Snips and Snails and Puppydog Tails

Living in a house with 5 boys can really get to a girl. So I was THRILLED when Sara invited me to come along on some girl time with our friend Melissa, Sara, and Lily for Lily’s first pedicure last Saturday. We went to a place not far from the house that has special Hello Kitty chairs for their younger clients, and fantastic massage chairs for their bigger clients.

Is she not the most adorable thing EVER? Also, check out all those pretty toes!

After getting our feet prettified, we all went to lunch and had a wonderfully girly time, free from conversations about sports, bodily functions, and boogers. It was an ideal start to this boymom’s weekend!

We now officially have a third ballplayer in the house. Tonight was Sam’s first T-ball practice. Before practice, Daddy took Sam to Dick’s for a bat. They came home with a bat, bat bag, cleats, baseball pants, chest protector shirt, balls, and a new glove. After a quick change of clothes, off we went to practice. Sam had a blast and even asked for some extra batting practice after everyone else had gone. I think we’re in for a great fall season!

Ready for practice!

Batting practice

More batting practice

Putting his bat away to move to fielding practice

Fielding

Coach showing the “hustle bucket” and the show of hands of those who hustled at practice.

Some extra batting practice with Daddy

As you might have seen on Facebook, we got together with the Daneman clan to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa Daneman’s 69th wedding anniversary. That’s right. SIXTY. NINE. Years. Together. That’s something pretty amazing to celebrate, don’t you think?

Four generations of Danemania were together. Wonderful food was prepared and eaten:

photo credit: Theresa Daneman

Cars were played with:

photo credit: Scott Daneman

Stories were told:

And memories were made:

As you may remember, Sam’s third birthday party was a Mickey Mouse marching band theme party, and Aunt Lynne Cookie sent an awesomely appropriate present – a marching band uniform. It has been a HUGE hit. I never knew that a marching band costume was so versatile.

It’s been:

1. A baseball uniform (of course) – complete with “bat bag backpack” like Bear had.

Front view

Back view

2. An admiral’s uniform

Standing in front of the Captain’s cabin, of course. (On the Elissa in Galveston during Camp Grandma and Grandpa)

Steering the Elissa.

3. Royal garb

King Sam (or, as he told me in this picture, “King Kane!”)

4. Fireman’s uniform

Driving the fire truck.

And, of course,

5. A marching band uniform

Ready to march after taking cousin Christopher to band camp.

Other uses (not pictured) – soldier uniform and football uniform.

Aunt Lynne Cookie, you didn’t know you’d purchased such a versatile gift, did you?

I think it’s universally acknowledged that having children teaches you volumes more than you expect – about yourself, the world, perspective. I’m also learning that it teaches you about your own parents. Take, for example, this morning’s conversation with Sam:

Sam (gesturing to Daniel): Danny says, “When I’m 4 can I have a World War II Plane?”*

Me: I’m sure if he asks, Grandpa will buy him a WWII plane. **

Sam: Yeah, because Grandpa’s a PLANE man.

See? Learn something new every day.

*At Camp Grandma and Grandpa last week, Sam got to see several World War II planes at the plane museum in Galveston and came home with a B-17 Bomber, a Blue Angels plane, and a Thunderbird. The B-17 is the current favorite.

**There is no question about this. It’s very, very rare that Grandpa doesn’t buy something that’s asked for. And, one could argue that a WWII plane is educational because its purchase involves a history lesson. 🙂

We’ve been very lucky to have several friends offer us gently used baby gear for Daniel – the kinds of things that babies outgrow long before they wear it out. It’s been fantastic.

I’ve been taking things out little by little to keep things interesting, and, in some cases, as he’s grown into their use. Today we broke out the jungle themed playmat. It was quite a hit!

As I mentioned in my last post, in April we sold our house and moved into a new one. We’re still in the same development, just a different section of the neighborhood. With another kiddo joining the family and both Bryan and I working primarily from home, we needed a little more space.

We found a perfect house on a cul-de-sac, right by the greenbelt. We can see the pond and playground from the front yard, there’s a media room and private office for Bryan, and the master closet is my dream… no, really, it makes three complete turns. THREE. COMPLETE. TURNS.

We’re still settling into the inside – remember that whole bed rest/new baby part of our lives? – but I thought some pictures of our lives outside the new house might make y’all smile.

Our pond – and yes there are fish and turtles and snakes (eek!) in it.

Sadie enjoys surveying her new kingdom.

Sam riding his bike in the cul-de-sac.

And, because videos are more fun than stills… enjoy. 🙂

1. Have Mommy begin to work from home under high stress and work insane amounts of overtime.

2. Pack up, sell, and move out of the only home he’s ever known.

3. Move into Granny’s house for 3-4 weeks (again, THANK YOU GRANNY!)

4. Move into new home over pre-schooler’s birthday weekend

5. Put Mommy on bed rest for three weeks.

6. Bring home a new baby and make the pre-schooler the big brother.

So, that’s what’s been going on in our world. What’s happening in yours?

Today’s TBT brought to you (from March) by a sadly-always-behind-Mommy.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY back in March, Caleb was invited to a Very Rangers Birthday Party. As in, it was AT Rangers Ballpark. ON. The. Field. Can you even IMAGINE how excited this child was? (Heck, can you even IMAGINE how cool this non-sporty-Momma thought it was?) Due to some (lucky for me) scheduling conflicts, I got to take Caleb to this party, and C  (and the birthday boy’s parents) were nice enough to let Sam tag along, too. It was just about the coolest thing ever, and the pictures show it better than I can describe it.

First they played inside on a giant playscape that had cool rope bridges and a FAST slide.

I love the center picture here, where Bear is helping Sam across for the first time. #brotherlylove

Of course there was pizza (not pictured) and a giant cookie cake (pictured, quickly before it was inhaled)

YUM

Then they went down ONTO THE FIELD. (Yes, you read that right.)
There was some playing in the outfield, including a wiffle ball game.

Sam playing in the outfield and warning track.

There was a running the bases relay.

Check out that GRIN! (And yes, his group won the relay.)

Even Sam got in on the base running action.

They checked out the Rangers’ dugout.

Just chillin’ in the dugout. No big thing.

They pretended to play catcher.

They had a fantastic time!

In case you haven’t heard, the DFW metroplex (and other areas of North Texas) have been pretty much encased in ice since Thursday night. School was cancelled Friday, and for the first time in probably a decade, our office actually closed. We couldn’t even work remotely, because power to the building downtown was inconsistent at best. (It’s hard to remotely connect to your computer at work when said computer keeps shutting down because  the building loses power). As pretty as it looks, it’s not so much snow as it is sleet and ice. We’ve got sleet drifts that piled up almost two feet. The kids are having fun, though. I, myself, am staying warm inside. I’ve done some sewing, some Christmas decorating, and been generally enjoying some down time. Here’s some fun for you to vicariously enjoy with us (and, bonus, you get to stay warm and dry, too!)

“Momma, why won’t it kick?”

A little view of how high the drift was by the front door (post-Bryan-clearing the walk)

Bryan starts work digging out the back door

This is why we couldn’t open our back door for a full day.

What Bryan found after digging out the back door – the bottom-most layer of ice.

Sam “helping” Daddy get to work on the back yard. The big boys came out later to really help.

It wasn’t just all work, of course… we’ve had some fun, too. 🙂

And the fun is continuing outside as I write this post. So far I’m mostly hearing squeals of delight, sometimes punctuated by a wail from the nap-needing toddler. Off I go to be mean mommy and make him come inside for said nap…