Kids and sports

It is weird that I am finally a parent of a child who participates in organized activities such as soccer and t-ball. I am sure when I was younger, I never thought this day would come and now that it is here, I'm learning a few things about being the parent instead of the "athlete" (I use that term loosely considering I am talking about our 5 year old son - athlete might be a stretch at this point). As you know, Ryan is participating in both soccer and t-ball this year. It is his first time for both, and let's face it, the kid is pretty much clueless when it comes to either sport. I guess I can't blame him for not knowing anything about soccer considering Trav and I know nothing, and therefore can't really teach him anything about the sport. Take for instance the first time the coach told him to dribble the ball - I'm pretty sure he was on the verge of picking up the soccer ball and dribbling it like a basketball (now there is a sport I can teach him something about). Luckily he is a smart kid and before he did anything, he took a look around him. When he saw the other kids "dribbling" the ball with their feet, he just did the same - one crisis averted. When his team finished up their two weeks of practice, and it was time for their first game, emotions were running high. The kids were excited, the parents were cheering, and there stood Ryan, just chatting away in the middle of the field. I swear, if they had a sport where you could just stand and talk, Ryan would dominate. Unfortunately soccer is not that sport. After many calls of "Ryan, Ryan" by his coaches, he finally snapped out of his "talking mode" and got into "soccer mode." Another unfortunate . . . the two modes are hard to differentiate. At least when he wasn't talking, he was running - not always to the ball, or even in the right direction, but he was running. Now I always thought I'd be that fun loving, carefree mom that didn't care how their kid did in sports, but this is taking it to a whole other level. Ryan doesn't even pay attention. If he did that, it would at least be a little easier to watch, but he is just to busy. Too busy telling kids about his weekend at the lake, too busy telling the opposing coaches (who are on the sidelines by the way) about his pet fish "Steve", too busy to even notice that the ball has rolled up right in front of him and all he would have to do is stick out his foot and he would technically "kick" the ball - oh, it is so hard! But this is where it gets interesting. So me, being Ryan's mom, I obviously know he isn't the greatest soccer player (and probably never will be) and I'm okay telling other people that. But, when I hear other mothers, fathers, or kids saying stuff about him, I get really mad. Who are they to talk about my precious little boy and his lack of ability and focus - give him a break, after all, he is 5 years old. There is this one "soccer mom" who is constantly yelling at Ryan to "pay attention", "run towards the ball", and whatever other lame comments she can come up with. It would be one thing if her kid were some super stud soccer player (although, I would still be annoyed by her), but he isn't - remember these are 5 and 6 year olds we are talking about. Sure, maybe some of them pay attention better, and some are more aggressive, but none of them are destined to be the next David Beckham (the only soccer player I can think of) so enough with the yelling already. If you want to yell and tell the kids what to do, go sign up to be a coach, if not, sit on the sidelines, keep your mouth shut, and cheer on your kid. Here is a quick picture of Ryan's soccer team, then enough about soccer (it is such a confusing, weird sport, I can only pray Ryan won't continue on with it too far into the future).Ryan is the little "stud" in the front with the headband on. If you aren't going to play all that great, you might as well look good while doing it!

Now, onto t-ball. At least this is a sport Trav and I know something about. Trav played baseball and I briefly (before I got hit by one too many very hard "softballs" - I think they should change the name - those balls are anything but soft!) played softball. We even have a t-ball set at home that we've been practicing with so I figured Ryan would have a pretty good idea of how everything worked - well, I was wrong. He had his first game last night and as with soccer, he seemed less interested in playing and more interested in socializing (the kid would seriously talk to a wall if it was able to respond everyone once in a while). Even with his lack of attention, he did okay. Every time he got a hit, it was a "home run" in his book. And the one time he was tagged out at second, he broke down crying because it wasn't nice and he was mad, but other than that, we got through it. He didn't make any plays in the outfield (in fact, I'm pretty sure he never even touched the ball while in the field), but he was happy and in the end, that is all that matters. Here are a couple of pictures from the night. The first couple are in sequence from his "at bat" to crossing home plate - enjoy!

Big swing . . .

chatting at second . . .

leisurely jogging from 2nd to 3rd . . .

chatting with his coach at 3rd base . . .

making his way to home plate . . .

getting "knucks" from his teammate . . .

and happily telling everyone he got a home run!!

Team picture - Ryan is third from the left in the back row.

Fun 4th of July

We had an extra long 4th of July celebration this year and by all accounts, it was a blast! The festivities kicked off early Saturday morning. The kids and I headed down to St. Peter bright and early with Trav following a couple of hours later. The day was spent lounging in the pool and watching the kids (especially Ryan) work on his swimming and jumping off the board skills. That night we had high hopes of hitting the town, but after the long day in the sun, we all fizzled out and headed to bed early. With a good night of sleep, we woke up nice and early the next morning and got ready for the big parade. Other than a little heat and humidity, it was pretty nice. The kids came away with a huge bag full of candy and other knick knacks (most of which are already in the garbage) before heading home. After the parade it was time to get back in the pool. By the time 2:00pm rolled around, the kids were exhausted (they slept the rest of the day with Ryan finally waking up at 6:00pm and walking out of his room saying "Good morning Mom"). When the kids finally did wake up, we still had some time to kill before the fireworks so we did what all good Grandmas, Aunts, and Moms would do, we played Barbies! Actually, we (everyone but Ashley) were off limits to the actual dolls so our time was spent organizing and hanging up barbie clothes while Ashley carefully dressed each doll to perfection and then placed them off to the side to protect them from the dreaded hands of Lauren and Ryan. Now I know some people are particular about some of their old toys, but Ash takes it a step further, she is possessive - if it was hers 10 years, it is still hers today! And god forbid anything would happen to her precious Barbies - if it did, I wouldn't want to be around to see what would happen! Here are Ash and the kids posing with the Barbies - you'll notice that the dolls are protected on both sides. Ash is to their right and the Barbie fashion trunk serves as a protective layer on their left - again, we wouldn't want anything to happen to those dolls! To wrap up the day, we all stayed up and watched the fireworks. Lauren wasn't too sure about the whole thing (she sat in my lap and clutched my arms the entire time) while Ryan talked pretty much the entire time about the different colors and shapes that the fireworks made - you can always count on him for some commentary. By Monday we had pretty much established the routine of wake up, eat breakfast, and head into the pool - I'm amazed the kids never got sick of it. At some point I figured they would want to do something different, but it never failed, the minute breakfast was over, they were asking to put on their suits and go swimming so that is what we did. And like the previous days, when swimming was done, it was time for nice long afternoon naps followed by supper, some playtime, and then back to bed - nothing like swimming and sun to wear out a kid! Tuesday started the same, but to add some excitement to our swimming, we were joined by Mike's brother and sister-in-law and their four kids who were in town from Florida. Ryan was super excited to have other kids to play with and he couldn't wait to show them how he could swim and jump off the board all by himself. Well, as it turned out, the "Florida Kids" ended up showing Ryan a thing or two about swimming and jumping. For starters, they all knew how to swim by themselves without floaties, and jumping off the board seemed like something they did in their sleep (I guess growing up in Florida and being able to swim year round gave them a little edge). Luckily Ryan wasn't disappointed, instead, he seemed determined to keep up with them. He tried (and wasn't successful that day, but was the following day) to swim without floaties, and even tried out some new jumps the girls had taught him to do off the board - it was very fun to watch. By the time the pool party wrapped up, we had just enough time to eat dinner and go to bed - another busy day in the books. The following day (Wednesday - today), was our last day in town before Aaron and Ann headed out for a wedding and Ashley and Mike headed back home to California. And just like the other times that Ash and Mike have left, this was a sad day too. Their were some tears shed, but having been able to spend so much time with them and knowing they'll be back again soon made things a lot easier. Below are some pictures from the long weekend. Amazingly I managed not to get a single picture of myself or Ellie - oops!

The next set of pictures are of Ash and Mike with their nieces and nephews. First up, Mike holding Maggie (his brother's daughter) and Ash holding Ellie - they were both born on April 28th - what are the odds of that?!?

The next picture is the two of them with almost all their nieces and nephews - 7 and counting . . .

Lauren was too tired to actually be in the picture so we improvised and had Grandma help her out with her smile - say cheese!

And here is the "and counting." Ann and Aaron are having a baby boy in early November - yay!!

Too many doctor visits!

It seems like we've been to the doctor more in the last two weeks than we have in the last 2 years - this is not good! First up was Lauren with her ear infection, then Ellie got sick. We were in St. Peter when this happened so I called the clinic back home, spoke to a nurse, and she advised us to come in that afternoon. So off to Shakopee we went and when we got there, it wasn't good. Poor Ellie was tested for everything - first up, a catheter to check for a urinary tract infection - negative. Then she was taken to x-ray to make sure her chest and lungs were good - negative again. Finally she was poked in the arm to draw blood to make sure everything was good there as well. This was the only test that came back as questionable. Her white blood cell count was low and her lymphocyte count was high - in simple terms, she probably had a viral infection. They wanted to retest her again though the following week just to make sure that was all it was - oh good, one more trip to the doctor. On top of the girls' unexpected visits to the doctor, I also had my 6 week post delivery check-up. As luck would have it though, my doctor was called to a delivery right when I arrived so I had to reschedule. With all that excitement behind us, I figured we would be good for a while - turns out I was wrong. Two days after finishing up her medication for her ear infection, Lauren broke out with a terrible rash all over her body (and I do mean all over - ears, face, every bend on her body - it was everywhere). And just to make things interesting, we were in St. Peter again and it was the weekend! That meant I had to find the nearest ER that was "in network." As luck would have it, that happened to be right in St. Peter (that was our one good fortune for the weekend). During our visit to the ER we learned that Lauren was allergic to Amoxicillian. She was prescribed steroids and some cream to help clear things up and off we went. Unfortunately that was just the first of two trips to the ER. The next day she woke up covered with more rashes and red spots and said her ears itched. So we headed back to the ER and had her checked out again. Her ears looked fine but unfortunately for Lauren, the steroids could take up to 36 hours before they really started to kick in so that meant more rashes and more itching could occur for the next day or so - poor thing. With Lauren's situation under control, I finally got into my appointment this Monday, and Ryan and Ellie both had check-ups scheduled for today (Wednesday). Turns out our "little" Ellie is no longer little. She weighs 12 lbs 12 oz (97%)and is 24 and 1/4 inches long(90%)! How is that possible? That means she gained over 5 pounds and grew over 3 inches in just two months - guess that means Momma is giving her some good milk! It also means she is bigger than Lauren was at 2 months and just a half inch shorter than Ryan was - CRAZY! In addition to getting weighed and measured, Ellie also received three shots and had her blood drawn again (a follow-up to last week's blood draw - this one came back good. Her white blood cell count was right where it needed to be so we shouldn't have anything to worry about). With Ellie's appointment done, I geared myself up for Ryan's that afternoon. He had his 5 year check-up which meant 3 shots - never a good thing with him. Luckily we had been talking about it for the past couple of days and when it came time for the big event, he did really good. There was no kicking and screaming, just some tears and a loud cry of "STOP" as the nurse stuck him with the final needle. When he finally recovered (which only took about a minute), he said, "that wasn't so bad. Does this mean I can go to Kindergarten now?" I smiled, said "yes", and off we went - one mom happy to be done with doctors visits for a while, and one happy kid who doesn't have to get shots again until he is 12! That means 7 more years until we have the "shot" talk again - what a relief!

Keeping our fingers crossed that we won't have anymore doctor's visits until Ellie's 4 month check-up in August.

2 months already!

Ellie is 2 months old today - man how time flies! We have her check-up on Wednesday. I'm curious to see how much weight she has gained and to compare her stats to the other kids (always a fun activity). Here is the little lady in action showing off her smiling skills (and her less lady like skill of tooting - she mastered that one a long time ago)!

Soccer Stud

Ryan started soccer last week and seems to be enjoying it. Although, I'm not sure if it is the game he enjoys or the social aspect of playing soccer - let's just say he spends a lot of time talking! Here are a couple of pictures from last Thursday.And here he is doing what he does best . . . talking to his teammates. I'm pretty sure they were discussing game strategy here.It was super hot and humid last Thursday so just Lauren and I ventured out to watch the action (Ashley took Ellie shopping indoors so she didn't have to suffer in the heat - not sure what I'm going to do when Ash leaves and we have another day like that). It was so hot and sticky that I was sweating just sitting in my lawn chair - gross! The heat even got to Lauren. She kept saying, "too hot Mommy, too hot." She eventually just laid out on the ground and gave in to the heat and humidity. Check it out . . .

Thankfully we packed lots of water so the kids were well hydrated, but everyone was very happy when Ash pulled up in the well air conditioned van - nothing has ever felt so good as that cold air did!

Barbie band-aid

Lately Lauren has been obsessed with "Barbie Band-Aids" - she literally can't be without them. Whenever she falls, trips, or gets just the tiniest of scratches, she immediately breaks down and starts sobbing until she gets a Barbie band-aid. When this happens, I can't help but laugh. I really wanted to tape one of her episodes, but thought that might be kind of cruel. So instead, I taped her talking about her beloved band-aids.

Lots of swimming

After our busy week, we spent the majority of the weekend relaxing by the pool at Grandma and Grandpa's house - the perfect way to unwind. Ryan enjoyed every minute of it - he jumped off the board, swam all around, and pretty much became a fish over the weekend! Lauren unfortunately couldn't enjoy the water as much as she would have liked. We had to limit what she could do because she couldn't get water in her ears. Luckily there is a lot of summer left for her to enjoy the pool. Ellie spent her time snoozing in the arms of whoever was lucky enough to hold her - real tough life she has! Here are some pool pictures.And here is a quick video of Ryan in action - keep in mind he had never even swam by himself before this weekend and all of a sudden he is jumping in, going under, and swimming everywhere! What a difference a weekend makes!