Wordless Wednesday

Soccer Mom

Soccer season came and went without much mention on the blog. But the boys truly enjoyed it this year. Charlie had enjoyed it last year. Truth be told, he wasn't as good this year as last year (or, more precisely, this time there were other kids on the team better than him). But he still had a really great time. And his celebrations for scoring a goal rival Brandi Chastain's. Joseph was more lukewarm about soccer last year -- he always professed to enjoy it, but he just never looked like he was having that great a time. But this year, he definitely loved it. He was often in the middle of things trying to get a foot on the ball. He also loved to fall down a lot, both inadvertently and intentionally. Both boys showed a lot of hustle. They even played a doubleheader (due to a cancelled game during Hurricane Ike), and both played both entire games. That's a lot of running up and down the field, folks. They were exhausted, but they never quit. We were proud of them!

Special thanks, once again, to "Coach Keith.," He is amazing with all the kids and manages to actually teach them a little about soccer too. The boys idolize Coach Keith.

Mom and Dad enjoyed soccer again too. We always knew Cort -- as sports-fixated as he is -- would be into his sons' games. (I will say, though, that he is very good about realizing they are just 4 and not pushing them or going overboard.) I can't help but get really excited at the games, too, though. I probably yell more than Cort. And that may be why soccer never made the blog. I kept trying to take pictures of the boys in action, but I could never concentrate on the pictures for the game and kept getting shots like this:

Makes my Monday

I'm starting another blog "feature" that I stole from other blogs I read (yes, I spend too much time reading blogs now). This one is called "Makes my Monday" and is basically just something that I love that really makes my day. For this first one, I'm going to address something that has "made my day" recently with regard to each member of my family.

I love that Joseph got sooo into decorating for Christmas. And Joseph isn't the sort that will get excited about something just because you tell him that he should be. No, he was truly excited.

I love that Helen has recently started screeching "Da-da! Da-da!" at the top of her lungs, and when Cort responds she just smiles at him as if to say "Just making sure you are paying appropriate attention to me, dad."

I love how much Charlie exasperates me in the same way that his father does - he wants sports on all the time, doesn't pay any attention to anyone or anything else when sports are on, and despite saying "I'm coming, I'm coming," he stands rooted in front of the TV to watch "just one more" play.

I love that every time I vacuum, Will gets out Charlie and Joseph's old play vacuum and vacuums with me. He even moves all the chairs in order to vacuum underneath the table.

I love how even though Cort is generally a more go-with-the-flow type of guy, he almost always not only acquiesces, but fully participates, in my many elaborate plans to try to make our family run smoother and our kids be more well-behaved. Oh, and that he put up all our Christmas lights.

Deck the Halls!

We had a great holiday weekend. As soon as the turkey was eaten, we started looking forward to Christmas. Friday morning began the decorating, and it was so much fun! I've always had an idealized fantasy of Christmas decorating as a family, but up until now our kids have been so young that Christmas decorating was more a what-can-we-piece-together-during-their-nap type of event. But this year, it was a family event.

Will and Helen weren't huge contributors, but they had a really good time hanging out with us while decked the halls. And since they were in good moods, we chalked that up to Christmas cheer.

Charlie was a little more into basketball than Christmas, but he helped some.

But it was Joseph who really made the event. He LOVED putting up and decorating the tree.

We got some great shots that look like Will and Helen are helping decorate the tree.








In reality, they were taking the ornaments OFF the tree. So the tree is now gated.




Hope everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit as much as we are!

That was the first time that nobody cried!

Last night the six of us went to dinner at one of our favorite neighborhood Mexican restaurants. We had an absolutely wonderful dinner. Everyone behaved, ate well, and was generally cheerful. Maybe it had something to do with the naps yesterday -- Will's was 3 1/2 hours, and Helen's was 4 1/2 hours. But whatever it was, it was lovely. Really, we couldn't have had a better time.

As we were in the car leaving, Joseph exclaimed from his back seat, "That was the first time that nobody cried!" Was he right? We go out to eat a lot. Does someone cry or whine or throw a fit every single time we go? At the least, it has apparently been so long that we can't remember the last meal that no one cried. If eating out is so miserable, why do we keep going? Is it because we are determined not to be those people that won't go anywhere because we have small children, or is it because I don't like to cook, or is it because we don't really have time to cook?

All I know is that I hope this trend of cry/whine/fit-free dining out continues.

P.S. We had lunch today at Luby's. Helen had one fit and I had to take her outside. But she rebounded well upon our return, and everyone once again had a pretty nice meal.

Happy Thanksgiving 2008!

The Maddux family is stuffed and (mostly) napping.  We had a great Thanksgiving dinner.  We continued the Maddux family tradition of Thanksgiving at home, wearing our pajamas all day!  It is the only day of the year that we get to lounge around all day.  And we still have three more days of "holiday" before work and school resumes!  We are thankful for that, for our wonderful dinner, our many friends, and most of all for our family.

The family in their Thanksgiving PJs (three of four kids looking at the camera isn't bad)

Wordless Wednesday

We'll never take him to Disneyworld

Joseph has always been scared of certain things. When he was younger and would watch Dora and Diego on Noggin, there was a short commercial for some show where human hands had eyes and mouths drawn on them and talked. Whenever it came one, he ran screaming from the room. For a long time he wouldn't go in a room with a TV by himself. He is still afraid of the little "ding" sound that our friends' house alarm makes when a door is opened, and we have to ask them to turn it off every time we go over there. He is afraid of the nutcracker soldiers that abound at Christmas time, which is unfortunate because there is one that decorates the entrance to his school. And the Nutcracker commercials have started up again -- when one comes on he hides his eyes and asks us to tell him when it is over. He didn't like witches at Halloween, and when grocery shopping in October asked that I go really, really fast past the Halloween aisle. Last year he was afraid of the 4-year-old class at his school during the mardis gras parade, because they had made and were wearing animal masks. He didn't run the bases at the Astros game when given the opportunity, because the run-the-base promotion was sponsored by Chik-Fil-A and they had life-size cow mascots out on the field. We have realized for awhile that we are unlikely to take him to Disneyworld anytime soon. None of our kids (so far) are into Disney princesses, superheroes, or any other Disney characters. But no doubt such a trip would send Joe over the edge with all those life-size characters.

As he grows he is actually fairly calm about his fears. He covers his eyes, looks away, or moves, declaring that he "doesn't like" the offending character. But this latest one takes the cake. He has been wanting us to close their closet door at bedtime lately. And several times he asked me to come with him into the closet when he was picking out his clothes or shoes. Then he asked me if the "people" were in there. So I investigated, and this is what he has been afraid of:

These are little clips that are used to fasten a crib tent to a pack n play. They were in use for awhile, but we took the crib tent down and the clips have been sitting on a shelf in their closet. They are about an inch and a half long. And Joe is afraid of them.

Hats off to "Special Days"

Since I took a less-demanding job several months ago, I have tried to take one day off each week to spend with just one of the kids while the others go to school as usual.  When possible, Cort stays home in the morning while I take the rest of the kids to school, so he gets a bit of one-on-one time as well.  Or we often have lunch with Daddy.  We call these "special days."  The kids seem to love them when it is their day.  Not so much when it is one of their siblings' days.

Today was Will's special day.  In between eating, running errands, and getting ready for the "Family Feast" at the kids' school, we played with hats.  A good time was had by all.

Hats off to special days!

Way Back When-esday

I love this picture mostly because of the smug look on Joseph's face. Gransan took the picture. The boys were about 7 or 8 months old, and Joseph had just swiped that toy from Charlie. They were funny back then, because Charlie was much bigger, but anytime his brother took something from him, he just sat there and cried and never tried to get it back. Now that I look at the picture four years later, I also love it because I can see Will and Helen in it. In general, Will looks more like Joe and Helen looks more like Charlie. But that look on Charlie's face as he is crying is all Will, and the smug look on Joe's face definitely reminds me of Helen.