QUOTE OF THE DAY

As Chance was writing in his journal, he asks:

"Mom, do you spell "2011" as "TWO, ZERO, L, L?"

Because "I Now So Muck"

Although I've gotta say the school year has drastically improved, and I no longer worry on a daily basis about Chance.......this common theme seems to remain:

Let Loose

In the spirit of the Royal Wedding today, which NO I did not get up to see...... I loved this recap of what I missed.  We should have done our wedding like this.

It's All Baseball, All The Time

That pretty much sums it up.......it's ALL baseball, ALL the time around here.  No need to call up and ask what we're doing, cause we are going to be outside, with our gloves on, or bats in hand.  If we're not at a game, we're practicing for one outside

Evenings lately usually entail Ryan and Chance throwing the ball, and "Boop" (as he calls himself) at the T-ball stand, hitting that ball OVER and OVER to the point I begin to ask myself.........does the kid tire of hitting that ball? 

And if we aren't outside with real bats, Brooks is either swinging the air, or finding something to use as a replacement bat.  I found him using a spatula to hit a balloon.  At least the kid is self entertained!

I've gotta give Ryan all the credit, he's out there with the boys day in and day out, playing for hours until they want to quit.  I knew I picked my boys a good daddy!

As for the real games, I think we have an ALL STAR in the making (spoken by a true mother).  Chance has really given it his all. 

If you were to ask him his season highlights so far he'd tell you, "I've hit a triple, tagged a guy out on second, and I hit the balls ALL THE WAY TO THE FENCE."

We've been bringing the T-ball stand to the games so Brooks has something to do, and I often wonder if the other parents think we are making him do it.

 
He is Chance's number one fan, and when he's not at the T, he's at the fence cheering "Go Buh-Buh!"
 

Happy Birthday to Me

I've gotta say, I got pretty used to birthday TRIPS as a means of celebrating the annual holiday when we lived in Zurich.  My birthday seems to fall right at the end of Ryan's busy season, which means it was the perfect time for us to plan our first trip of the year.  I got to squeeze Spain, Ireland and Montreux out of it, even a snowy birthday hike along the Planetweg.  This year, bratty as it may sound, I was pretty darn pouty about the fact that we'd be going no where.  Just add that one to the list of psychological adjustments..... So this year it was Grapevine.  If I can't go somewhere exotic in Europe, I am damn sure going to find the closest thing to it around here, and one can't really go wrong with a cappuccino done right to start off the day:

And the world's BEST husband to take a day off work to spend it all with me.  It is a national holiday though right?

And another very charming little person who loves cappuccino foam and dark chocolate in his croissants.  Too bad his big bro was in school or we would have been complete.

Later in the day, Chance returned from school and I got some pretty cool hand made cards, and a personally-decorated chocolate cake (that Ryan snagged from the bakery earlier in the day).

 

I guess the most telling part of the birthDAY was the gift I got from Chance: a vegetable garden. 

Maybe just maybe I am ready to get my feet wet. It was a symbolic moment for me, planting it. 

So another year older!  Happy Birthday to Me.

"BOOP" and His Many Talents

QUOTE OF THE DAY: QUITTER

CHANCE: "Mom, have you ever tried to quit anything?  I'm trying to quit the monkey bars (you should see the kid's hands).  You know what Brooks has quit?  He's quit being a baby and now he's a big boy".

Spring Break in A Town

Saturday was Mimi's birthday.  We had originally planned to head to Austin Monday morning for a little post celebration since Chance had weekend baseball obligations, but earlier in the week Chance came up to me in a desperate panic..........Mom, we HAVE to be there for Mimi's birthday, and we HAVE to arrive at her door unannounced, WITH BALLOONS.  So we scratched the baseball practices, loaded the car and headed to Austin Saturday morning to arrive at Mimi's house WITH BALLOONS, "unannounced"

Mimi's a bit like me: Doesn't really like surprises, and likes to have her house clean for guests. 

Next thought in that mind of yours is "Stacey?  Clean house for guests? Have you been to her house lately?"

Let's just say I WISH I could have a clean house for guests. 

But back to the story.  So, to spare Mimi the stress of us seeing how messy her bathroom really gets, and to selfishly ensure us clean sheets, I spilled the beans and we arrived at her door "unannounced" with her pretending not to know we were coming.  Mimi can put on such a fake act, I have to wonder if she often does it to me.  Chance believed the whole thing.  And somehow Ryan never clued in cause a couple days later he was asking me if Mimi was surprised to see us at her door step.  He's been working way too many hours to get anything straight, so we'll give that one to him.

Saturday we had Mimi birthday celebrations over at Uncle Drew and Aunt Andrea's house, with some mandatory tree climbing and walking in this great nature preserve behind their house.

Sunday my cold worsened and took my voice with it, Brooks was struck with a 102.5 fever and basically the rest of the week was down hill from there with regards to our health, putting a blow to any chance of us seeing my grandparents or doing anything worthwhile.  I do have to say it was nice to be in the care of the Mims!

We did get to see Umpa, Lisa and Matthew which is always nice.  The boys enjoyed some good game playing on the balcony:

And later some wrestling on the bed which enabled me for a good shot:

Later in the week, I finally said enough was enough with the darn sickness and so we loaded the boys in the car and checked out the Austin Zoo.  It was so reminiscent of our beloved Knies Kinderzoo at the other side of Lake Zurich.  So small, so manageable in several hours.  Only thing different was that you'd never see this in Switzerland, and these guys weren't playing dress up.  I was chasing them about like a crazy paparazzi, trying to get a shot of these creatures I'm still trying to get used to.  Yee ha.

Other interesting creatures at the zoo included a pair of turkeys:

Another pair of turkeys:

Some giant turtles that actually moved way faster than expecting.  One stuck it's head all the way thru the fence and immediately thought that was a lost finger waiting to happen. 

Clearly my thinking didn't carry me over to the pigpen, where Brooks proceeds to stick his fingers thru the fence and almost gets his hand taken off.  I should have seen the sign.

We went for a little spin on the Zoo train.  Anti-climatic for the boy who went to school on REAL trains for the last 4 years, but pretty darn exciting for the little man who loves CHOO CHOO's.

 

Back at Hotel Mimi, we soaked up the sun and hunted bugs

Chance was so excited to have Drew and Andrea come over that he spent several hours arranging the backyard in to a perfect game haven.

He even created a sign to attract his guests:

QUOTE OF THE DAY

I knew it would just be a matter of time before Chance was smitten again.  He's now in some cloud over the little girl next door.  Last night we were talking about it, and conversation quickly lead to marriage.  He was very concerned that he would have to be the one that would do the asking.

"Mom, did you say yes to Dad when he asked you to marry him?  Did he ask you right away, or did he have to get used to you for awhile?"

BLUE BLUE AND MORE BLUE

Nanny was so proud last Saturday at Chance's basketball game, telling me all about the day or so before when she had babysat Brooks, and she was down right convinced that she had taught the boy the color BLUE. 

We've all been a little worried lately......I mean you can have 2 blocks in your hands, say one YELLOW and one RED......and you can say to the child over and over "this one is yellow, this one is red.  Say yellow Brooks, can you say yellow?"  And we can drill and drill and he'll repeat and repeat basically anything you ask him to, but when it boils down to it: THE CHILD HAS TO BE COLORBLIND.  Or have a learning disability.  I know for a fact by 18 months Chance knew every color there was.  And maybe I'm expecting a little much out of our little man, but COME ON folks.

So Nanny told me that she decided just to work on the color blue when she was babysitting.  And she was convinced that he now knew that color.  Problem was, I think she was only showing him things that were actually blue.  But I didn't know this at the time, so when I went home and put Brooks to the test, I held up something yellow and asked him what color it was. 

And what did he say?  BLUE.  Every thing's BLUE.

So we are sticking with balls I've decided. I mean who needs to learn their colors anyways when you can have a ball.