Some baseball pictures

There is not much to report on the baseball front. Some days Tyce does great and others he doesn't seem too interested. He's getting pretty good at hitting "live" pitching and occasionally comes to life on defense and chases down every ball on the field. Then there was the time we almost had to carry him to first base because he just didn't feel like going there after his hit. But, isn't he a dashing figure in his uniform!

Here is Lane paying no attention to Tyce's game. She gets it from her mother.

Here is the little guy after a particularly gruelling game.

Not for the faint-stomached!

If you've ever watched a toddler eat, this won't phase you, but if you haven't be prepared for messiness. This is Delaney "airplaning" her own bites into her mouth, with some commentary by Tyce.

The mystery of teenagers.

Tyce's preschool takes place at a high-school technical skills center since his class is actually also a class for high-schoolers interested in pursuing careers in education. The upshot of this is that there are teenagers all over the place when we are dropping off/picking up Tyce. The young ladies that work in Tyce's classroom are all perky, pony-tailed, teachers-to-be who wear matching preschool shirts everyday and perpetuate the myth that the world revolves around Tyce and his classmates. Some of the other students though, demonstrate the spectrum of teenage behavior/attire. Today a boy was following us into the building dressed in his welding or car-repair jumpsuit. Tyce glanced behind us, then proceeded to turn around and walk backward while shouting, "That is a LITTLE MAN!" I'll admit that his appearance had to be baffling to Tyce; he was a good two feet shorter than me, but with a full beard, manish attire and a backpack. He just didn't fit into the categories that Tyce organizes people into based on his experiences.

Tyce is also puzzled by a painting on one of the students' cars: Heath Ledger in his "Joker" makeup from the Batman movie. On both sides of the car. I try to avoid it every day because it even creeps me out, but some days I accidentally lead the kids right by it, so that there is a crazed, evil clown looking them right in the face. And every time Tyce asks, "why would someone paint that on their car?" Of course, I think he may actually be more concerned that someone was painting on a car when they shouldn't be, rather than upset by the subject matter.

So today, after apologizing to the "little man" that Tyce may have offended, hugging Tyce goodbye and carefully mapping my route back to the car to avoid the creepy car of doom, we were followed through the parking lot by yet another teenage boy. Delaney was peering over my shoulder and said, "that guy angry!" I turned around and looked. Typical sullen teenage expression. "No Laney, I don't think that he's angry, he's just not smiling at you" (like the gregarious little lady has become so accustomed to everyone she encounters doing). She responds: "He needs to make a 'happy face'" and she proceeds to demonstrate. No effect on the sullen teenager. Ah, I'm so glad to be through those years myself and really hope that my kids' own teenage years are, in spite of being awkward, happy.

Omission, oops!

I just realized that I was totally remiss in giving credit to one of the biggest factors in the drastic improvement of my stay-at-home mom career: my sister moving into town! Happy birthday sis! Tanager happily volunteers to take the kids to run errands and for any fun activity that she can think of. I can now plan appointments during the day and know that it may not be quite as hard to find a babysitter because she is often available. And the kids caller her "Mom, errr... Tanager," and adore her like crazy.

Now this is the life!

When I first envisioned the whole "becoming a mother" thing I, like I imagine most people do, had pretty idyllic visions: a cuddly baby gazing adoringly at me, children in perfect clothing begging me to run through the grass with them, our family gathered around the dinner table eating huge garden salads together, that sort of thing. Instead, I was surprised to find myself with demanding little infants who had their own ideas about how this whole "childhood" thing was going to go, indescribable sleep deprivation, sibling violence, and kids who couldn't sit at the table without falling out of their stools, much less come near a bowl of salad. Oh well, now that the busy blur of those days is behind me, I can look back and exhale a huge sigh of relief that they're done. Nope, no nostalgia here. While I do have a lot of fond memories, I was just not one of those people who felt that my childrens' infanthood was pure bliss.

But these days, Delaney's toddlerhood and Tyce's preschool-ness, these are the, to quote my dad, "fun-filled action-packed" days that I'd always envisioned. I can't wait to hear my kids' voices at the perfectly sane hour of 7 each morning, usually chatting away to each other from their beds: "Hey Lane, do you think it's morning time?" "Mmmfff, mnnnin timmm, Tysh" (Laney still has her pacifier in first thing in the morning). They come wandering out of their room together and do a head-count to make sure the entire family and both cats are accounted for. Days when Daddy has already left for work prompt Tyce to lament, "But I missed my hug and kiss!" until he is appeased with promises of extra hugs and kisses at bedtime. I can actually safely ask my kids what they want for breakfast. How many moms can do this and have their children respond: "French toast with pear honey, blueberries, yogurt, and warm milk!" And then they sit at the table and chat with me while I make it. OK, there are usually a few demands mixed in, but it is usually a pretty pleasant morning.

And there are so many things that we can do during the day now! Tyce would be perfectly happy spending all-day every-day on the floor driving around cars or creating an elaborate system of tractors and trailers hooked together with bungee cords, but Delaney prefers to get out of the house. Her favorite activities involve animals (well, maybe those are my favorites!) so we visit all the farm and pet stores in the area and hold various vermin, feed the ducks at the duck pond, and we recently discovered that we can go walk dogs along a nice river-front path at the animal shelter. Hopefully they are learning some charitable spirit as well as tempering their desire for a dog when we walk these poor misfits (last week Tyce noticed that the little chihuahua that we were walking had "a hump with blue stitches in it on his back"). The kids beg to go hiking at Badger Mountain or the local "hiking trail" and they drag sticks around for miles. Tyce spends a few mornings a week at preschool where he is learning all sorts of useful things that I can't seem to teach him at home, like how to put on his own coat and cover his cough. And don't even get me started on playgrounds. Let's just say that for two kids who love playgrounds as much as mine do, the Tri-cities is a paradise of options. Any day of the week you can give us a "playground call" and we'll show up.

But there are those days when we just stay at home too. And here is the thing that makes me immensely happy: my kids love each other and actually like playing together! Their two somewhat different personalities form this usually perfect dynamic duo that take turns, wrestle with just the right amount of roughness, and manage to come up with games that somehow require every toy in the house be carried into the living room. If I could ask for one thing as a parent, it would be that my kids grow up being best friends and grow up to be best friends. I can do without hugs for myself when they are so busy hugging each other.

We also have a nice list of great friends that we have play dates with, at homes or parks (or fast-food restaurants, I'll just admit it). These are going increasingly better the older the kids get. They run around as a pack on some unfathomable-to-adults mission, again, usually requiring that toys or rocks are transported from one location to another. It is finally to the point where we don't have to watch the kids every second for eye-pokes or toy-snatching. The adults can actually eat dinner together and get up a minimal number of times to perform kid-regulation duties. It's amazing, I tell ya!

And did I mention that the kids can sleep away from home now? They ask to stay in a hotel on an almost daily basis (they got a little spoiled during our Christmas non-Hawaii trip where we stayed in a hotel for days). We've managed to take them camping, visiting friends and relatives overnight, and on road trips. All of the sudden, it seems, we can make actual plans again and not have to worry about stopping every couple of hours for a two-hour breastfeeding, diaper changing, leg-stretching, and adult-feeding delay. The Pacific Northwest is our oyster!

Becoming a stay-at-home mom was not at all what I envisioned. It was really difficult to keep the kids entertained all day during the first years. I was always tired and short-tempered and the house was a mess. Although the house is still a mess, things seem so easy now. Granted, this may be because we just had Todd home 24-hours a day for a week during spring break, which also included an adults-only trip to Vegas. But these kids are actually really, really fun to hang out with all day. Every day ends with a song and dance show from the kids and as many hugs and kisses as they can stay awake for. I love my life. It seems as though we've got Tyce and Laney started in the right direction and now we've just got to "stay the course." Tyce has attended preschool and baseball practice with non-parent-chosen peers and survived without any major emotional damage or lingering bad habits. I think the good-stuff is here to stay.