Another first

One of the fun things about having kids is all the "firsts" you get to record.

For example, Joe was the first to sever a limb or get stitches.

And Charlie was the first to get a foreign object stuck in a body part.

And now, Will has the first broken bone in the Maddux family.



Saturday morning, around 4am, Will fell out of bed for the first time. His bed is no more than12 inches high. With bed rails. Yeah, I know. Only one of my kids could manage that.

By the time I got in there, he had climbed back in bed but said his neck hurt. I rubbed it, and he went back to sleep.

The next morning when he got up he said it still hurt. That led Cort and I to contemplate the age-old parenting dilemma: do we take him to the doctor, or not? If it were a weekday, the answer would have been easy. We would have waited before making the trip to see if he got better. But these sorts of things never happen on weekdays. We had approximately 4 hours to take advantage of our pediatrician's Saturday morning clinic. After that, we were looking at a holiday weekend, so if we decided anytime between Saturday and Tuesday that it needed to be looked at, that would mean an ER visit.

Luckily, this was one of those times when we decided to take him in, and it was the right decision. Yep, a broken left clavicle.

He's got a sling, and he's really been quite a trooper.

Busy

We've had momentous occasions around here: birthdays, baseball, anniversaries . . . . Hopefully I'll get around to documenting some of those eventually.

I've got clever blog posts lingering in my brain. I know I'll forget those.

I'm not sure why we are so busy. Maybe just life with a 6-person family?

All I know is that twice in recent days, I've been so busy that I haven't had time to stop and use the restroom until it was almost too late.

Blog posting is much farther down on my list.

Tonight's UNO results

Game one winner: Cort and Joe
Game two winner: Cort and Will
Game three (girls v. boys) winner: Girls
Game four (kids v. grownups) winner: Grownups
Game five (kids v. grownups) winner: Kids

A fun night. No crying by losers. At least until it was bedtime.

Makes My Monday

Joe the poet

DEAD BEAN

A Dead Bean Its Slippery

And To Many Beans To

Walk

CLOVERS

I see

I see a hole lot

CLAY MATHUE'S TAKLE MACINE

It Was Twenty To Twenty-Six Packers They

Had The Ball On The Eighteen He Hicked

It Was In The Quaterback's Hands

Clay Went Back To The Quarterback The

Quaterback Had Nowone To Trough

To He Went Back Ten Yard Takle!

Ball On Twenty-Eight

Another sack - 12 Yards

Three Sacks Ball on 50

Fourth And Thirty

To Go They Kicked It Fake! Gain Of Forty-Nine Yards

Ball On One 1rst Down Til Fourth And One Hicked

Touchdown Ravens!!! Tied Overtime We Get

The Ball Touchdown!!!! 53 seconds Fourth down Hut

missed

WE WIN!!!!!!

He didn't get a very good grade on his poems. But he's still pretty good at math!

Wordless Wednesday

Dinner and games and books, oh my!

Tonight, even though Cort is out of town, I took all the kids out to dinner. It was truly enjoyable.

After we got home, the kids got ready for bed quickly and we had time to introduce Will and Helen to the game of UNO. We played four times. Everyone loved it.

We still had time to read after that. I got to spend one-on-one time with Will and read his new Curious George book to him. Joe read on his own, and Charlie read Richard Scarry to Helen with no problems whatsoever.

What a wonderful evening. A definite improvement over last night!

Makes My Monday

Yesterday, on the way home with all the kids, there was some work being done in the road near our house. And I hit it. More precisely, I hit some of the equipment. My tire was slashed and much of the passenger side of my (new, to me) car has a large scrape.

Cort is on business in Oregon, and his car is in the shop while he's there. So I don't have another mode of transportation. The shop closes at 5:30. This happened at approximately 5:29.

Also, while I was trying to call to make a police report, Will fell and split his lip on the floor. He also pulled down his pants and peed in the front yard while I was trying to take care of things with the car.

But Tony Montalbano of Montalbano Tire is a saint. He sent someone out to my house, after hours, to put my spare on. It took the guy quite awhile. The charge was $15.

Then, after I put the kids to bed (amidst tears because all this caused dinner to run late, and we ran out of time to read books before bedtime), I ate SIX of these dark chocolate granola things we just got at Costco.

So, what made my Monday? Tony Montalbano, Costco, and dark chocolate.

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.