Snips and Snails and Puppydog Tails

Watching Bubba's first basketball game of this season.

The lovely people at the Texas Health Resources Momblog have been kind enough to post another of my semi-organized ramblings today. (Thanks, btw!) 🙂

And like I said, before you throw things at me or state (the obvious) that I’m being a whiny-baby and that lots of other parents/families have a harder schedule than us, let me say that I DO realize these things. And I DO realize that the sports and the activities are good for the kids. And I DO ENJOY the games (95% of the time – hey, I never claimed to be perfect). And I DO feel a tremendous amount of guilt when I have the admittedly selfish when-do-I-get-my-weekends-back moments.

I also am 99.9% certain that other moms and dads have felt this way, too. So, what’s the solution? Is there one? Do you just suck it up and deal? Do you limit the extra-curricular activities to one at a time? (Though, if you have more than one kid, even one activity at a time can be busy.) Do you rotate activities? What about when there are conflicts in schedule? Do your obligations or “want-tos” (like the yoga course I’d been looking at) fall away every time so the kiddos can make their activities? Do you team up with another family to help each other out (you take the kids, they pick up; you drive one week, they drive the next, etc)?

It won’t be long, I know, until we’re juggling 3 sets of extra curriculars, so I’d love suggestions to be filing away for that time! 🙂

Using: what else? broken crayons, stacking cups, and one Glad-ware snack size container (preferably AFTER the snacks are eaten out of it).

He’s a genius. Clearly.

Okay, so if you’re my Facebook friend (and if you’re not my Facebook friend, are we really friends?), you might already know this story. As I might have mentioned before, the big boys started basketball season this past weekend. At Jacob’s game, one of the refs had a little fun with the moms. He started having the moms (not that the ref knew this, but all the moms he singled out were Tigers mom) shoot free throws during time outs and between quarters. I was rather thankful they were all sitting on the next set of bleachers. All the moms were being really good-natured about it, and not a single one made the shot, though some were quite close. However, at half-time, the ref decided that the moms would be halftime entertainment…and he was running out of moms on that set of bleachers. You can see where this is going, right?

Clearly not my famous shot, but a great shot of Jacob in action.

Yep, you guessed it. My turn came. Believe it or not, I got up to take the shot. (How could I not? All the other moms had done it, and since everyone was missing the shots anyway, I was just going to join the club.) So, I dribbled out to the free throw line (I have no idea why I felt the need to dribble), bounced the ball a couple times, took my aim, and took my shot. AND. IT. WENT. IN!!!!

No joke – I made the shot. I couldn’t make it again in a million years if I tried (in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not athletically inclined). Caleb looked shocked, Sam was calling for the “bass-eh-ball” and the parents were cheering. And Bryan missed it. He was busy coaching, or something. 🙂 Jacob saw it, though. So my three most important witnesses know it happened.

Is it sad or totally acceptable that making that shot might be my most proud athletic-type moment to date?

My very favorite Giant!

Today started the big boys’ basketball seasons. Caleb kicked us off with the first game of the day at 9 am. His team, the Giants, played his “old” team, the Bulldogs. It was a tough loss, but the Bulldogs are known for blowing out their opponents and the Giants hung tight with them until the 4th quarter, when it sort of turned into a bloodbath. But, that’s not what this post is about. 🙂

On the Bulldogs, there is a child who. is. a. tree. I’m serious, he’s got to be part Redwood tree or something. He is head and shoulders above the Bulldogs’ next tallest player, who is head and shoulders above, well, everyone else on the court. I’ll be honest, all the parents sitting around me were wondering how old this child really is.

After the game, as we were leaving the school, Bryan and the boys were doing their usual game re-cap (translation: I am uncharacteristically quiet as they discuss the technicalities of the game that I don’t understand – yes, even for 2nd grade basketball). Here’s part of the conversation:

B: Caleb, do you know if that really tall kid on the Bulldogs is in 2nd grade? Or how old he is?

C: Yes. He’s in 2nd grade. He’s 8.

B: Wow. He’s really tall. But, if he’s really in 2nd grade and 8 years old, like you, then it’s really important not to say anything, even in joking fun, about how big he is.

C: Why?

B: Well, because he might not think it’s a good thing to be so tall. Sometimes when people are very different from others – visibly different, like really, really tall, or really, really short, or really fat or really skinny, or anything else that makes them visibly different from other people, they aren’t comfortable with it.

C (in his classic matter-of-fact tone): But Everybody’s Different.

Have I mentioned before how smart this kid is? And how much I love him? He is today’s proof that my kids are here to teach me far, far more than I can ever hope to teach them.  I don’t think I could have been more proud of him if he’d just single-handedly won the 2nd grade basketball national championships for the whole wide world (because surely there is such a thing). Happy, happy Momma tonight.

Tonight, Bryan suggested Jacob try to work some on his own on the fundamentals of working with fractions and percentages and finding x as a percentage of y or what the percentage discount is if the original price is y and it sells for x, and I had flashbacks to middle and high school math. They weren’t pretty flashbacks (and surprisingly enough, I did well in math until I hit calculus – calculus was my brick wall – but I had to work a lot harder in math than in other subjects). I remember crying at the kitchen table, begging my dad to just help me with the first step of the problem, that if he could just help me get the problem started, I could figure the rest out, and he would simply ask, “well, what’s the first step?” Rarely (in my memory, anyway) did he lose his temper, but I sure lost my cool a lot. Thankfully, tonight anyway, Jacob’s math lesson wasn’t so traumatic or dramatic.

Just after that, Jacob asked Dad (because of course, to J, Bryan is no longer “Daddy”) to quiz him over his science test review. In listening to this quizzing, I again was reminded of the way my Dad and Mom would quiz me for tests. Bryan didn’t just ask the point-blank questions on the review sheet, because Jacob has that memorized. He asked more indepth questions and shifted the order of things around to make sure Jacob truly understood the concepts and didn’t just have the review sheet memorized. And when he needs to think about an answer, he uses the same stalling techniques – repeating the question, drawing out his words as he thinks of the answer, staring at the ceiling as if the answer might pop out of it – that I remember using. I suppose some things truly are universal.

But, so far, even when he’s had to think about the answer, he’s getting them right. I’d say J’s prepared for tomorrow’s test. And just now, as they came to the end of the review, when Bryan asked if there was anything else he wanted to work on, Jacob actually listed the section he’d had to think the most about during review. (Perhaps that’s just a stall tactic to get to stay up later, but I’m choosing to see it as his dedication to learning about simple machines and force in science class. Let me wear my rose colored glasses tonight, thankyouverymuch).

Listening to Jacob answer reinforces for me  just how smart he really is. He understands this stuff forward and backward and in any order (even if his handwriting is still atrocious). I’m so proud of him, and I’m sure that I don’t tell him enough, especially lately. So, J, in case you google me again and find this entry, you are an outstanding young man – smart, funny, caring, and at least a zillion other wonderful qualities. I love you.

**sorry this post rambled a bit–it started out to be one thing and sort of morphed as I wrote–but, hey, it’s my blog and I’ll ramble if I want to. 🙂 **

First, you have to wash and dry the strawberries.

Next, you have to melt the chocolate.

It is imperative that you have a more-than-willing (and devastatingly handsome) accomplice helper!

And, of course, you have to get sufficiently messy.

This pic does not do justice AT ALL to the amount of chocolate on the boy's hands. But it's what I've got, and he's so handsome I know you'll still enjoy the pic.

Finally, after *lots* of labor, you have beautiful finished product.

Um, the sort of blobbish looking thing in the lower right of the pan is a cookie that we dipped in chocolate after finishing the strawberries.

And lastly, you enjoy the finished product!

(Oh, wait…I don’t have pics of that because I was too busy stuffing my face with chocolate covered strawberries! Sorry, y’all!)

Yes, yes, I know I already did a yay 2012 post. But it was lame. So here’s one that’s (hopefully) better…and has pictures.

I hope 2012 has very little of this:

Lots of time for things like this:

And this:

And this:

I hope 2012 has lots of moments that make me feel like this:

And lots and lots of time for simple joys like this:

And, of course, I hope 2012 holds the same or better for YOU!

Well folks, I hope y’all sent off 2011 in style (and safely!) and rang in 2012 with smiles and laughter, like we did. I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures to post, we were too busy enjoying each other’s company. The five of us went over to Sam’s friend Lily’s house (which happens to also be occupied by our very close friends, Sara and Erin) and had a wonderful dinner of filet mignon, baked potatoes, pasta salad (thanks, Melissa!), black eyed pea dip (mmmmmmm!), chips and guac, and margaritas (root beer for the boys, of course!). At midnight we all toasted the new year and Caleb graciously shared his chocolate covered strawberries with us all.

So, here’s to you, 2012. Let’s have some fun together this year.

Our holidays are always busy and full, and this year, with Hanukkah and Christmas overlapping and my having lots of time off in December, the holidays were also full of travel. After spending several wonderful days in League City with my family, we made the trek back home so we could enjoy the Daneman family Hanukkah celebration at Bubbe and Zayde’s house.

I was a little worried, since last year the Daneman family Hanukkah celebration (at Uncle Mike and Aunt Susan’s house) was when Sam decided it would be fun to come down with his first tummy bug (which he so kindly then shared with Mommy and Daddy). I did NOT want a repeat of that. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. 🙂 And, as you can see from my little collage below, we had a fabulous time with family, friends, and, of course, presents galore!

**Disclaimer** I cannot take credit for these rules (thanks for the email, Dad!), though I will vow to follow them religiously.

1. If you eat a Christmas cookie fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookie is the test and thus calorie free.
2. If you drink a diet soda after eating your second cookie, it also has no calories because the diet soda cancels out the cookie calories.
3. If a friend comes over while you’re making your Christmas cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Because your friend’s first cookie is calorie free, (rule #1), yours is also. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone, and being the friend that you are, that makes your cookie calorie free.
4. Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. This is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.
5. Any calories consumed during the frosting of the Christmas cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue.
6. Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have three and green ones have five – one calorie for each letter. Make more red ones!
7. Cookies eaten while watching “Miracle on 34th Street” have no calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one’s personal fuel.
8. As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking causes calorie leakage.
9. Any cookies consumed from someone else’s plate have no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate. We all know how calories like to CLING!
10. Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed have no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. It’s a rule!

Now, let’s enjoy those Christmas cookies!