The Middle

I haven't written anything in a long time. Almost a year to the day in fact, but I find myself wanting to write a lot lately. I haven't wrtten much in the past few years mostly because I was always too busy. We're still busy, but I have a little more time since I quit my full-time job and went to part-time. Another reason I didn't write, was I just didn't have anything to write. A lot of the time I felt like I didn't have anything to say. My kids were no longer babies and we were coasting along in a familar routine everyday. Sure, once in a while something would happen or the kids would say something funny worthy of a blog post, but I just never got around to posting it.

Lately, however, the urge to write has been strong. I see so many changes in our family and I need to chronicle it like I once did when they were babies and toddlers and changes seemed to happen on a daily basis.

One of our family's favorite shows is "The Middle". It's one of the few shows we watch together. There is always something that I laugh out loud at in every episode. Usually, it's some off hand comment by one of the parents. At which point the kids look at me strangely. That show is so good at capturing what it is like to be at this stage in parenting. Our kids are no longer babies, but they aren't grown yet either. We are in the middle.

Midget Football

I’m a little sad today. Football season is over. I know the NFL season goes until February and my Broncos are having a great year, but it’s not the same anymore. I have seen my son play tackle football and I’ve never enjoyed football so much. And I love football.

This was our first year in the midget football league. At first I was really worried. Two hour practices four times a week? That’s crazy! Putting players into positions and learning plays? Maybe, but doesn’t that seem too advanced? This is tackle football! What if he gets hurt? Fred was loving it all. I was just the woman who just didn’t understand. 

If I was a little worried about the hard practices, I was impressed by the coaches. After the first practice we had a parents meeting. Actually, it was after the second practice because the first one got cut short because of a storm. Looking back that was an ominous beginning to our season. At the parent’s meeting the coaches stressed the team as a family philosophy. They would look out for each other and play as a team. The coaches also stressed that the 6^th graders would get most of the playing time. The 5^th graders had to be patient. Their time would come. The 5^th graders were also charged with cleaning up the gear after every practice. I loved that. 

Then games started. We lost the first two. This was going to be a long season. Then we won the third. And the fourth. And the team kept winning. The team was playing better and they were doing it as a team. The leadership and family values that were being instilled in these kids was showing. The boys worked really hard and deserved every win, but I had a theory on why they won that first game: all their socks matched. The other team had kids without socks and kids with socks of all different colors. Our coach preaches unity and has high standards. We are all one and therefore we will all look like a team with the same colored socks. And everyone will have their shirts tucked in. And no sitting on the sidelines. You stand. It’s all these little things that really made me respect our coaching staff. And I never ever heard Torii complain about being overworked or that a coach was too hard on the team. The coaches had high expectations and the kids worked hard to meet them.

The season started with a storm, but the last game, mid-October, people were in short and t-shirts. Maybe it was fitting. The weather was beautiful and so was the last game. Our kids played in one of the three championship games in the league. It was a back and forth game with each defense unable to stop the offense. The other team scored late for the lead. We didn’t have much time left, but as time expired we scored a touchdown. An extra point would tie and a two point conversion would win. We got the two point conversion. The crowd was going nuts. I never expected the season to end like that. Especially after the way it started.

We had the team banquet the other night and I was really excited to go. It was only a couple of days after the championship game, but I wanted to see the team again. The season had gone by way too fast.

After the banquet I was sad it was all over.  I wanted more games. I wanted to get to know the parents better. I wanted Torii to hang out with his team a bit longer. Torii will return next year as a 6^th grader and I look forward to him being one of the leaders of the team. I will miss the kids that have moved on to the middle school teams. Some players Torii will be reunited with again at the middle and high school levels and some he’ll play against. It will be fun watching these kids as they become better at their sport. And it will be fun to chat with their parents again and talk about that one year in midget football when they won the championship game on the last play.

Appreciation

Last weekend I was at a conference where I heard a lot of great speakers. I laughed. I cried. I was inspired. One speaker told of how she and her daughter share three things that they appreciate about each other from that day. I decided to try this with my kids, but they would only have to share one thing, more if they would like. Knowing I was going to do this, I watched my kids closely all day and found it was easy to find things to appreciate about them. I didn’t know what kind of reaction I was going to get from the kids, especially with no warning for them. Cordelia immediately told me she appreciated supper that evening. Rion was also quick to say he appreciated all the meals I made and the food I buy for them. This was going pretty good I thought. Then I got to Torii. He laughed and wiggled. He really didn’t want to tell his brother and sister what he appreciated about them every night. I explained it was only between him and I. He didn’t have to say anything about his brother and sister. He still wiggled and finally came up with something to share.

The next night Cordelia was ready before I even asked. Rion had something to share as well, but also added that a lot of people don’t get to do things like this. He is such a smart and sensitive kid and I love it when he shares things like that with me. I think he really likes the idea of ending the day on a positive note. Torii was still Torii, but he did share something even though he may still think the idea is goofy.

I don’t feel like I’m very good at telling the people who are closest to me what I love about them and that’s why I wanted to start this new bedtime tradition. I want my kids to know how special they are. And while I may feel under appreciated at times, the responses I’ve gotten so far make me realize that I’m not.

When you get married, one piece of advice that you always hear is, “don’t go to bed angry”. But I’ve never applied that to my kids before. It’s so easy to get frustrated when you’re pulling a kicking and screaming child to bed or to still be upset about something that happened earlier. Adding this simple step to bedtime has eliminated that. How can you be mad at each other when you’re telling each other what you appreciate about them? When I see my child smile because I tell them about something that I noticed from the day, everything else just melts away.

Movie nights

Rion has always been a cool kid, but as he gets older, the cooler he is becoming. He is moving further away from "kid stuff" and discovering more "grown up" things. The other day I was watching The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Rion sat down next to me and started watching it too. It was close to his bedtime so he didn't get to watch it all, but a few days later we watched the rest of it together. He really liked it. I was so happy. Finally, my kids are starting to watch non-animated movies! I started thinking about other movies that I thought he would like, but would also be appropriate. I thought of a few, but then I was stumped. Then my newest issue of Family Fun came in the mail. As fate would have it, there is a whole article devoted to movies. They are broken down into categories such as, "if you like Star Wars, check out Hitchhikers Guide and Galaxy Quest." Galaxy Quest! Great recommendation. Maybe that will be our next movie night movie! There are 20 different categories, with a handful of movies I've never seen either. And some really great classics (i.e. Harvey) that I had forgotten about. 

Speaking of forgotten movies. Last night Splash was on HBO. Again Rion watched part of it with us before going to bed so we recorded it so we can watch it later. Fred and I watched all of it because I hadn't seen it in so long and I was in the mood for a good comedy. Splash is one of those movies that is really different when you see it again as an adult. There were a bunch of jokes that I'm sure flew over my head as a child. I also loved the part where Daryl Hannah's character decides she wants to be named Madison. Tom Hanks says, she can't be named Madison, that's not a name. Oh how times change. Every other girl is named Madison these days.

I hope my kids all like movies as much as I do. I hope they enjoy the classic movies I share with them and hopefully we'll discover some new classics together as well.

Snowed in

This weekend we got our first big snow of the year. We knew it was coming and when it was over we had eight inches on the ground. I, however, did not do any shopping in preparation for this storm. Partly due to lack of time, partly due to laziness, but mostly because I'm from ND. I'm prepared even without having to get prepared. I knew we had everything we could possibly need at home including enough food to last a week if need be. There were times over the weekend that the kids were at each other's throats, but for the most part it was a very good weekend. It was the kind of weekend that made me feel like a good mom. It might be weird, but I feel like a good mom when I want to cook something and I have everything on hand to make it. I had been planning on making some kuchen so I had bought everything for it, but since we were stuck inside as the snow fell I decided to continue baking. I had some nice ripe bananas on the counter so I whipped up some Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Then wanting a big breakfast the next morning I put together some Overnight French Toast for the morning. I planned on making a carrot cake as well, but I ran out of time. Still I felt good knowing I had everything on hand to make that too. I'll probably make the cake tomorrow.

This weekend Torii and I also played some board games. We hadn't played Rummikub in a long time and it was fun playing with him. We also got outside and played some today. We had some good drifts in the driveway, but we got it pretty well cleared out. We ended our time outside in a snow fight, which Cordelia informed me I lost. I was pretty snowy when it was all said and done so she was probably right.

I even got a little cleaning done. Our house is still a mess, let's not crazy here. I said a little cleaning done. Well, there's still tomorrow.

Arm surgery for Torii

When Torii was much younger Fred noticed that there was a curve in Torii's left arm. We mentioned it at his next doctor's appointment, but decided that we would let it be for awhile and see how he grew. We knew we would eventually have to go to Minneapolis and talk to a specialist. As luck would have it, this past summer I learned that Shriner's Hospital would be seeing children locally to see if they qualified for treatment. Torii qualified and after an appointment in July we were back in October for surgery.

 

The "before" picture. See how his left arm has a curve to it? 

Torii picked yellow and black stripes on his cast for the Steelers. 

Of course we had to do a little spoiling the day before surgery. Here's Fred and Torii on a roller coaster at Mall of America.

 

Torii picked the Rainforest Cafe for dinner the night before. 

Shriner's Hospital is located in a nice quiet area of Minneapolis. It's sort of tucked in a hillside next to the Mississippi River. There was a nature trail that we explored our last full day there. It was a beautiful fall day to be outside.

There was also lots of things for kids to do to stay busy. We played some air hockey, pool, watched movies and played a lot of Angry Birds on the iPad.

 

 

I can't say enough about Shriner's Hospital. They had an excellent staff and took great care of us while we there. We were also able to stay in the parent's center that is attached to the hospital. They are definitely going to be a charity of choice for our family.

5 years

I started this blog back on Aug. 27th, 2007, just a couple of months before we got to meet our little girl. I can't believe she is already five years old! In some ways it seems like yesterday. Of course, some days it seems like a lifetime ago. Once in awhile I'll get a bit nostalgic and read old posts. There are a lot of things I have already forgotten about. Four years ago at this time we were in Minneapolis with Cordelia for her surgery. I forgot we almost didn't get home in time to vote in the last presidential election. There's also stories about people that are no longer with us and a lot of happy and funny stories too. I've been lax on the blog lately, but I am thankful I've had the blog to record some of our family's adventures together. For family and friends reading along, I hope you've enjoyed reading about our adventures too.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Where did the summer go?

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Check mate

For some reason I have never learned to play chess and Torii has always wanted to learn. A few weeks ago we found a pretty good chess board for him and Fred taught him the game. At the time we were pretty busy with our usual life plus getting ready for vacation so I didn’t play any games with Torii. Meanwhile, Torii like everything he does, kept practicing, playing with anyone who would play with him. He even brought it with on vacation and the boys played it first thing almost every morning. After we got home and life got settled again, Torii finally taught me to play. I’m really terrible, but I can see the appeal of chess. Torii is really good at capitalizing at my mistakes. I even try to think ahead a move or so, but so far that has always backfired. The thing is, I’m pretty sure he’s plotting a few moves ahead as well. And he sees things that I don’t pick up on. But I will beat him one of these days. I told him to watch out because the more we play, the better I’ll get. Of course, he’ll get better too. Yup, my plans just got foiled again.

Raising Twins (fans)

Torii has always been his own person. He doesn’t like to follow the lead of others and no matter how much we try to brainwash  persuade him, he will still like the opposite. He drinks Pepsi because I drink Diet Coke. He likes sports teams that neither Fred nor I like. He likes the Vikings because Fred and I both hate them. For the most part I am fine with that. Except that he can also be a real pill about things. I’ve tried to explain to him that although the Steelers are not my favorite team, I still root for them because he likes them. He won’t do the same for the Broncos and trash talks them repeatedly. The worst was in baseball. Thankfully he hasn’t started to rooting for the Yankees, but he would root against the Twins at every opportunity. We went to a Twins/Tigers game and he cheered for the Tigers. How dare he. After all, he’s named after a Twin. Last month Torii and I went to one game together and he actually cheered for the Twins. A couple of weeks later the whole family went to a game and Torii again cheered for the Twins. I suppose I was taken in by the Twins by going to games too. I was telling Torii the other day that when I first got interested in baseball I liked the Twins and Oakland A’s. After a few years, the Twins were my only team. I’m sure going to games every summer helped cement my Twins fandom. Now I’m hoping the same will be true with my kids. It’s also a lot of fun to see my kids watch games on TV and remember things about the stadium and recognize players. I think I may have some Twins fans yet.

This brings me to another related issue. It seems the boys are being brainwashed in school about certain colleges. Actually, each class has a designated college that they learn about and in some cases they have gotten to tour the school. Last year Rion got to visit U of Mary and is now talking about how he’s going to go to school there. First of all, I’m not paying for that school. Second of all, he doesn’t realize that by that time in his life he is going to want to get out of this city and quite possibly this state. I will gladly send the kids to any college they want, (expect some overpriced private college like U of Mary), but I would be overjoyed if they decided to attend NDSU. I keep highlighting NDSU’s many features such as their engineering dept. or just the fact that it’s in Fargo.  Torii could really care less about the academic side, so I think it’s about time to start getting the family to some NDSU football games too. Fargo on game day is so much fun and I want Torii to experience that. I want him to get excited about NDSU football and possibly decide to attend college there.

Is this brainwashing? Maybe. But I would love to be able to bond with the kids over a Twins game or send them off to NDSU. Still, I will be happy with whatever they choose as long as it makes them happy.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Gymnastics

The kids have been in gymnastics off and on for the last three years. We’ve tried to be in it as much as we could, but sometimes it just didn’t work out with other activities. Lately, our gymnastics academy has become very competitive. And I’m not taking about the kids. I talked to another mom at church who also has a daughter in gymnastics. She said she had shown up the first day of registration to find the line stretched outside the office. I told her it was getting really full when I signed up on the second day, but I was able to get the kids in a class. During the next session registration, I couldn’t get to gymnastics to sign them up the first day. The kids had their class during the second day of registration so I wasn’t worried about not getting them into a class. Wow, was I wrong. I couldn’t even get Torii into a class. I’ve never had a problem getting him in. Cordelia’s classes fill up fast, but Torii’s I wasn’t worried about at all. The kids were really disappointed so we decided to check out the gymnastics across the river. So far we really like this gymnastics. The classes are smaller and they have more than one coach for each class. Torii’s previous class consisted of six boys and one coach. I felt bad for the kid trying to keep those boys on task. It would be tough for anyone. Torii’s current class has two other boys and two coaches. Not only do these coaches seem more enthusiastic about coaching, but having two coaches allows them more one-on-one time with the boys. Torii has been able to practice his skills more in each class and gets more advice from his coaches on how to improve. Cordelia’s class is the same size as before, but again with more than one coach to keep an eye on them all. While the facility may not offer all that the previous one did, the kids are really enjoying this gymnastics. I really like it too. I can actually watch most of their practice. (The previous place had an obstructed view). And the gymnastics is in an old building downtown so I continually marvel at some of the building’s features and construction. The only thing I don’t like is that they don’t have a time that Torii and Cordelia could be in gymnastics at the same time. It’s not that big of a deal to drive over there twice a week, but I could see it becoming too much. There are currently times that we are only home one day a week. While we hated leaving the other gymnastics, I think it was time for a change and this one seems to be working out.