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Team of the Night Memories

20 Jun

Chopper and the Orioles

They played a fun season of tee-ball as the Orioles and got to celebrate it all while creating lasting memories as the Team of the Night at the Gwinnett Braves.

Moments I will cherish include:

  • How Nate was excited to get some players’ autographs without having any idea really what the word autograph means.
  • How he told me an hour before the event that he was going to hold his hat on his heart for the “prayer.” (National Anthem)
  • How Nate held his hat on his heart and stood so still and silent during the National Anthem.
  • How he trotted in pace with the First Baseman, Mauro Gomez, as they took the field while both of their names were announced to the stadium.
  • How he looked so tiny compared to the 6’2″ player while standing at First Base.
  • How he didn’t look scared while standing a field away from me next to that 6’2″ player he didn’t know except from “He’s number 30! He hits home runs!”
  • How he loved sitting and watching the game with is teammates and then couldn’t sit still because a mock game of their own started.
  • How he picked the green eyeball that hasn’t won all season and it WON.
  • How he got to pose for a picture with Chopper – something he’s been wanting to do for some time now.

I wonder what he’ll remember most from all of it. Every bit of it made him beam. Even the score. G-Braves won, 8-2.

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Dear Super 8,

12 Jun

One Arm Paparazzi

You made me laugh, you made me cry, you made me gasp, stop eating my nachos, point at the screen and whisper to my mom who was sitting next to me in the theater. But it wasn’t all just due to the writing, performing and action. It was because of the city you named Lillian, Ohio. The city where I grew up.

I wrote about my excitement for your creation before but now that I’ve seen it all completed on the big screen – you made me remember and appreciate so many parts of my history – places I don’t get to see anymore. Where I used to play softball, where I used to take walks, where I used to sit and wait for friends, where I would drive by on any given day, where family is laid to rest, and where I lived and still call “home.”

Our house gets a few minutes of your time. It doesn’t do much – just exists in the background – but it’s there. Holding its own in your summer blockbuster. My second story bedroom window hovers above the scene. A window I would’ve been peeking out to watch it all happen. I used to sit and look out over Weirton Heights, watching the cars drive by on Pennsylvania Avenue while the smell from the metal screen filled my senses. Now, that window is a super star.

Hearing the stories from my mom/neighbors/friends, it was quite a spectacle to see your production in our town. (Pictures that my mom took are in the slideshow below.) It was a town that used to thrive around the steel mill and have an energy about it that I’m sure I romanticize now but you made me feel it again. You ignited a renewed spirit around the city – with your movie magic and interest in a place that so many don’t even know about. (Although we were a Jeopardy question once.)

Thank you for your attention and for thinking that Weirton, West Virginia had something special to offer in your Hollywood cinematic masterpiece. Also, thank you for allowing me to leave the theater and excitedly (and obnoxiously) tell a stranger, “That was my hometown! Our house was in the movie!” I think you would agree, it’s a worthy brag.

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Dancing Bean 2011

10 Jun

Bean, having a blast during her dance recital dress rehearsal. Good luck on the big night!

Second year for ballet:

Second year for tap:

First year for jazz:

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What’s this say? And this?

7 Jun

We’ve been treating Nate like he’s doing incredible tricks each time he reads something that surprises us. He’ll read the tv’s channel guide, amazing us with the reaction of, “Nate! How did you know that, buddy?! What’s this one say?” He won’t always know the others we are asking about but he will try to figure out the words, learning them in the process.

He even started to read a book he was just browsing through at a store recently. He opened it and read the first sentence, “I want to go.” Our reaction, of course, “Nate! That’s so great buddy!”

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Nia is proud of his reading too. She is always updating us when Nate reads something we may miss. While we were at a baseball game, she kept praising him for reading things off the scoreboard monitor. She’s been so excited about his reading that she even made him flashcards. She brought them to me and said, “He can make sentences with them!”

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It’s really fitting that she is such a big cheerleader of his reading. After all, she used to read to him.

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Board Gamers

21 May

Wanna play checkers? How ’bout Apples to Apples? Monopoly? Life? Any trivia game? No?

That’s ok, when I was little, I would play them by myself because I loved them so much and wanted to play all the time. Now though, it seems I have produced spawns who love them as much as I do. There wasn’t even any DNA altering to ensure we would create a board game lovers. They just want to play (a lot) and as long as I’m around them, they will never have to be the only player for a multi-player game.

Even if they beat me like Nia did – over and over again – during a recent Connect Four challenge. Good games, Bean. Until we meet again…

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Batting Cage

8 May

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Out But Not Down

15 Apr

I know Nate’s attitude about getting out during his turn to bat  won’t always be this way (in fact, I’m somewhat surprised of this reaction), but I will always cherish it.

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“Perfect 8th Birthday (fun)”

10 Apr

That is just one of the many wishes Nia has added to her birthday list. No pressure, right? What I find even more innocently sweet is that it is not even the first thing on her list. It’s sandwiched between “dresses (gouns)” (I love that she sounded it out and spelled it to rhyme with nouns. Yes, wrong but still – it’s a young brain thinking!) and “a sock monkey mini (with a little hat).” (I’m going to have to google that one.)

Little growing up Bean, I hope your party is perfect to you. Even if you don’t get everything on this wishful list that I’ll always cherish.

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Have Injury, Will Play

9 Apr

"I look like me again! Only three days and my face came back!" Nate, this morning.

Nate didn’t let his boo-boo face get in the way of this second ball game of the season. Just to capture a few memories:

  • He slid out at first but got a RBI on that. (Of course, I thought he was safe – or at least should have been given some “safe” points for the slide effort. I’m only half serious.)
  • He had to hit off the tee for his second at bat because Coach Daddy was pitching pretty wild in the 3rd inning. (Andrew was really beating himself up for that – two kiddos even got hit by his pitches. No one wants that pitching job, that’s for sure! Too much pressure!) Nate got to come home from that hit though – after a sweet slide into Second Base and then running around to home on the next few hits of his cutie teammates.
  • After a few missed catches at First, he caught two throws to him in the last inning and made those outs. (Sadly, I missed them because I was doing what mommy’s like to do sometimes – talk!)
  • He would look each runner on First up and down – kind of sizing the kid up. Pretty funny but then it also caused the other base runners to advance because he didn’t throw it to the pitcher quick enough for time to be called. Next practice topic.
  • He was chewing his gum all tough like a pro-player and when it fell out on the field and he took his glove off to figure out what to do with it, I actually shouted, “Put it back in your mouth!” I still don’t believe that came from my mouth. Thankfully, he really objected to that and Andrew was behind him to make it disappear.

Next game is Thursday!

In-field pop up on First Base Line

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Fan of Her Little Brother

Daddy and Son

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A Bat, A CAT and A Nate Face

8 Apr

It hurts him. It makes it hard for him to breathe. It is swollen. It is NOT broken.

It happened at the batting cages last night. Nate and his team were practicing and (from what I understand) Nate was gathering the pitches and the batter brought the bat back to swing. That’s when Nate’s little nose took the blow.

Tears poured. TLC and ice flooded in. And he still wanted to take his turn batting.

After batting (with some great hits despite his injury), we realized we needed to do more than ice and hug. We couldn’t take the chance of a broken nose but we also couldn’t take the reality of a broken nose. They may have to re-break it or he may have to see a plastic surgeon. Those thoughts scared us for our little man. His tiny 5-year-old nose.

Thankfully, the CT Scan (which Nate said he was very still for) showed no breaks, just soft tissue damage that will swell worse and turn purple before it gets better. Nate first noticed that as he was brushing his teeth. He looked wide, teary eyed at himself in the mirror and reacted in heartbreak, “My face! My face looks funny! Kids are going to laugh.” I consoled him and told him that he did not look funny. That he was still Nate. That he looked tough, like a boxer. It would get better soon. I asked him what if mommy or Nia had it, would he say we looked funny? He said, “No, but you wouldn’t look this bad!”

Hugs and kisses, little man. For your sweet worries and your boo-boo.

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Right After It Happened

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One Hour and a Gatorade Moustache Later...

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Morning After

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Taking It All In

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Owie

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Right after this picture: "I play the Yankees tomorrow!"

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