Friday, September 25, 2015

Game Time

Sydney had his first t-ball game this past weekend. I'll be honest. I was a little worried. The weather was HOT. I was hot and uncomfortable... and I wasn't wearing a baseball uniform. Those poor kids were sweating bullets. But little Sydney did great. He played in the field all three innings, standing in the HOT sun and didn't complain once.

First in game at-bat ever
Roasting in the sun
Legging out an infield hit

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Sydney Pre-school

This week, Sydney started his last year of pre-school. Of course we had to take photos to commemorate the moment.

1st Grade

Casey just started 1st grade. Just like we did last year for kindergarten, we all walked him out the back gate to his school to drop him off. We took correlate photos to compare from year to year. To see one year ago at this time.. CLICK HERE.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Sydney T-ball

This week was Sydney's first foray into T-ball. We were fortunate enough to get him on the team with Coach Mike and Team Mom Ashley, who served similar roles for Casey's previous T-ball teams. Sydney's first practice went pretty good. He followed along, and did everything the coaches asked... And he did it all with a big smile on this face. He ran the bases.. in the correct direction. I suppose this shouldn't come a surprise, as he liked to race me around the bases at the conclusion of every one of Casey's games last season. In addition, he did get to RUN THE BASES AT DODGER STADIUM this summer. They did fielding drills, in which Sydney tried to lower his glove on top of ground balls as they came toward him. They also hit off a batting tee. Coach Mike patiently showed Sydney how to stand, hold and swing the bat. He did get quite a few hits!

Unfortunately, he had to miss his team's first game, as he needed to attend his grandpa's 75th birthday surprise party. But we'll be back to practice next week and then he will make his game debut next weekend!

Notice the red and green socks and mis-matched shoes. This is Sydney's 'Thing'. He loves to express his individuality by intentionally choosing mis-matches. Coach actually LOVED the idea, as it make it simple to instruct 'red sock forward' or 'green sock forward', instead of assuming 4 year olds know the difference between their right and left foots.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Pool Games

One thing that has been told to me over and over again is to enjoy and savor every phase as the kids grow up. Kids grow in and out of phases so quickly, it seems that if you blink, you might miss a phase in your child's life. So, I try very hard to take that advice to heart, and soak up each phase as it presents itself.

We are currently in a phase where Da Boys love swimming. I know, shocking huh? Kids that love swimming pools. How novel. But the particular phase is that they love swimming with Daddy. They love when Daddy plays with them in the pool. Sometimes, I'm tired, or cold, or whatever, but I try to remind myself; this phase isn't going to last forever. Accordingly, I try to take advantage of as many of these opportunities as I can.

One of these pool phases as already kinda passed. It was called Casey-Bomb, or Sydney-Bomb. This was a game stolen from Uncle Ed and cousins Chantal and Elena. When they were little, Uncle Ed did Wugga-Bombs and Goo-Bombs, where he would pick them up in the pool and throw them, thus causing them to splash down in the water like a bomb. Well, I stole the idea, and would announce "Casey-Bomb" or "Sydney-Bomb" before picking them up and throwing them into the water. Casey always enjoyed this 'activity' more than Sydney; although Sydney is beginning to derive pleasure from this game too!

Hulkie
This one comes from the Incredible Hulk. I am Hulkie; and I chase Da Boys around the pool and roar and pick them up and throw them. In turn, they hit Hulkie in the head, and try to push his head underwater.

Sharkie
This one is sort of dying off too. It was more popular back when Da Boys didn't swim so well. Each one would ride on my back as I swam partially submerged as they rode above the water surface. Hence, they were riding the shark.

Cargo
This one consists of each of Da Boys hanging on to my arms, while I tow them around the pool like cargo. Of course, the ride gets rough, and I eventually dump the cargo into the water.

Tick-Tock
I think this is actually a children's activity that was learned in organized Daddy and Me swimming classes. Of course, me and Da Boys have our own version. It goes a little something like this. "Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock, I'm s little cuckoo clock, how I'm striking X o'clock." I pick a number for X and dunk them X amount of times underwater until the clock runs out. Sometimes, on the last repetition, I will throw them in the water instead of dunk them.

These are all the games that come to mind now, I'll add to the list when we phase into new ones. Maybe I can even dig up video examples of each game.