Minor Leaguer

Even though it's still 100+ scorching degrees outside here, fall baseball has made its much-anticipated arrival.  Our oldest son (G-man) is absolutely ecstatic that his new team has started practicing and will have their first game soon.  However, the heat has most of the poor boys dragging their legs (and everything else) by the end of each session.  For their sake (and mine, let's not forget), I'll be ecstatic when the temperature hovers back down around 65-75 degrees.

Yesterday evening, my husband was collecting gear and getting G-man ready to leave for practice, and B-man made it perfectly clear that he planned on attending.  Lately we try to distract him with other opportunities so that he stays home, because my husband is an assistant coach and can't keep his eye on an industrious 4-year-old while giving drill instructions to a group of second graders.  It's just impossible.

However, he was not to be swayed.  So the 2-man outing became a 3-man with the promise that B-man would sit in the dug-out, follow all instructions and not cause any problems.  He swore to all of this with the most serious countenance.  So convincing. 

I had only been home from work for an hour when they were due to leave, so practice nights make me a little sad and disappointed that I get even less time to spend with them on those two evenings a week.

As they were heading out the door, I turned to Wee-man, smiled and said, "Well little buddy, I guess it's just you and me tonight!"

He grabbed his pack-pack, slung it over his shoulder, looked me in the eye and said, "Bye, Mommy."

I have officially been demoted to the minor leagues.

2nd Grade Top Ten

Okay, so it's been about a gazillion days since I felt like writing.  Also, we've had a very fun, busy summer and my kids have been going to bed at 10 pm, which means I don't have "me" time at night to blog or do much of anything else.  So I took the summer off!

With school starting back on Monday, we'll fall back into our old routine (I hope.)  They all went to bed at 8 pm tonight, which is nothing short of a miracle.  In celebration of this seemingly small (yet monumental) occurrence, I give you my second grade top ten list.  My son is starting second grade in a few days, and I thought back to the most memorable things that happened when I was his age.  Some I haven't thought about in awhile, most I have never admitted to anyone.  This is pretty much my second grade diary, all rolled into one short summary:

10.  How weird it was to go to a private school.  This sounds totally insane, but the public school I attended in first grade did not have a second grade the year I was to start it.  I have no idea if there weren't enough teachers or enough funds or what, but it was just ludicrous at the time that we would all have to find a new school for one year.  The alternative public school options were not appealing (nor safe for that matter), so my mom opted to enroll me in a private Lutheran school for second grade.  I liked it, but it was weird having to change schools and friends for one short year.

9.  Learning cursive.  My handwriting now is a mix of cursive and regular print, and I often don't even keep the same letters identical in one paragraph.  Meaning I might write an "r" in print in one sentence and then write it in cursive in another.  Sometimes my y's have loops and sometimes they don't.  I have no idea what this means, but I'm afraid that it could be indicative that I can't make up my mind and am somewhat fickle, so I refuse to consult a handwriting analysis guide.  Most teachers strict on handwriting would probably run out of red ink grading my penmanship style.

8.  The metal dome climbing apparatus.  I have no idea what the real name for this structure is, but they used to be on playgrounds everywhere, and have for the most part gone extinct.  I cannot tell you how many hours I spent swinging, hanging upside down or jumping off of this thing.  Given that my sister fell off of one and busted out every last baby tooth she possessed, I'm sure they resulted in too many lawsuits and so therefore had to be sent into retro toy retirement.

7.  Re-enacting the most recent episode of "V" on the playground.  I honestly can't remember who was in this show or what the premise was, but I know there were aliens and space ships and that was cool.

6.  Karen's ridiculously dark, thick, long eyelashes, which framed the most ridiculously blue eyes.  I can't remember Karen's last name, but she had eyes that any girl would covet, especially girls like me who have nearly translucent lashes.  I used to think that her mother let her wear mascara in grade school, but after she cried her eyes out at lunch one day and nothing smeared, I realized that she was just born incredibly lucky.  One day she asked me why I kept staring at her, and I couldn't think of anything to say except, "I love your eyelashes."  Yep, even at a young age, I was gifted at creating awkward conversation moments.

5.  Being in love with Judd, the second grade "bad boy."  He shaved his head, wore a black leather jacket and was always getting in trouble.  He was totally not my type, yet completely attractive and adorable in a Colin Farrell sort of way.  I think he might have even had an earring, but maybe I'm just making that part up.  I realized I could never snag him after he took one look at Karen's eyelashes.  Oh well.  The bad boys aren't my type anyway.  I still like shaved heads though.

Colin Farrell and some beautiful girl, probably Karen.

4.  Being in love with Doug, the nice, polite, yet slightly nerdy boy in class.  He watched "V," too, and would play with me on the playground instead of the boys.  Looking back, I'm not really sure if Doug liked me in the romantic sense or if he was perhaps more in touch with his feminine side, but I'll go with the former for nostalgia's sake.  I did learn to appreciate smart, sensitive guys after hanging out with Doug.

3.  The class clown, who I was privileged to sit next to all through first, second and third grade, because our last names were alphabetically consecutive.  I cannot tell you how mentally jacked this guy was, and looking back, I should have laughed at his ridiculous antics, but seeing how they were often directed at me, I could not stand the kid at the time.  A quick run down on his weekly activities:  passing gas nonstop (again, I had to sit by him), holding his breath until he passed out (he was always expelled for the day for this, but that didn't phase him), flipping his eyelids inside out, looking up the teacher's skirt, writing my name on the board for talking (he knew this pissed me off), burping the alphabet, chugging down eight cartons of chocolate milk without pausing, throwing rocks at recess and wiping his boogers on anyone within arm's reach.  I have no idea what this guy does now, but I have a few guesses.  Oh, and his mom had three or four boys.  I would really like to see how her mental state is holding up these days.

2.  The day I threw up Rice Krispies cereal in front of the entire class.  Our room had to be evacuated, because due to the wide-slat wood floors, my vomit seeped through every last crevice of the floor and the odor stayed for days.  Thank God it was a Friday.  I think.

1.  My teacher sending out a nice year-end thank you note for all the wonderful end-of-school cards and gifts, along with a P.S. that we should all go get tested for mono, because she had just been diagnosed.  We all kissed her goodbye on the last day.

And that, my friends, was my second grade year in an A+ worthy synopsis.