Monday, June 25, 2012

182 Days Until Christmas

Hello there!  I'm back!

Glad to know that people still visited the blog in my absence, even if it was largely from Google-ing pictures of beachballs.

Summer is going full-tilt here.

We're at the t-ball fields 4 nights a week these days - 2 each for Big Brother and Little Brother.  Both boys are having a good time (their favorite part of t-ball is snacktime) and bladders have been quite cooperative.  It's been interesting and insightful to realize that even at age 7, the boys are still unable to firmly grasp consistently, cognitively, the "rules" of baseball.  Hence Big Brother recorded an out by fielding the ball as the second baseman and just running over and touching first base, without throwing the ball to his teammate.

And at age 4, t-ball is just oodles and oodles of fun.  My favorite moment was watching Little Brother stand on second base as a runner.  His teammate hit the ball up the middle and into the outfield.  Instead of running to third, Little Brother chased after the ball with the fielders on the other team.  Too cute!

***
We made a trip with the whole family to San Diego, the highlight of which was a return visit to Legoland.  Of course, the boys' favorite part of that visit was picking out a new Lego toy.  We also enjoyed visits to the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier, Zoo and Wild Animal Park, and Sea World.  Amazingly, the boys did pretty well on the flights (although man were we a sight at the gate with all of our entourage).

Little Brother dressed up in his Wolverine costume for part of one of the flights.  He literally boarded the plane dressed as Wolverine.  How awesome is that?!?!  As adults, we have a lot to learn from him.

(Unfortunately, mutants/superheroes still fly at full price.)

Other travel highlights included all 3 boys, most adamantly Bab-E Brother, INSISTED on wheeling their carry-ons throughout the concourse.  It was a very cute sight.  Even when we got to the hotel, Bab-E Brother pretty much through a tantrum if he wasn't allowed to continue to wheel his carry-on around.  And at various points during the flight, 1-2 children fell asleep in my lap.

Strangely these moments when the boys crashed in my lap were probably the most peaceful and relaxing part of the trip for me.  Or perhaps not so strangely, given that we had 5 people "crammed" into a hotel room for the better part of a week.

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Other than that, the garden is still growing, at least some of it.  We harvested all of the corn - the ears were small, but tasty.  The squash plants died.  The cucumbers, however, continue to flourish.  The basil plant survived the onslaught from the cucumbers and is actually thriving, which makes for some very tasty burger toppings.  The carrots are coming along, and should be ready to harvest soon.   And we finally have our first (tiny) green pepper growing.  Once everything is "done", we hope to dig everything up and plant another round of seeds for late summer.  Pictures to follow soon.

***
By now, you're probably scratching your head about the title of this post.  Today actually marks the half-way point between last Christmas and next Christmas.

They may refer to "Christmas in July", but around here, the boys have had the Christmas spirit since about May.

Perhaps this is a by-product of having birthdays relatively close to the holidays, but Big Brother and Little Brother have already been "working" on their Christmas lists.

And by "working", I mean Big Brother has hacked the computer password, and is able to browse on Amazon.com (quite proficiently).  Of course, both boys have found "rare" Beyblade sets from Japan that are like $99 apiece.

And of course, despite my suggestion that they might change their minds over the next 6 months about what they want (and they already have, pretty much every day), they continue to add to this list (which has not made its way into writing).

We also continue to remind them of the true meaning of Christmas.  And while they can articulate this - and understand that Santa brings them each 3 presents, because Jesus received 3 presents - it's very hard at age 4 and 7 to focus on things immaterial.  Hopefully though, with enough repetition, this lesson will sink in.

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E

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