Ian's T-Ball

Ian has decided to try T-ball. He always really enjoyed hitting the ball off a tee in our backyard, so we thought, why not give it a try.

The majority of the 4 year olds on the team have very short attention spans at 6 pm - when we have practice.

At first, everyone wanted to run towards the ball when it was hit. When I say everyone, I mean, even the hitter himself :) Sometimes there's is fighting over who gets the ball. And on occasion, one boy will wrestle the ball away from their team member.

But, they are getting better. The concepts are slowly seeping into their little brains. And when they are not distracted by flowers, clouds, bees.... or whatever, then most of the boys follow what's going on.

The coach hasn't decided if Ian is a right or left-handed batter. He throws with his left hand and usually grips the bat right-handed. But, he can hit both ways.

In the last game, Ian started off batting left-handed. He had pretty good form, lifting his front leg, but he didn't hit the ball after a couple of attempts, so the coach moved him over to bat right-handed. When Ian finally made contact with the ball, he did so by lifting his back leg and then swinging. (Poor guy, this switch hitting thing is tough for a 4 year old. - there's a lot of coordination involved in hitting a ball!)

The kids are so cute in their uniforms. I thought Ian would have trouble sitting still in the dugout during games or paying attention when he's playing defense, but he's proved me wrong.






Payton on the other hand, is pretty bored at games. She would rather play around where they are storing some soccer goals.

(Disclaimer: I did not have a hand in picking out this outfit. It was ALL Payton's idea.)

Crazy weather

Tuesday night the kids and I spent 45 minutes in our downstairs little guest bathroom. Not by choice mind you, but out of safety. Ian was almost asleep and Payton was in bed when we heard the tornado sirens go off. We knew that we were under a tornado watch and I was on alert, especially with Joplin's tragedy fresh in my mind. The kids hurriedly scrambled downstairs - Ian worrying the whole time. Payton was a little more calm a about it. I grabbed some blankets and pillows for comfort and safety and closed the door on our little 4x5 ft shelter.

Can I just say, thank God for distractions. The kids were super wound up (and so was I). They settled down into watching a show in the iPad while I scanned weather.com on the computer.

We were lucky. We had 2 tornado warnings, but no tornadoes near us. After the warnings had expired, I tucked the kids in bed but had to stay with them till they fell asleep.

Then round 2 started. We had a weird alarm sound through our neighborhood like it was traveling through the streets on a vehicle. Then it said, 'severe thunderstorm warning'. Another line of thunderstorms, this time with wind up to 70 mph and hail came through. The kids slept through it thankfully, but it was a pretty loud storm.

This was the fourth time we've used our little guest bathroom for shelter since we moved here less than a year ago.

We've been battered by winds, hailed on, several tornado warnings, 100 hours of below freezing weather, snow and ice. When we moved to Plano, I didn't realize how crazy the weather here can be.

The Art of Teaching

Payton made a little appearance in a Plano ISD video honoring the Art of Teaching. The Skaggs Elementary secretary had warned me to be on the lookout for it. She said that Payton was the only kindergarten student chosen to be interviewed. I don't know how she was chosen, but here she is... (she's around 1:30 if you want to skip to it).

The secretary said that Payton was very cute during the interview. Beforehand Payton had said that she was 'a little nervous' because she had never made a video before :)

I asked Payton about it afterwards and as usual she kind of shrugged it off. But she did admit she was nervous. And she couldn't recall anything she had said.

I don't know....

I picked Payton up from school a couple of weeks ago and noticed something funny about her smile. Loose tooth #2 was gone. Payton had already shrugged out of her backpack and was about to gallop out to the playground when I stopped her, 'Payton! Where's your tooth?'

'I don't know.' She shrugged and took off.

I figured she swallowed it, but thought I might try to pinpoint when she lost it. So I asked her if she remembers having her tooth at lunch. No. At snack? No. I thought I had seen it at breakfast. She had a bagel and cream cheese, so I thought that was when she probably swallowed it. I didn't know what the Tooth Fairy does in these cases. If there is no tooth to put under the pillow, I assume the Tooth Fairy doesn't come. Thankfully, Payton didn't ask about it, so I just let the situation go.

Well, then the next night, I thought she was already asleep, when I hear her yell, 'Mommy! Come up here!' After she yells a couple of times (it was late and I told her to just go to sleep!) I finally give in and go to her room.

She's sitting in her bed holding something in her hand. 'I found my tooth!' she says. Where was it? In her bed!?!?! I said, 'I guess now the Tooth Fairy can come visit you.'

How do you loose your tooth while sleeping?

Ian's point of view

On the last day of our vacation, we drove down to Coronado Island and walked around Hotel del Coronado. We ate on their scenic deck and Payton was taking a while to finish her food (like she does). To entertain our wonderful little four year old boy, who has difficulty sitting still.....we gave him the camera to 'play' with. Here are some pics from his point of view:

Payton lost her first tooth!

When Payton came out of school today, I noticed her wearing a necklace in the shape of a tooth that I had never seen before. I had to stop her (because she wanted to go bounding off to the playground) to ask what it was.....She lost her first tooth!

Mind you, this tooth has been loose for a month now, and was starting to turn gray. I asked how it happened.

She said she was in LA (language arts) and she was just tapping on it. And it fell between her lower lip and her gums. She extracted it and held it up. Evidently her friend Susan said aloud for the whole class to hear, including Mrs. Chiang, that Payton had lost her tooth. Payton got to go to the nurse and Nurse Pat put it in this handy little tooth necklace - taped shut - so that the precious cargo wouldn't fall out.

Payton seemed amazed that it didn't hurt at all and it didn't bleed.

You can already see the next tooth poking through the gums.

We had a little debate as to where to put the tooth so the Tooth Fairy would find it. She didn't want to sleep on top of it because she thought it might be uncomfortable. So she laid her tooth on top of a separate pillow next to her.

Legoland - Day 3

The day started off at a new beach. This one had a youth surfing contest going on right next to a playground.

I think this is the first playground the kids have been on right next to the ocean. There was also a long pier that we walked down to kill time.

At Legoland, this was Aquarium day for us. The Aquarium wasn't huge, but nicely laid out. 

We hit some of the remaining rides, we hadn't had a chance to get to yet.

The kids went on a ride where they got to drive a car all by themselves. Each child got their Official Legoland Driver's License.

Safari Ride.

Then we finished up Miniland. Can you guess which cities these are?

We all enjoyed Legoland. I was even surprised at how cool everything was. Ian was sad to leave, and even almost cried as we were about to get in the car to go to the airport.