Her Brother's Keeper

I have always known that Emma loved her brother and looked out for him. I have also known for a long time that she is pretty much overflowing with empathy for others. Today, however, I have been struck by just how much she thinks about him before herself.

When I left for volleyball this morning Frank was not awake, so I just took Emma with me. She was SO upset that he didn't get to come with us. She said "It's so sad that Frank can't come. He won't get to play with all his friends and have lots of fun."

When she saw an airplane flying by- "There's an airplane! It's so sad Frank isn't here to spot airplanes with me." (Spotting airplanes is his favorite thing to do.)

At the library, where I let her choose a DVD to check out- "I guess I'll choose a train video so that Frank will be so happy."

At Sonic after I ordered our food- "What about Frank? Doesn't he get to have a special eat-out treat too?" And then later- "Mom, don't eat all of those potater chops (tater tots). I want to be sure and save some for my brother. That will make him so happy!"

On the way home- "I'm not going to drink all of my watermelon slush because I want to be sure and save some for my brother. That way he won't be sad that he had to stay at home with Daddy."

While she was finishing her slush after her nap, and Frank was still asleep- "I'm going to put some of my slush in my princess cup to share with my brother. That will make him so happy!"

Do we see a pattern here?

By the way, these are exact quotes. I wrote them all down because I was planning on blogging them. All this and it's only 5:00 pm. What else will she come up with?

My little girl is amazing.

How Old AM I?

I had a really embarrassing and humiliating moment with my daughter tonight.

After she got out of the shower tonight, Emma pointed to my face and asked "What's that, Mommy?" while pointing to my cheeks.

I looked in the mirror for a pimple or makeup smudge and didn't see anything, so I asked her to show me again.

Again, she pointed to my cheeks she asked "What's that?"

Being a little befuddled, I looked really closely in the mirror and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. So I asked her to point to exactly what she was asking about.

As she pointed directly to the dark bags underneath my eyes she asked me "Where did these come from Mommy? Do I have them too?"

(Mommy emits a BIG SIGH.)

"No, baby. You won't have those anytime soon."

By the way, this conversation is horribly similar to the one we had yesterday about mommy's stretch-marked belly. Oh, to be young again!

Friday Night at the Ballfield

Last night we took the kids and went to a Tucson Sidewinders game. They're the Triple A baseball team that leads directly to the Diamondbacks, so it's fun to go to the games and then see the same players end up in the major leagues. Also, when major league players are rehabbing from injuries, they play here in Tucson to get up to full strength before going back to the Diamondbacks. In fact, Randy Johnson pitched here on Thursday night.

Anyway, we've been huge fans of the Sidewinders since we moved here, and we try to go to as many games as possible. Unfortunately, the franchise has been sold and will be moving to Reno next year, but we'll enjoy them while they're here this summer. It's one of the cheapest, best family activities in all of Tucson. For instance, last night there were only 2,000 people in the whole ballpark, and every Friday there is a free fireworks show after the game.

Hey, anywhere that your kids can just run wild on the grass and you can sit and watch a game too, that's right up my alley.

Frank was READY to go!

My 2 handsome guys.

Sandy the Sidewinder

After the game, anyone that wants to can run the bases. It's Emma's favorite part of going to the games (except when there's fireworks), and this year Frank is big enough to participate, too.

What can I say? Baseball of this caliber just 20 minutes from home? AWESOME!

What We've Been Up To

I thought I'd share a few pics of the past few weeks.

We went to the World Vintage Stunt Championship airplane rally over on the northwest side of town. There were people from everywhere! Japan, Australia, and all over the US. The competitors stand in the middle of the circle and turn as their planes circle. (I would get dizzy!) It's not like remote control flying because they're connected to the plane by 2 LONG wires and control the movement by moving 2 tiny levers on the handle. Some of the stunts they can do literally take your breath away. They do flips, belly rolls, and dive straight at the ground before pulling up at the last second, all while turning around and around. The planes run on gas, and they start them up and just take off. When they run out of gas they actually land them while still turning in circles. It was amazing! Frank was entranced for a while, but eventually Emma got him interested in the flowers (dandelions, actually) growing on the hillside. It was super fun even if we were the youngest people there by about 30 years.

We did an Easter egg hunt with some friends at the park by our house. Frank was a little slow to start off with but quickly got the hang of it. Emma is already a pro. Each kid was supposed to get 14 eggs, but somehow we only came home with 12 between the 2 of them. Oh, well. Just means I have less candy in the house to tempt me! I found it interesting that as soon as we were done, Frank immediately set his bucket down and started counting his stash. He knows what's really important. It's not the eggs- it's what's inside!

Yep, it snowed again about a week and a half ago. I think our dogs should've been born in Wyoming or something because they are OBSESSED with the snow. They run and jump to try and eat it, they roll in it, and even kick it at each other. They're hilarious to watch.

Andrew's parents came and stayed over Easter because I couldn't leave town. I had a softball tournament for the Young Women on Saturday and was BEAT by the time I got home. On Easter Sunday, Debby taught me how to make her fantastic egg rolls and I've eaten them for just about every meal since. YUM!! Sunday evening our nephews Brian Paul and Jeremiah came out to visit and we played cards and dice until late. It's so great to have a relationship with these kids. They're so grown up now, and we wish we could see them more. We missed Sharissa because she was being responsible and working. Jeremiah works at the same store and was supposed to be working too, but he called in sick. Slacker! But we were glad he came. We had a great weekend, and the kids looked fantastic in the Easter duds Nana Rose sent to them. Aren't they getting big?

We also did the requisite egg coloring. I wasn't too excited because last year my counter was stained multi-colored for almost a week. But the kids were actually very careful and didn't spill at all. We've spent the last 2 nights having little egg hunts in the living room before bedtime. The kids love it because the eggs are super easy to find. I love it because I don't have to spend all that time hiding eggs outside that will just get chewed up by the dogs if the kids don't find them. Yes, Frank's apron is pink, but at least it's camo! I guess we need to get him a manly apron like the one we made for his dad.

Looking back, we have been very busy so Emma has no reason to beg to leave the house. I guess she can just tell when my heart's not in whatever activity we happen to be doing at the time. But that's changed. Already today I've managed to be cheerful and actively involved in my kids all day. I even went outside and watched them color with their new sidewalk chalk. Since we don't have any sidewalks, this means that they color on the brick on the base of our house. It looks like we have 2 preschool grafitti artists living here. But that's what the hose is for, right?

Back into the World

Due to travel, work, callings, sick kids, doctor's appointments, and all of the emotionally draining requirements of life, I've sort of boycotted the world for the past few weeks. I've managed to function and accomplish what needs to get done, but I've been totally detached from any sort of emotional involvement or enjoyment. The word to describe me for the past month would definitely be apathetic.

The definition of apathy reads:
--lack of enthusiasm or energy: lack of interest in anything, or the absence of any wish to do anything

I'd say that is a PERFECT description of how I feel lately. Things that usually bring me joy don't even interest me, and I have no inclination to spend time with even my best friends. (Sorry, guys!) I feel strange, but I haven't felt the desire to change what I'm doing. I'm OK with being a lazy bum, I suppose. I have struggled with depression at different times in my life, and I know that's not what I'm enduring now. I just am content to just BE. This is causing some problems at home. Like the almost complete absence of home-cooked meals, for example. But I'm managing to keep everyone alive and functioning in a house that's not TOO cluttered and crazy.

The only time I feel any motivation at all is when Andrew is around, which hasn't been very much lately. He's working a shift where he leaves for work at 1:30 pm and doesn't get home until almost 4:00 in the morning. Can anyone say sleep-deprived? So then I have to keep the kids quiet until he gets up around lunchtime to see the kids for a few minutes before they go down for naps. Then by the time they're up, he's gone back to work! I have never in my marriage looked forward to his weekends with so much anticipation. It's one thing to have him work night shift- he can be up for a couple of hours in the evening and actually spend time with the kids. Or when he was travelling on the railroad and would be gone for days at a time, at least he was GONE and we could miss him. But this particular shift is brutal- he's here but not here. Sigh. I just keep reminding myself that 'this too shall pass.'

But with both kids semi-healthy, my calling on hold for most of the summer, and a renewed desire to be back in society, I think I'm on the mend. Hopefully, anyway. You know you need to change your ways when your 4 year-old actually asks you "When are we going outside our house again?" Yikes! Have I been that bad? Apparently so.

We have been busy lately. Emma started her new gymnastics class last week, and it is going to be PERFECT for her. Lots of running, jumping, rolling, and giggling. A true fit for my little angel. There's only 12 kids in the class and 3 teachers. So they kept her interested and focused the whole time, and she LOVED it. YEA! We've also had doctor's appointments, softball tournaments, family in town, and the normal kid-related drama every day. We even had a trip to the zoo with one of Andy's co-workers and his family. They're a very nice couple with a little girl just 3 months younger than Frank. It would have been great except for the pelican-sized bird that pooped all over me and Frank. See? Even when I have tried to be involved, I literally got crapped on.

But it's all over! I decide right now to start living my life again. I will no longer be like a ghost just gliding through life, and I resolve to be interesting and involved again. Well, involved anyway. I can make no promises about being interesting.

For You, Dad!

A very interesting thing happened to me when I was in Safford this weekend. I was actually lectured by my father (of all people) about my blog. I honestly never thought that he would even look at this page, but he was very upset with my because of my inattention to my blog lately. He checks it every day, and says that he is disappointed every time he sees that I haven't posted. Well, who woulda thunk? I know that I've been slacking off lately, but it's been a rough couple of weeks for me, and I am really having a hard time finding things to write about. I'm busy all the time, but nothing seems interesting enough to be blog-worthy.

So I'm going to try and repent by posting a nice long post tonight, even though it's definitely past my bedtime.

Today was Emma's last ballet class for this session, and boy, is that a relief! We do classes through the city parks and rec department, and we've had good luck so far. But this time we really hit the bottom of the barrel as far as teachers go. I have nothing against older people, but 70-something CRANKY grandmothers should not be allowed to take out their frustrations on 3 and 4 year-old kids. Her name is Ronell, and she is one of the worst teachers I have ever seen, for a multitude of reasons. I will only list a few, because I would hate to be seen as a CRANKY lady myself.

1. In the creative dance portion of class, it is not acceptable to tell the kids that they can not be creative. If they feel like swaying their hips while they march in a single-file line behind you (the teaching method of choice for Ronell), then they are allowed to be free and wiggle away.

2. Grabbing the kids and yanking them around to where you want them to be is NEVER OK. I'm serious, I've almost punched this lady a couple of times in the past couple of months for this.

3. When teaching toddlers, it is really not a good idea to do 1 thing for more than 3-4 minutes. This is especially applicable when all 8 kids are hanging upside-down on the bar as the teacher tells all of the parents how she hurt herself yesterday and will not be dancing with the students today because the pain has travelled from her ankle to her calf to her knee to her hip............. you get the idea.

4. If 8 3 year-olds are wiggling all over the floor and are completely inattentive, maybe the teacher should stop the lecture on French ballet terms and LET THEM WIGGLE (to the music) for a while. We're paying for her to tire them out, not teach them French, right?

Andrew put it best when he said that Emma's dance class today was one of the most brutal hours of his life. I just had to respond, "Well, how'd you like to be one of the kids? They've been doing the exact same things for the last 9 weeks!"

OK, my rant is over. Trust me, I could go on and on, but I will choose to stop lest I start to get out of control. Let's just say that we have enrolled Emma in gymnastics for the next session, and will not approach another ballet class unless we know FOR CERTAIN who the teacher is!

I am actually impressed with how graceful Emma can be when she's dancing. When she gets a little older we'll enroll her in ballet again. I just want to get past the pre-ballet class she's old enough for now because they teach them the same exact things every single session. I figure if I'm paying for it, she ought to actually learn something new every 3 months!

Frank was more than content to play with his cars while watching the girls. No ballet for this kid! (Although his infatuation with Mom's red high-heeled shoes does have his father a tad worried!)

I Just Had To Share This!

I got this in an e-mail this morning and just had to post it. It totally re-affirms why I don't believe in spending tons of money on toys for my kids.

I LOVE IT! This is the cutest thing I've seen in a LONG time!

(For those of you that haven't ever viewed a video on Blogger, you usually have to click on Play twice to get it to go. Enjoy.)