Happy Easter!

Channeling his inner sports fan

I think anyone who knows our family the slightest bit knows that Charlie and Joseph are HUGE sports fans. That's good for us, because Cort is a big sports fan, and I like going to games as well.

We've been taking Charlie and Joe to sporting events since they were 3, and regularly since they were 4. And they'll watch the game. The WHOLE game. They sometimes refuse to go to the bathroom, and while they are fans of the concession stand, they want us to go get it for them so they don't miss anything. They have no idea that there is a kids' play area in Minute Maid Park. They have been known to cry if we leave before a game is over.

We clearly got spoiled by this behavior. Turns out, most 3 and 4 year olds aren't really that easy to take to sporting events. Who knew?

We've now taken all four kids to a couple of baseball games and a football game. It hasn't been terrible, but it also hasn't been much about watching the game, either. For Will and Helen or, therefore, for us.

We've been hoping that they'd grow into loving sports. Especially since we've got a family baseball stadium tour planned to commence next year.

Then last week, I figured it out. Like his older brothers, Will loves numbers. I actually even remember explaining to Joe at a Texans game when he was 3 that "Football is all about numbers." Once I explained the concept of 10 yards in 4 downs, he was hooked. Even today, Joe is all about the score and the scoreboard.

So, at the Rockets game last weekend, when Will was getting antsy, I pointed out the scoreboard. I told him that if the ball went into the net, the numbers would change. He was entranced. I explained how the numbers under the "R" word showed the score for the Rockets, which was our team, and the numbers under the "H" word showed the score for the Hawks, which was the other team. He watched intently, getting excited with every basket, and going crazy when the Rockets (and the Hawks) reached 100. I also showed him the game clock and told him that when it got to 0:00, the game would be over and the team with the most points would win. Well, the Rockets won, and he was so excited that he is still talking about it.

We've since been to a hockey game and several of Charlie and Joe's baseball games. He likes to watch the scoreboard every time. He now knows that if there is a runner on 3rd and the batter hits the ball, the runner on third will run to home plate and that if the runner is safe a run will score. If there is a runner on second or first, he talks about how the runner has to go to each base and then home to score a run and change the number on the scoreboard.

It's all about figuring out what makes your kid tick. We are cautiously optimistic that we've got another sports fan in the making.

Just another family trip to Costco

Note how many people are looking at us.

Weirdly, I've gotten pretty used to being a spectacle.

Wordless Wednesday

Well, crap

Yesterday I picked Charlie up after school and just as we got to the car, he suddenly started sobbing that he had gotten in trouble in homework class and it was "all your fault!!" He was completely not understandable for awhile, but he finally explained to me between tears that "You and Dad never told me that 'crap' is not an appropriate word for school."

Apparently, he had been helping other kids with their "making words" homework. This is an exercise where they are given a bunch of letters and have to make a certain number of words out of those letters. Charlie, trying to be helpful, had given Jack the word "crap." And then Zane told on him for saying "crap," and Charlie had to "go sit in the chair" (whatever that means).

I told him that I was sorry that had happened, and that I was sorry that I had never told him that "crap" was an inappropriate word, but I just didn't know that he knew the word.

"Of course I know that word," he told me. "Dad says it all the time."

That's what he told his teacher, too.

Busted, Cort. You're busted.

Will helping Daddy count to 100

Will is turning out more and more like his brothers - a numbers whiz. He can now count to 100, and loves to do so. Here he is with Cort, looking at a page of a Sesame Street counting book. He told us he wanted to help Daddy count to 100.

Watch out ESPN

Charlie brought home from school his "warm up" notebook, in which he writes every morning as a warm up for starting the day. This was one of his entries. Tell me this kid shouldn't become a sports announcer.

Monday, March 7, 2011

It was yesterday. It was a baseball game baylor vs. rice. The game was tied eight-eight in the bottom of the tenth. Ware hit a double, Dalporto hit a sac bunt. Ware to third. Then 2 intentional walks came, with one out bases loaded for Muncy. Muncy hit the ball high up in the air it went past the infield all the way Out of the park! OH MY GOSH! A WALK OFF GRAND SLAM! Crazy! unbeliveable! I don't believe it a walk off grand slam. The bears win vs. rice 8-12.

Overscheduled

I used to read about overscheduled children and wonder why the parents did it. Kids need time to be kids! What was everyone in such a hurry about? I realized that we were likely to have a full schedule, with four kids, once they got older.

Is 3 and 7 older?

Because here's what we've got on our plate in our family in the next two weeks.

• Birthday party
• Baseball Opening Day ceremony and pictures
• Charlie and Joe's baseball game
• Another birthday party
• Charlie's "All About Me" week at school (he's got various things to do each day)
• Some sort of family "Build a Peaceful World" project due for school (because our kids sign up for every. thing. offered.)
• Picture day at elementary school
• UIL competition for Joe
• Gymnastics class for Will and Helen
• Charlie and Joe's baseball practice
• Another baseball game for Charlie and Joe
• Cort's soccer game
• Luncheon for Mom
• Another baseball game for Charlie and Joe
• School auction
• Hosts of a wedding shower
• Charlie and Joe's book club meeting
• Rockets game (where Charlie and Joe are going to be ball boys)
• Gymnastics class again for Will and Helen
• First grade field trip
• Another baseball practice for Charlie and Joe
• Cort's soccer game
• Another birthday party
• Marathon Kids final lap celebration
• Dads basketball tournament fundraiser at elementary school
• Another baseball game for Charlie and Joe
• Hockey game - taking the whole family

Only gymnastics and the hockey game even involves Will and Helen. I think this is only going to get worse.

March Madness, Maddux style

We are big March Madness people around here. Charlie and Joe's first entries into an NCAA tourney pool were in 2004 . . . when they were two days old. The Maddux March Madness pool is an annual tradition. This year, we have entries for all six family members. They are posted on a door so standings can be checked at any time.

Charlie picked both of the two biggest first-round upsets - Richmond over Vanderbilt and Morehead State over Louisville. He's got UConn winning it all. Joe has Duke. They are both doing better than me. They pretty much know from memory the picks made by each person in the family. Actually, Joe remembers the final four picks we made last year, which is kind of freaky.

Helen and Will picked all their own entries. Will's pick to win it the championship was 14th seed Indiana State. We have no idea why. He doesn't seem too upset to be out of the running though.

If you know Helen, you can figure out the rationale for her picks.

She had both Georgetown and George Mason winning in the first round. Why? She learned about GEORGE Washington last month at school, of course.

She had St. Peter's going to the Sweet Sixteen because we know a Peter -- he's a friend and fiance of Claire, our babysitter extraordinaire (and Helen always likes the guys better than the gals).

But she apparently likes her classmate John better than Peter, because she had St. John's going to the Final Four.

Helen's pick to win it all is still in the running: San Diego State University. Why SDSU? Because of the movie Madagascar, of course. When the animals washed up on the beach of Madagascar, the giraffe Melman surveyed the place and decided that they must be at the San Diego Zoo. Hence, San Diego State University is picked to win the NCAA tourney. Makes perfect sense, right?

I love that Joe and Charlie think Will and Helen's picks are soooo funny, when it was just a couple of years ago that they were making their picks based on similar rationales. In fact, this year Joe graduated from making his picks solely with his heart (last year he had A&M winning the whole tournament) to making educated picks (he did pick A&M to win in the first round, but didn't think they would make it any further than that).

Sadly, I still pick largely with my heart. A&M's loss knocked out one of my final four teams. My top pick is also out. I have a feeling I'm going to be paying up to a 7-year-old this year.

Not yet

I chaperoned a first grade field trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science on Wednesday. We visited the butterfly center, since the kids are studying all sorts of bugs (Darkling beetles anyone?) and are about to embark on butterflies.

Field trips are sometimes tricky for me. In theory, I intended my reduced schedule at work to enable me not only to pick up the kids from school, but also to do things like chaperone field trips. In reality, though, the practice of law isn't really like that. Sometimes you have plenty of time to get away, and sometimes you don't. Right now, I'm not really even that busy. But, there was the possibility of something coming up on Wednesday that would require me to be at work.

So I didn't mention the field trip at all. I thought I would wait for them to ask if I was going. I was hoping that they wouldn't think of it for awhile, and that by the time they asked I would know my schedule a little bit better. And that my schedule would be clear, so they wouldn't be disappointed.

But here's the thing. They never asked. They talked about the field trip, sure. But they never asked if I would go.

Last year in kindergarten, it was a travesty if I couldn't attend a field trip or some other event at school. I attended the vast majority of them, mind you, but if I missed a single one there was hell to pay. It always made me wonder if the parents who have to work 8 to 5 and can never attend a school event got as much grief as I was getting.

I knew that eventually, they wouldn't care. At some point they won't even want us around. But I'm not really clear on when that milestone of not wanting your parents around actually occurs.

Wednesday morning, they still hadn't asked whether I was going to go on the field trip. I brought it up and said I was going. They briefly said, "You are?!" and that was it. I wasn't sure if we had reached that milestone yet.

I showed up at the museum and saw Joe's class first. He immediately took my hand and held it. Later, when I would come back to his class from hanging out with Charlie's class (I have to do a lot of running back and forth at these types of things), he would spot me from afar and wave his hand high to make sure I could find him. For Charlie's part, he held my hand, and even my entire arm, the entire tour. I'm pretty sure he gave me over ten kisses, some of which were on the lips.

So as it turns out, we haven't reached that milestone. Not quite yet. Whew.