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.