I've Become One of THOSE People

It's no secret to anyone who has known me longer than 30 seconds that I'm loud. I admittedly talk way too much, everyone always knows my opinions whether they want to or not, and I can whistle like a 400-pound man. When you put all of those things together, it's a recipe for disaster at the baseball fields.

I'm been SO PROUD of Levi lately with his baseball. He's much more of a willing participant these days, and here lately he's really been trying his best. He got a couple of singles, a double and got to run home several times this morning at his games. And even though I complain incessantly about his practices, they are really helping him. He has improved so much since we started back in March. So, kudos to the super serious coaches for that.

That said, today he got a good hit down the 3rd base line, ran to first, touched the plate and ran right past it like you can do on first base. I'm still in the process of jumping up and down and screaming when I look over to see the ump make the out sign with his arm. I, of course, wasn't using my self-editor at this point, so in the middle of everything, I stop cheering and scream out in my loud, carrying voice, "WHAT? He was clearly safe!"

Oh, no. I've done it. I've become one of those people. The kind of people that get all caught up in a kids game and scream at the one helpless ump making $7.50 an hour. What has become of me? Even I was embarrassed that I had succumb to the pressures of competitive play, but before I crawled under the bleachers to hide until the humiliation blew over, I pulled myself together and went to congratulate Levi on his great hit. I've got to get ahold of myself before our next game.

Also today we learned about the "competitive tournament" that will be in late June. Any player from the league can sign up to play in this extra $30, 4-day tournament. There don't promise any playing time, which in Heather language translates to the best players will play and the others, well they won't. I dare someone to ask me if we'll be signing up for that one :)

Our Weekend

OK, so, I'm 32, and I'm a hair-coloring virgin. I've never colored my hair, so on Friday I have this big idea to get highlights. Wow. That was interesting. It turned out a bit blonder than I anticipated, but it was fun. I like it, but it is taking some getting used to.

I must admit that I had one of the nicest Mother's Day in a while. Levi picked me some flowers on the way home from the bus on Friday. I got the roots and everything. Too cute.

Levi made me a jewelry box at school, and Benjamin made me a bowl in OT. I don't know how much longer I will get little handmade gifts or handpicked "flowers" from our neighbors yards, so they meant a lot to me.

I told Levi that I always wanted him to make me things and when he was old like Daddy he just mail them to me. He said, "Why would I have to mail them when I'll be living here?" I just about cried. Then he said that when he grew up that he didn't want to get a job; he just wanted to play video games all day long. But I guess that's a entirely different blog in and of itself. I hope that idea fades quickly, as I don't see that being very appealing to the ladies when he's 30 or so.

On Saturday afternoon, Benjamin had his Jitterbugs performance. Jitterbugs is a dance or "creative movement" class he takes at school once a week. He loves music so much, so I thought he would like taking it. Every semester they have a performance which involves wearing costumes and dancing to different songs. OK, wait. I thought initially there was NO WAY Benjamin would let anyone put costumes on him, let alone get him to stand on a stage in front of everyone and dance. That is why we skipped the January performance; I just didn't think he could handle it.

I decided to go ahead and give it a whirl for the May performance, and to our amazement, he did great. He wore costumes, including hats, and got on stage and kinda danced. Every once and a while he would throw his hands up or do a high kick like the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. I was just happy he wasn't screaming. OK, who am I kidding? I was thrilled.

The kids made me pancakes for breakfast on Sunday morning, and then it was off to church. I was fortunate enough to find and sing a song for both services about the unconditional love of Mothers. It was so sad, and I would have cried like a baby if my Mom would have been there.

That afternoon, Ken and Levi went to pick up his fish from the taxidermist. It quite a bit bigger than we remembered it. Levi wanted to take it to school today, but Ken quickly shot down that idea.

Oh, and Ken got me a new digital camera. Can you tell? Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

To Quit or Not to Quit...

That seems to be the $100,00 question at our house this week. Should we let Levi quit baseball or will that make him a "quitter?"

I say call it quits. Throw in the towel. Be done with it already. Who cares anyway?

Ken says letting him quit will "make him a quitter, and he's not teaching him to be that way."

So, we are at odds about it. This week we only have 1 practice and 1 game. Not too busy this week, but Levi is already complaining about it. Did I mention that he erased all the scheduled games and times from my dry erase calender on the fridge. Is that a cry for help or what?

Ken is apparently winning because we're still going. And I'm sure his team will make the play-offs so we will probably be playing well into June.

His coaches are as serious as sin about this game. One of the coaches gave a speech before the last game about how "we needed to win this game because winning is what it's all about...that's what we're here for." I wanted to raise my hand and say, "Umm, excuse me, but I thought we were here to have fun?" I totally should have, but I was fearful that the guy would have literally tackled me to the ground and pulled my fingers backwards until I screamed uncle or something. He doesn't have time to mess around with slackers like me :)

Our Week

I feel like screaming it from the mountaintops, so excuse me while I climb up on my dining room chair, cup my hands around my big mouth, and yell out in my loudest Heather voice, "BENJAMIN HAS TESTED OUT OF OT! WOO HOO!" Our initial goal was to get him at age level by May of 2009, and here we are an entire year early.

That said, we have decided to keep sending him for now. I know some of you may think that's asinine, but we feel it is important. He is right now at the oldest level for his age group (42-47 months). He'll be 4 on June 9, then he'll have to fall into an entirely different age level (48-59 months) with a whole new set of objectives. The main reason we want him to keep going is that he LOVES it. When I ask him where he wants to go, he always says, "to A-Wissa's" (Melissa's). Now we just have to pay the difference of what our insurance doesn't pay. Even Ken was on board with that (shocking, I know), so we will continue to go for a while longer.

Levi had another baseball game last night and did really well. He got a good base hit and stole 2 bases. He and 3 or 4 other kids take turns sitting on the bench, so after the game I asked him if he liked doing that. He replied, "I really do because I get to sit and talk to everyone. I mean there's no T.V. in there or anything, but I like it." So apparently he'd rather sit and socialize than play any position on the field. Wonder where he gets that from?

At the end of the game, the coach hands out awards to the kid who makes the best play or works the hardest, and Levi got one of the awards (a little bag of M&Ms) for "making his play." We're sure it didn't have anything to do with the fact that Ken called the coach the day before to ask him for advice because Levi has been wanting to quit. I'm sure that's purely coincidental :)

We, of course, didn't tell Levi that, and it really did seem to boost his eagerness. I was really proud of the coach because I'm sure he wanted to give the M&M's to one of those kids that can bolt the ball from 3rd to 1st like he's not even trying or on of those kids that can stretch out like Elasti-girl to catch a ball and still stay on base for the out. I hate it when 7-year-olds are better at sports than I am.