Best.Birthday.Gift.Ever.
There were a lot of activities surrounding my birthday that I could blog about: Disney on Ice with Abe and April, the Cheesecake Factory with my girl friends, dinner with family friends, Abe’s last T-ball game/pizza party. But you’ll just have to glean what you can from the pictures, because hands down the greatest thing that happened for my birthday was a brief conversation that I had with Abe my birthday morning, so that’s what I’m going to write about.
In an effort to be more intentional in my parenting, I’ve started reading scripture to the kids at breakfast in the mornings. This is pretty recent and right now we read one chapter from the book of Psalms and a small chunk from the Gospel of Mark. We’ve also recently started a chore chart for Abe and a modified one for April – they are each earning their next Webkinz. All that to say, Abe was unloading the dishwasher while I was reading. I had just finished reading Mark 1:9-12 where John the Baptist baptizes Jesus and I was explaining to April what baptism is. ”When we get baptized we do it to say to the world that we’ve asked Jesus to live in our hearts.” That was when Abe piped in from across the kitchen. Abe: “I’ve asked Jesus to live in my heart.” Me: “You have?” Abe: “Yep.” Me: “When was this?” Abe: “When we were on a walk one time.” Me: “Who were you walking with?” Abe: “You of course!” Me: “Were you walking or riding your bike?” (90% of the time we “walk” I walk and he bikes.) Abe: “We were walking. I wasn’t riding my bike. My siblings were, um,…” And a few more details came out, some he was guessing about, like how long ago this was and where his siblings were.
Rattlers
This past week Abe had his last T-ball game. Goooo RATTLERS! Yes, I too thought it should have been the Wrattlers…that “W” on the hat makes no sense. Oh well. We’re all sad to see it the season end as we had so much fun!! His coaches were great (they actually coached and the kids all learned a ton) and I adored the moms. Although, I must say that it is definitely a challenge trying to wrangle (hey, maybe they should have been the Wranglers?!) Andersen during practices and games, while still watching Abe, making me feel like I was only partially able to really connect with other parents. Good thing he is cute and a bit of a charmer; trying to keep that kid off the field was nearly impossible!! Abe was on this team with Brady, a friend from church; April’s favorite part was hanging out with Parker, Brady’s older sister. She likes her girl-time!
Abe’s favorite position was 1st base, which amuses me since catching isn’t his (or anyone else’s) strong point. I always liked it when he played pitcher because a lot of balls get hit there, and then he could practice fielding and throwing. (Except the last game – I was super glad he didn’t play pitcher then because those kids could HIT!!) You may have noticed from the pictures that he bats left handed; it’s the only thing to date that I know of that he does as a lefty. He was typically a ground-ball hitter, although two of them this past Saturday made it to the outfield. The game rules were modified for their age. They played with a real baseball, but they didn’t play outs, each kid only ran one base at a time, and each kid batted once every inning. It was a good way to focus on the fundamentals and not get caught up with who is winning or losing. I can’t help it; I love watching sports and even more when my kid is playing!!
Stupid Allergies
One look at our sweet April and it’s pretty clear that she has allergies. We’ve delayed a bit in getting her tested, mainly because she is right on the age cusp of getting accurate results. However, we’ve had to do more breathing treatments this winter than we (and our pediatriciation) were comfortable with, so we bit the bullet and did it. They only tested her for 11 things, so this is by no means an all-inclusive list. But, of those 11 things, she is allergic to year-round molds, cedar (the worst one), and dogs. They didn’t test for cats, but I’m just going to assume that’s a yes too.
So, what does this mean now and what does it mean in the future?
DOG: We have no current plans to get rid of Dexter. Our allergist made a good point, “Getting rid of the dog isn’t going to help a whole lot. The minute she steps outside she’s going to get hit with the molds, so she will still be on medication. I just would make sure it doesn’t sleep in her room or on her bed.” True, and he doesn’t. Plus we don’t really know how allergic she is to Dexter specifically. Still makes me feel bad though. After Dexter is gone, it would definitely effect our decision to get another one or would determine the breed if there were some she weren’t allergic too.
