A Whole lot of Oridinary

So these days there is nothing really special keeping us busy, yet we are really busy these days. Its a fun time of year when plans are coming together for vacations and activities for the summer. For us its going to be a mixture of swim lessons and Sundog. We might add a few Parks and Rec classes in there for fun if they offer anything good this year.

Its also a weird time of year for the weather in SoCal. The season can't seem to make up its mind. We'll have a couple of 85 degree days and then it will be a blistery 60 here in SoCal. When it was 85 a couple weekends ago we made the most of it and had some fun in the sprinklers.

Also Carl and the boys have this game where they throw the ball at the swing. I don't get it, but have tried it and its pretty fun. So we aren't abusing our kids, they seriously love this ball game.

Last week I was watching one of Erik's preschool friends while his mom went to a class. I love 4 year old playdates because they are independent and want to play by themselves at this age. Mostly Erik and his friend played swords, but there were a few other games in there. It was nice to have someone around who could match Erik's energy and interest at the same level.

Putting all three on the swing, I thought it was brilliant. It didn't go very high, but they had a lot of fun with it.

Here they were swinging their arms in the air fighting bad guys. I loved watching the magic of their imagination.

(note: sorry about the out of focus pictures. I am pretty sure my camera is about to have some major problems since it is focusing poorly and incorrectly these days. I plan on upgrading so I haven't fixed the problem yet.)

Elliot's look at me, and take a picture of me, moment that day. He is really getting into me taking pictures of him, just like Erik was at 3 years old.

The other interesting thing is our lives is that Erik has made some major development in his fine motor skills recently. My boy who never sits down to do art or draw is obsessed with it. Seriously while writing this blog he colored an entire Spiderman picture. This is not usual for him and a new trend. On this day he was drawing self portraits and pictures of octopuses. He was also writing his name over and over again. He is really into drawing now and I encourage it at every moment because sitting down and doing projects like this will be so important for kindergarten next year.

I was assisting at Elliot's mommy & me class and when I do that I like to bring my camera. Here are a few I caught of him that day. He is also way more into art than his brother was at this age. He did two paintings and later that morning gave one to Erik saying he made it for him. Totally sweet and very much like Elliot. He is a very sharing and giving child. Notice when he is painting there is a car involved...

The next day I was taking pictures at Erik's mommy & me class because we do a photobook every year and for some reason we were short on pictures this year. I had a lot of kids to photograph that day and barely got any of Erik, but here are a few that caught my attention.

He can cut with scissors really well now. Not the most perfect circle, but it resembled it.

Erik driving Erik on the bike. I thought it was appropriate.

Today when Elliot got home from a birthday party/ playdate he put on a costume. This is not typical for him and I highly encouraged it. He went all out in his Buzz play and gave me his best Buzz Lightyear pose.

 

Excuse the mess but in their attempt to put together a costume they emptied the entire contents of both costume ottomans.

So nothing special, but some major developmental milestones I am proud of over here. Its fun to watch your children grow and on their way to becoming the people you thought they would be.

4 Year Old Baseball

You're thinking, but hey they shouldn't start until kindergarten or until they turn 5. Then you might start thinking we push our kids too young and make them play sport too young. Or you might be thinking that's cool, why didn't I think of it. Well my response is relax, it all about fun.

Seriously there are about 50 4 year olds at this place at one time and its organized chaos. There is not much  you can do with 50, 4 year olds in 45 minutes except introduce them to the sport. So mostly they are learning about baseball right now.

When they first arrived they got divided in two groups of 25 kids. Here is Erik waiting for his turn.

Then they get their first throw, Erik choose to throw underhand for some reason.

Then when we all walked over to our clinic spot, the kids got to run the base for the first time and the coach taught them some of basic concepts of baseball. Most of the kids actually listened and asked questions. Erik even raised his hand, but was never called on.

Then the kids were divided into smaller groups to work on skills. Parent participation was highly recommended at this part because they needed parents to help throw the ball. The goal was to catch and throw, skills that we need to work on still.

 

 

He was wearing his hat really low on his head, not sure but didn't correct him because he just kept putting it back on that way.

I thought Erik wasn't doing well with the "arm stretch throw" technique, but of course when I look at these pictures I realize he was practicing it perfect. In these pictures they were aiming for a target. Of course Erik LOVED it.

Poor Elliot was insanely jealous the entire time and was getting mad at the attention. I should have realized a almost three year old is like that now. I forget he is pretty much a preschooler at this point. He begged me to take a picture and this is for my poor baby who couldn't play baseball and really wanted too.

Erik sat down while the coach was talking, Carl demanded I take this picture. I was going too anyway, pretty cute.

The next clinic was grounders with the alligators arms. Erik was really good at squatting and getting in front of the ball for grounders, but we need to work on alligator arms. No surprise on the form, his mommy is a natural infielder and he does take after me.

It was really important to Carl this day to have the interaction with Erik and play with him. I just wanted to go the first practice to take pictures, but in the future will leave this up to Carl. He was having fun throwing Erik grounders.

 

The last rotation they did was hitting the ball off the tee and Erik did really well here. He can definitely hit he ball off the tee without knocking it over.

The last clinic was the hit the ball and run the bases. Totally a thrill because Erik really just wanted to play a "real" game. Instead of just practicing skills.

The bane of any photographers existence, this kid got right in front of my shot. Doesn't he know there is a mom shooting back here.

 

The sign of a good day is that Erik still hasn't taken off his baseball cap and wanted to play again as soon as he got home. We're definitely on our way to becoming a baseball family.

Just the details

A couple days ago Carl and I were talking and he was complaining of how little I have been updating my pictures and telling stories on my blog. I guess I have been so caught up in making Elliot's book that I just haven't been taking a moment to remember the details of life. I have been shooting all week long and there are so many moments I have captured in my heart, but have failed to share these thoughts. So here are a few of my favorites from this week.

Carl was laying down on the couch with the boys, nothing out of the normal for us, when he said, "Heather take a picture of this." I was a little confused because it doesn't seem that interesting to me. He meant iPhone, but this is what he got. So this first image is dedicated to nightly routines and my dear husband.

Last week we were stuck at home. Poor Erik had a terrible asthma attack Monday night and it was the very first time we thought it was just scary enough that we should take him into the emergency room. We definitely didn't overreact and the ER doctors were just as concerned as Carl and I were. Four hours later and we found out that on top of his asthma attack Erik had a mild case of pneumonia. I kept him home all week but by Thursday the boys were itching to leave the house and go somewhere. I didn't want Erik to exert himself too much so we compromised on storytime at the library. While we were there Erik begged me to get him a chapter book. I thought why not. So we went up to the librarian and asked for a recommendation and she pulled out "Stupid Smelly School Bus" which was unfortunate since we struggle with the word stupid in our house.

Erik couldn't have felt more like a big boy with his big boy book. Interesting enough he always grew board about 3 chapters in and we never really finished the story except one time. He was more interested in pretending to read. He would say, "Elliot let me read to you" and then sit there saying nothing and moving his fingers over the letters in the appropriate way you should read. I returned the book this week and he was sad and begged me for a scary chapter book as a replacement. We'll see.

This image is rather self explanatory. Why bother bringing the car garage to the ground. Its way more fun to play climbing on a table. I asked and he said no.

This week we got two large shipments in and while we were killing time playing around in the morning I decided to make each of the boys forts out of boxes. They each got their own. It ended up "breaking" Elliot and Erik did something to terrorize him/upset him and my awesome idea was a complete flop. They are still around and Elliot still loves hanging out in his cave. It reminds me of when I took the "Raising Boys" workshop and she told us that boys need to hibernate in their caves. 

This week we were at a friend's house and they had a bike without training wheels. Erik tried it and fell, but I happened to catch him the moment before he fell. At least he tried, but I think training wheels are going to stay on for a while for us.

The last thing is the whole reason I could write this blog today. I was at Fry's Electronics and Elliot pointed out Gumby to me while we were in the checkout line. 99% of the time I say no to toys because we have too many and I am trying to stop them from coming in, but this one time I couldn't resist. Its perfect timing because they have been watching a lot of it on youtube. Its fun to watch them be creative with these Gumby characters, but more importantly they have found a way to play nicely together for hours. Worth it just for that.

So there isn't much more than that going on these days. Just the regular everyday stuff, but the details are really the most important since those are what define you.