Day 71: Conversations With Calen

This morning Calen was lamenting that it "wasn't fair" that Camden only has to go to school for half a day and gets to go play at the playground and play Disney Infinity while he's still at school for a full day. I told him, "Sorry Bud, but you're a big kid and big kids go to school all day."

Calen: "Well, when I die and reset my life, I'm going to make sure to enjoy only having half days at school and have all that free time to play."

Me: "When you reset...."

Calen: "Yeah when I die and my life resets to zero and I get to start over."

If only it were that easy and life was like a video game. 

Today's completely unrelated photo is a terrible grainy zoomed in cell phone pic of Cam at his tball game. He refused to turn his hat around even though his coach asked him to. Kid will do what he wants when he wants it, period. 

Day 70: For The Love of the Game

I think Calen found his passion in baseball. 

In the form of being a catcher. 

My friend somehow found a used youth lefthander's catchers mitt at a second hand sports store in town (these are nigh impossible to find without special ordering and spending I-shit-you-not hundreds of dollars). So she snatched it up for me and I gave it to Calen this afternoon.

He was so excited about it, he asked if he could catch at his game on Thursday (not up to me). Then he asked if he could catch at my team's softball practice later this week. 

Then he went to bed with his catcher's mitt. 

Obviously, I couldn't be happier that this kid loves baseball. 

Asleep, with his beloved catcher's mitt. Let's take a minute to appreciate the fact that my kid loves baseball AND Star Wars. That's a well-rounded kid right there. 

Day 69: Renting Cats

So my friend is fostering a litter of kittens. They are 3 weeks old and fuzzy and cute. So we took the kids over today to play with kittens. 

I decided this is the best way to ever have cats. Rent them from the shelter for two months while they're small and cute and fuzzy, and then give them back to be adopted when they're big and obnoxious and not cute. You get the best age of cats without the hassle of 20 years of cat litter, hairballs and every piece of furniture in your home covered with scratch marks (Jersey girl....you bitch of a cat you). 

Disclaimer: Yes, we love our cat. As much as you can love a cat that is the resident asshole. She doesn't even kill spiders, you guys. 

Cute and fuzzy and NOT my responsibility!

He's so cute and fluffy I can't stand it!!

Calen put this baby to sleep on his back. 

Day 68: Not-Really-Opening Day

It rained a lot in March. 

Like, I'm from Seattle and I was bitching about the amount of rain in March. 

Because of said rain, the boys' baseball league's (Cal Ripken Youth) opening day, which was supposed to be March 12th, wasn't, because we got like ten inches of rain that weekend. Seriously. 

SO, they decided to move "Opening Day" to today (May 1st), but since the season is nearly over, there isn't really any "Opening" to it. So they renamed it to "Cal Ripken Day", complete with all the original opening day festivities: team parade, league president speeches, National Anthem, first pitch etc. Followed by team photo day AND the hit a thon fundraiser AND like a million bounce houses and and AND. 

Basically it meant 7 straight hours of hanging out at the ballpark. And you didn't hear any of us complaining (even the kids, surprisingly). 

The parade was first and since they go from oldest divisions to youngest, you see all these humongous pre-teens walk by and by the time your little 7 and 5 year olds come up you're like "wow, they're so SMALL!" followed by the speeches and stuff at the main field. I was shocked at how big this league is. 62 teams and 750 players. I understand that the league incorporates three general areas (Rohnert Park, Cotati and the outskirts of Petaluma - where we live), but damn, that's a lot of kids. In one place. At the same time. 

Rookie Indians! Calen is behind that parent to the right

Pee Wee Orioles!

Cam's team in orange, Calen's team is behind the little Giants team

We had to wait a good hour after the parade for Camden's team pictures, and surprisingly the kids weren't bored at all. They ate snacks and climbed trees and played catch with whatever random kids they found walking by them. After Cam's pics we had another good hour before Calen's team photos, which unfortunately were at the same time as Cam's afternoon tball game (of course it was). Luckily, everything was at the same field today, so there was no driving all around Rohnert Park. So, we wandered around the booths and watched an inning or so of the Major's game (13 year olds) being played at the main field while somehow trying to stay hydrated in the 85 degree heat. 

Did I mention there was no shade? Yikes. 

Team photo outtakes

Learning a thing or two from the big kids

Camden's game, as all tball games are, was in the grass in the soccer field adjacent to the baseball diamond. Even though he was hot, tired, and had been at the field for five hours at this point, he was very patient, focused and even got a coach pitched hit (those that know Cam, know that patience and focus does not describe him in the least). The coach recognized this and selected Cam as the recipient of the game ball today. Cam literally squealed with joy. 

By then we were puddles of melted mush on the floor, but the kids had been so strangely complaint-free all day, we rewarded them with an hour at the bounce houses before we determined that our vitamin D levels were at near-overdose level and it was time to say to heck with the great outdoors, we are going home, closing the blinds and laying on the cool hardwood floors for the rest of the day. 

Three weeks left of baseball and I'm already sad it's going to be over. 

Day 67: Conversations With Calen

Calen is still having some mild issues with his bike (nothing we can't fix), which prompted this random conversation in the kitchen this morning:

C: "Mom, can I buy a new bike?"
Me: "No, if there's a problem with your bike, Daddy will fix it."
C: "Why can't I just get a new bike?"
Me: "Do you have any money?"
C: "No."
Me: "That's why you can't. You need money to buy a new bike."
C: "Don't you have money?"
Me: "Not money for a new bike!"

Calen walks away, then comes back with a contemplative look on his face. 

C: "Mom, I think you should just go to Bank of America and get some money."
Me: "....Bank of America?" (we don't even bank there). 
C: "Yeah. It's a bank. For Americans. We're Americans. You can just go in there and get money there."
Me: "That's.....not how it works....."

I was going to explain how a bank actually works, but the moment had passed and his seven year old attention span had moved on to the Lego Bionicle he was playing with and began to explain how the BLADE SWORD SKATEBOARD can morph into whatever terrain it's skating on. 

That saved me a lot of boring lecture time on how banks work. 

The picture of the day is completely unrelated. At Calen's game today, Cam and another little brother were watching the hitter with their little hands up on an invisible bat, and when the hitter would make contact, they'd swing and proceed to "run the bases", which was actually just a loop around the bleachers. 

Can they just never grow up?

"Up to bat"

Day 66: Art Interpretation

As most households with boys (and girls) under the age of 18 know, Minecraft is a pretty big deal in the kid video game world. So big there's a whole line of merchandise to go with it: shirts, hats, toys, books. For Calen's Minecraft birthday party, he received a Minecraft handbook, a sort of guide to the monsters, weapons, minerals etc etc in the game. This is right up Calen's alley since he is obsessed with reading anything non-fiction, and has poured over this book for a solid month now. 

This morning I came downstairs to him happily sitting at the dining table with a pencil and crayons in hand and his handbook held open to the monsters page, drawing "lifelike models" of the monsters in the game. 

"This is my guide of monsters so if you see them in the game then you know what they are." Because I play as often as NEVER with him. But at least I'll know what they'll look like, just in case they ring the doorbell. He ran out of time to label them before he left for school, he said. 

I like how he tried to make them "3D". And really, for a 7 year old lefthanded boy, he's not a bad artist. 

Day 65: The Cages

Calen happened to challenge me to a match in the batting cages. 

"I bet I can hit more than you because I have bigger GUNS."

Then he proceeds to roll his sleeves up and show me his muscles. 

Actually, we had planned on going to the cages anyways. My neighbor and I joined a softball league on base and we are years/decades a little rusty. Plus both of our oldest sons play baseball so we took them with us to the cages. Then the challenge ensued. 

For the record, I did hit more than him. At a faster speed than him. 

Come on, good parenting means you don't let them win all the time. 

But he does have bigger "guns" than me. I'm sore, he's not. 

Day 64: Everything Is Better With Ninjas

We try to do a story every night with the boys before bed. The kids both like reading (Calen moreso than Cam), but we definitely have to be creative when it comes to finding reading material to keep early elementary aged boys engaged. 

Especially when it comes to the classics. Because let's face it, they're kind of played out. 

Unless you're this author named Corey Schwartz, who must either live in a house full of a dozen little boys, or is a college drummer in a hair band in his basement, or something equally cool. He has reinvented some of the classics with you know, ninjas. And friendly violence. 

What little boy wouldn't read that?

We have two of his books, The Three Ninja Pigs, and tonight's feature story: Ninja Red Riding Hood. 

Because everything is better with ninjas. 

I love reading these books. They make me laugh. It's the old story everyone knows except everyone is a ninja and there's wonderful scenes of ninja violence that rhymes and everything. And the illustrations are delightfully funny. 

I bet your childhood copy of Little Red Riding Hood didn't have illustrated rhyming battle scenes. 

Rumor has it there's another book we don't own called Goldi-Rocks and the Three Bears, and a new book coming out next month: Hansel and Gretel: NINJA chicks. 

This guy needs to win a Caldecott award for engaging little boys in reading. 

Battle scenes!

Day 63: The All Star

If Calen's coach gave out game balls, Calen would have gotten it today. 

The kid is not necessarily a natural athlete, but he's decent, for his division (8-under). 

But on this team, which is pretty much the Bad News Bears of Rohnert Park, Calen really stands out. Because he actually knows what he's doing. 

Tonight, he was playing 2nd base and took a quick grounder and threw it hard to the first baseman. It was an easy out, except the 1st baseman wasn't even aware the ball was in play, so the runner was safe. But the next play Calen got an even sharper grounder and took it upon himself to run to 2nd base and force out the runner. 

Outs in this division are still few and far between (except strikeouts). So it was a big deal that Calen got one (almost two) in a row. 

He also went 3-3 off the pitching machine with 3 singles, a run scored and 2 RBI's. 

Great job slugger. 

His 3rd single! Note the ball in play

Day 62: Shopping For Sushi (That's Actually Zucchini)

Camden came home from school with a note asking to buy some zucchini for his class, since they are making vegetable soup on Wednesday. 

Cute. 

So after school we went to the grocery store and I let him carry the basket and walk around and we found zucchini. 

Barely five year olds walking around Safeway with shopping baskets is tragically adorable. I mean handsome. Imagine the rage if Cam found out I called him "adorable". 

Since we were there at lunch time I picked up some (not very delicious) sushi at the deli. At home I ate half of it and put it in the fridge. Later, Calen opened the fridge and said "Sushi? Why do we have sushi?" and Camden goes "Yeah! Zoo-shee! It's for my school we're making soup!"

I guess he thought "zucchini" was pronounced "sushi". 

He's not bringing my sushi to school to make soup. 

On the hunt for zucchini (and not sushi)