June recap

 Game 2...

 3rd baseman this game.

 It was horribly windy, poor guy came in with dirt in his eyes.

 5th birthday cake.

 It was homemade red velvet cake.  Not a huge hit, just the homemade seven minute frosting, yum yum!

 One of his favorite gifts was a rope.  He wants to be a real cowboy.

 So he's been roping an old vacuum.  "Gotta rope this steer."

 "Ok, I'll put it over."

 "Take it down."

 "Tie them up, done!"

 Game 3...on our 5th birthday...

 2nd baseman and let me tell you, being next to a girl was not a good idea.  It was show off time.  She was equally disgusted and admiring.

 He took time out to smile on 1st base for the photo, and I didn't ask him too!  I wish I could have got the ham-i-ness on video.  Lots of his friends were on the other team so it was social hour the whole game.  He got saluted by one friend and patted on the head by another.

 We rode on his preschool's float in the parade.  It was fun!

 All the kids with the workers before the parade.

 The Monday before this he hurt himself at t-ball practice.  The day after the parade, he decided to scale the stairs wall and vault over the railing, being a superhero.  This reinjuried the injury and he had to take him to get checked out.  Pulled his hip muscle down into the leg.  He had to miss Game 4 and be very careful in what he did.  It was a long week for all.

 We wrapped up in bubblewrap.

 He decided that Mamaw had to make him a cape.

 Game 5...enter the 100 degree heat.

 Was pitcher again.  He does a great job in that position.

 This month we've had 3 barred owls take over the yard every evening.

 They've been fun to watch and listen too, but it's a little worrisome that they will want to eat Hershey.

 Game 6 was this Wed evening.  It was still 100 degrees at 6:30 pm.  We pulled out all the stops.  He wore a neck cooler and a wet wash cloth under his baseball cap.

This game he played 1st base and tried to intimidate the players and had them touch his neckcooler.  Sigh.  This is also the game where he went for a ball following the baseline and crashed into the runner.  They hit hard enough to both fly backwards and fall down.  (Matthew's hat was knocked off.)  Matthew's cheek and eye ran into the runner's helmet.  The helmet won.  Matthew's checkbone was blackened and his eyebrow swelled up and bruised.  But after having his face washed, rewetted gear and a hug he went back out for inning 2. 

Holiday season

It has been a long holiday season. One that ended up overwhelming me. There just wasn't enough time to get stuff done!

It started with hiking, when there was a spare moment.


Matthew played outside in the warm weather.

Dec. 20th we got our first snowfall that stuck. A dusting, but it gave Matthew an excuse to use his Spiderman snow boots.

Christmas Eve day Matthew had a great time hanging out with his Auntie. He got 2 pairs of overalls from her and they have been a huge hit. He wore a pair to Christmas Eve service!

Auntie, Matthew, and I went to Christmas Eve brunch where my Grandmom lives. She has been having a really rough time since the stroke. Probably a combo of the stress of surgery and stroke back to back, cold turkeying off depression meds, dementia, and lots of new meds. As they try to figure out what meds work and are needed, we never know what kind of a day she'll be having. Luckily, she had a good day Christmas Eve.

I realized I never took 1 picture of Phil being home or Christmas. The part of me that craves having photographic memories is very sad, but the part of me that feels I miss out on memories by spending some much time behind the lens, doesn't. We had Phil for 5 blissful days. Matthew and I took him to the airport yesterday morning. I was worn out by Christmas Day, but I rallied. My Mom was sick with the flu Thursday night till Monday. We all got tons of lovely things this year. I still have Christmas packages to send out. My motto this Christmas is, "A day late, dollar short." Sigh. One of Matthew's favorite gifts is this track set. It is out a significant amount of time every day!

Boys

Sooooo, when you have a boy you should really never turn your back on them, because who knows what mischief they will get themselves into.

Example 1: Bandaids.


Like rest of the box of bandaids wrapped around toes and other various parts of the body.

Example 2: Washing Machines

Last night I heard, "come bring your camera." As I enter the room I hear, "wash, wash, wash, wash. Mommy, I'm getting clean!" His own washing machine bathtub.

Example 3: Growing

I hear alot of, "Mommy I have to grow fast so I can drive a car!" Heaven help the mom of a boy!


As a side note, Grandmom made it her ball replacement surgery well yesterday. Thanks for the well wishes.

Thanksgiving break wrap-up

All of us at About a Bug hope you had a truly happy Thanksgiving and counted your many blessings.

Our family, minus Phil who had to stay in TX and plus Angela, met at a local buffet for Thanksgiving lunch. That's my Mom's joy, no cooking and no dishes. I prepared a small feast for the evening meal. Our dessert was building our own turkeys. I know that a cooking magazine put out the official recipe, but I've took it and ran with stuff I could find and had on hand.

I convinced Mom to go on the trail with me and the dogs Friday.

We went again Sunday and it was a little chilly, but so beautiful.


Friday Auntie arrived and gave some new clothes. Here he is posing in some new duds, Saturday, before we went to meet some friends for the day.

On Thanksgiving day Angela and I went on the trail and were blessed to get within 10-15 ft of this lovely doe eating acorns. It was amazing.

Monday, it was hard to get out the door, back in the swing of it. Not long after I arrived at work, we got a call that Grandmom fell and they were x-raying her hip. I took most of the afternoon off to help Mom to an out of town hospital to set up the arrangements for Grandmom's surgery. She did indeed break it and will need the ball replaced.