earth and what they are made of:
crust
mantle - these two are the rocks (and did you know it's 1800 miles of rocks)
outer core - the lava
inner core

And in case you're really wondering what comes after lava - it's mostly solid iron. :)