Bumpkin's Tball

Both of the other girls are in Tball this year. Bumpkin's league is an older league so it is a little longer and started about a month before Troublemaker's. I'm not sure Bumpkin will ever be a star softball player or anything but she is enjoying it; mainly because she gets to be on the team with a bunch of neighborhood friends and play in the dirt (which I discourage).

Ohh, and she also loves her team color/name.  They are the Pink Flamingo's!  They are in pink and black, complete with pink tie dye socks.  The mothers also got together and had a bow making party and made cute matching bows for the girls hair.  They love it!  Here is the best picture I have of it.  I can't believe I don't have a better picture.  I will have to update again later with an actual picture of her.  But from this angle you can see the bow.  :)  This day she was watching out the window because our friends across the street were skipping the game (because they were doing something) and we told her she couldn't because her team was counting on her.  We found her like this....

I really like the league.  I don't know anything about Tball but it seems they are learning a lot as they go and have fun.  They are thrown to three time and if they don't hit the ball then the umpire brings the T out.  Bumpkin hadn't hit the ball yet from the pitch but she hit it twice on Tuesday night.  She was sooooo proud of herself.  It was all she could talk about.  What made it even better was it was the game her Grammy and some friends game to watch. 



Click Clack Moo

Bumpkin had another play this past week.  She was in Click Clack Moo with a local community theaters kids program.  She is so artsy.  The play was based on a book.  Bumpkin was Cow #1 and so excited that she started the whole play off.  Nothing more can really be said other than I am so proud of her.  She knew all her lines by heart even though it looks like the teachers are feeding them to her.  I think she was somewhat waiting for permission to say them.....

Bumpkin also had some friends come to the show to see her.  We met up afterwards with them.  She thinks it is so cool.  I thought she might be more nervous having them in the crowd but I guess I should know better by now.  :) 

And finally, Anna.  This little girls has done everything Bumpkin has been in this year.  Not because we planned it but sheer dumb luck.  She must be artsy too.  haha  I meant to get her contact information so we could get together sometime but I forgot.  I'm sure we will run into her again some time though. 

Troublemaker and her gymnastics

Troublemaker,

I knew what sport you would like from the moment you got your wheels.  I don't particularly remember having much trouble when you started crawling but once you started walking it was nonstop.  Daddy was going overseas at the end of Jan 2009 so I thought you would give me a little time to learn how to be a single parent before you started walking.  You, on the otherhand, had different ideas and wanted to show Daddy you could walk before he left because you started walking right around the end of Dec/beginning of Jan.  And once you started you never stopped.  By the time Daddy left you were walking everywhere and I swear you had already figured out how to climb on things.  I don't really remember the first time I called you Troublemaker, but it stuck.  Nowadays you aren't too keen on the nickname; you want me to call you Hunny Bunny because you think Troublemaker means that I think you are a naughty girl.  But really, you are my Troublemaker because I always need to keep an extra eye on you.  You aren't scared of getting hurt/trying something new.  You are the sweetest little girl, and a mama's girl, but you are willing to try just about anything that looks fun.  And that is why you are my Troublemaker. 

Your personality explains your sport of choice.  You love gymnastics.  Bumpkin loves anything revolving around dance and drama but you only care for gymnastics.  Right now your lessons are on friday's and you start wearing your leotards on Wednesdays.  You practice your moves at home all the time and have the best cartwheel I have ever seen from a three year old (ok you turned four since I started writing this post).  Now you have started working on handstands. 

I recently found some lost footage of you at your first gymnastics class in North Carolina.  I thought your daddy was crazy when he signed up a two year old for gymnastics but you took to it like I never would have imagined.  I can't wait to see how much you learn!

And here is another one from when we first moved here. 

Mother's Day 2009

Today is Mother's Day and I am in a rare mood.  I don't want to say a bad mood because nothing bad has happened but I can't go so far as to say it is a good mood either.  I am on edge, waiting for something to happen, annoyed that it is just another day.  Daddy is once again gone.  I'm not sure how it works out but he literally hasn't been home for a Mother's Day since 2008... at least.  Maybe he wasn't home that year either but 2009 is when I started keeping track.  So instead of talking about todays mood why don't I take a trip down memory lane and explain why I believe Mother's Day (atleast for me) is cursed. 

It was Mother's Day 2009 and daddy was overseas.  He had been gone for awhile and was actually due to come back soon.  Instead of torturing myself with taking 2 year old Bumpkin and 13 month old Troublemaker to church by myself (I wish I didn't have to use the words torture and church in the same sentence but this one is unavoidable) I decided to skip church and make my Mother's Day as fun and peaceful as I could.  So we skipped church and went to the park.  We were having a dandy old time playing and had been there quiet a while when we started going down the slide.  Now, here is when I wish I would have seen the Dateline special that was on about two weeks ago about kids breaking their legs while riding down slides on their parents laps.  I'm not sure it would have stopped me but it would have atleast made me consider not letting the girls ride on my lap. 

Instead, I put Bumpkin on my lap, Troublemaker on top of her and headed down the slide.  Then we got to the curve.  Bumpkins leg slide right off and got caught between my leg and the slide.  It happened in a flash and then we were at the bottom of the slide.  I think she maybe let out a yelp when it happened but she really started crying when we got to the bottom of the slide.  I did the customary mother duty of cuddling her and trying to make her feel better but after what I considered to be the normal amount of crying I told her to buck up or we were going home.  Now, I put it so "gently" because even at the young age of 2 I knew Bumpkin was a drama queen through and through.  She sat there for a couple more minutes by herself and continued to whine then after another threat from me about going home she tried to walk.  She made it half a step before collapsing on the ground and screaming in pain.  I was sure it was all drama but didn't want to deal with it at the park so we loaded up and headed home. 

Bumpkin cried the whole walk home and for about two episodes of Dora before I started to take her seriously.  I had already checked her ankle a few times but I was starting to get worried that there was something deeper that I couldn't see.  So I called my parents at church until they finally answered (four or five times?) and they came right away.  Bumpkin was still crying when they got to our house, they didn't see anything that I couldn't see, so dad and I loaded Bumpkin up and went to the E.R. 

After telling my story over and over to nursing, doctors, social workers, etc I finally convinced everyone that the story really happened the way it did.  But as annoying as it was to have to be silently investigated (I knew why so many people were asking me to tell my story but nobody ever said "we are making sure this isn't child abuse) I was more annoyed that they still hadn't found anything wrong with my daughter.  Finally, after what my memory tells me was hours of testing a doctor came in and ordered a second set of X-Ray's of the whole leg.  Originally, the X-Rays were just of her ankle area because that was what bent backwards.  But he said his daughter had had something similar happen when she was a kid and the break had happened much further up the leg.  Thank goodness he did that because he found the break.  Actually, he called it a fracture.  I don't remember the difference anymore, all I knew is we had finally figured out the problem and a course of action was established.   Bumpkin got a removable cast, I got a long list of instructions, and we were finally on our way. 

This whole time I hadn't mentioned that it was actually Mother's Day to my kids.  It seems a little backwards to be like "it is Mother's Day, please tell me how much you love me".  So I'm not quiet sure how Bumpkin put it together but during one of the many times we were sitting in our room waiting for a doctor she turned to me (she was on my lap), took my face in both of her hands, and said "Happy Mother's Day Mommy".  I immediately started crying.  It was so sweet and is still one of my favorite memories.  Somehow, her little 2 year old mind was able to remember that it was Mother's Day, even though we were in the E.R., waiting for her cast to be put on, and she had been crying/wimpering for hours. 

Once she had pain medicine Bumpkin liked what happened next.  She was the center of attention and eating it all up.  The daycare wasn't sure they were able to take care of her properly so for the first week Nana took Bumpkin.  She ate up the one-on-one attention and after a few days learned how to do a modified crawl.  Grandma even made her some special undies that velcro'ed at the side because she had just been potty trained and it was difficult to pull her undies over her cast.  The next week the daycare took her back and after a couple more weeks daddy came home.  We even made sure nobody else signed her cast so daddy could be the first one. 

Thank goodness there is no permanent problems.  She walks fine and happily tells the story like it is a badge of honor.  For awhile she claimed to be "scared" of the slide but that was all just drama.  The daycare told me she figured out how to climb up the stairs while dragging her cast and would go down the slide; so I knew not to believe her.  It seems the biggest residual effect we still have with Mother's Day is my apprehension.  Daddy is still gone; it still doesn't "click" for the kids that they should be nice, not argue, bring me breakfast in bed :), etc; and I am still scared to do anything fun with them for fear that something bad would happen.  Maybe in another four years....

Kinect Rush

I won a party on a website where they give you the theme, some party items/favors, and then you go with the flow and create the rest.  The better you do the more likely you are to win another party so I decided to go for it.  Since it wasn't a birthday party or something big I didn't have to worry about ruining it.  I think it turned out pretty good and the kids keep asking for another party.  Maybe I did to well....

The party was for Kinect Rush, a new video game that hadn't quite come out yet. I think it has come out now.... I'm a little late on the post. It is a Xbox game with CARS, Toy Story, Incredibles, Ratatoille, and Up. I went mostly CARS for my theme but threw in some Toy Story as well.

The idea of the party was to play the video game and introduce people to it.  We did that at first, but it became difficult with more people.  First, the kids all wanted to play.  Second, once I showed them all there were other things to do (like crafts) none of them wanted to play.  :) 

So we all ventured over to the craft table (don't you love it, daddy got it for me!) to make our cars.  We also flowed back and forth between the other activities. 

Aside from making our own cars to race we also had some other activities for the kids to participate in when they wanted to take a break from decorating.

We also had a photo booth to dress up like your favorite Toy Story character.  It was a big hit with the kids. 

Once everyone got their cars done we took them outside to race.  However, we quickly came back in and just ran around the basement because the wind kept blowing off the car parts.  :) 

 

And finally, we went upstairs and had snacks. 

The girls had a great time and our guests seemed to as well.  I hope we get to have another party like this sometime!