Talking with my kids

Here are a couple conversations I never want to forget.....

Me:  We should give Papa John some of the pictures we took today.
Max: Yeah, but not all of them I want to keep some.
Me:  We'll make some copies of the pictures for him.
Max: Okay....but have Uncle Jake make the copies.
Me: Huh?
Max:  Yeah, I heard he's a good copier guy.  :)

(My brother-in-law; Jacob, is a salesman that specializes in copier sales)


Charlie put Kaysie to bed the other night and after he checked on her one last time, convinced she was almost asleep, he came to bed.  A few hours passed and at about 11:30 I heard footsteps on the stairs.  I figured it was Max creeping up to tell me he had a bad dream and I told him to go back to bed.  He didn't say anything and I didn't hear anything else, so I assumed he went back to bed.  A little while later I heard more steps on the stairs.  I got up to see what he was doing and as I rounded the corner I was surprised at who was standing outside my doorway....it was Kaysie.  She looked up at me and said, "Max sleeping, shh."  That little turkey had snuck down the stairs and tried to get Max up. 


Max:  Can I have an apple?
Me:  We don't have any apples, do you want a plum?
Max:  What's a plum?
Me:  Well, it's kind of like an apple, but softer.
Max:  Soft, you say?
"Soft, you say????  Who talks like that?  My son is an 80 year old man trapped in a 5-year-old body!

T-ball

Max's first year of T-ball was one we most likely won't ever forget.  It started off with a lot of prodding, Max hasn't ever watched baseball so he was really uneasy about playing.  If it doesn't have anything to do with super heroes or golf, he really isn't that interested.  

Once he was signed up and had a mitt, he was excited...but after he finished up the first practice I thought we'd never see him on the ball field again!  Max has played golf since he could stand up, so his ability to hit a ball is pretty amazing.  It was during this first practice that the coach was giving the kids time to hit and attempt ;) catching.  When Max got up to hit, he smoked it off the tee.  The kids in the outfield were up too close when he hit and the ball came down and hit one of his friends in the leg.  She was hurt and started to cry and Max felt so bad that he started to cry.  I didn't think a lot about it again until we headed to the field for practice number two.  As we got ready to go Max really didn't want to go, he started to get a little anxious.  When we pulled up to the field he was in full on tears and eventually threw up because he was so upset.  We worked through this problem...we had a lot of building confidence work to do.  While trying to get Max back on the field my brother suggested that we have him watch a few baseball movies.  That did the trick!  He was back in the game, with all the "movie moves!"  During one particular game Max walked out of the dugout, rubbed his cleats in the dirt and walked up to the batters box and hit his shoes with the bat. :)

Max had a hard time staying in his own area in the field, so his coach was always following him and putting him back where he needed to be. If we couldn't find Max, we'd just look for his coach and there was Max. During one game in particular we were watching this little dance between Max and his coach when we saw his coach kneeling next to him, talking to him and pointing.  After the game we asked Max what it was they were talking about.  He said, my coach told me "Max. Stay. Right. Here."

Here are a few classic quotes from my son during his games....glad his head was always in the game!

To his coach, during the game:  See my Papa?  That's my papa, right there (pointing).  We're going to the movie Thor after this.  He's taking me to the movie Thor as soon as we're done.

To his coach, during the game:  I'd rather be golfing.

I am so glad Max had great coaches, I know Max gave them a run for their money!  I appreciate the time they spent with these little guys, I know it wasn't easy!

June's already gone?!

The month of June came and went like a blur.  Max finished up his first season of T-ball, Kaysie turned 2, Charlie went to Washington D.C. to watch the US Open, and lucky me - I got my gallbladder taken out.  Before I get to the important posts about T-ball and the US Open trip I really want to tell you how my husband went from Dad to Super Dad.

The week Charlie was gone was the week my gallbladder decided it didn't like me anymore.  My amazing Mom came to the rescue! She took me to the doctors and then took us to her house to recover.  I am weak sauce when it comes to pain meds, so my Mom and sister; Lauren, completely took care of my kiddos for the rest of the week.  I can't thank them enough....my kids didn't want to leave!  To tell you how weak sauce I am with meds....Charlie called to check on me- at this point he didn't even know that I had gone to the doctor- and within a few minutes of our conversation he said, "Honey, where are the kids?"  He knew within a few seconds that I was out of it!  I am so grateful for my incredible family!  What would I have done with my poor kids??!!!

Okay here is the Super Dad part.....
I went in for surgery the next Wednesday and my amazing husband took a few days off of work to take care of me and our kids.  My husband has always been a great dad, but my jaw dropped this week when he was playing Mom and Dad.  Once again I was hopped up on pain meds and wasn't even functional until Sunday, so Charlie was on his own!  (My incredible parents and siblings were always there to help out) While Charlie was in charge my kids did some amazing things with their dad.  One thing that I will always remember was watching our kids Slip-n-Slide.  They aren't great at it on their own, so Charlie pulled them down the slide and then back up, over and over again.  It wasn't just the amazingly fun things that Charlie did with the kids that impressed me so much, it was the ordinary things-the things I don't think I have ever seen him do before that really got me. 

From the time Charlie woke up in the morning to the time he went to bed at night, he was with the kids.  He fed them, dressed them, played with them, fed them again, put them down for naps, played again, fed them again, played some more, bathed them, and finally put them to bed.  All while doing this he kept the house clean too! I was shocked when he continually loaded and unloaded the dishwasher! (I didn't know he knew how that worked;) After a few days of nonstop "mom work" Charlie noticed that after he had gotten the kids down for their naps he'd fall asleep wherever he happened to stop.  He jokingly asked me if I was drugging him...I have always told him that the life of a mom is exhausting.  We have always had the argument over whose job is actually harder, mine or his....I think he is finally seeing it from my side. 

I am so grateful to my husband for taking such great care of our kiddos...I'm not going to lie, I was seriously nervous to leave it all in his hands for so many days. (I have seen the state of our kids after he babysits for an hour ;)  When Charlie went back to work on Tuesday our kids were completely devastated.  Kaysie wanted her Daddy and continued to ask when he'd be home all day.  She still doesn't want me to put her to bed, she wants Daddy.

A couple funny notes from this experience.  Kaysie asked me at least a thousand times a day, "see ouwie, please? See ouwie?" Then I'd show her and she'd say, "Ouch, hurt. Yeah? Hurt, Yeah?" 
One morning I was feeling a little better and I was rinsing off Max's breakfast bowl and he says, "Mom, you are the best dishwasher, ever!"  Max was always trying to make me feel better...I love my kids!

Not only was my husband great, but we had some amazing friends and family help out too.  We got some delicious meals brought to our home that were eaten quickly and completely appreciated.  Thank you!