The Update

I'm a lagger. A known lagger. This is not new, nor will it change. I should try to do better but I don't like to set myself up for failure. So, it's been a while since I've blogged. The reasons are many: softball has taken over our lives, TV is really good right now and I have a personal obligation to watch my shows in a timely enough fashion as to not let the DVR get full lest one of my shows be skipped and then someone has to die and lastly by the time I get to my 4th job-interneting- I am a little too buzzed from my newly rekindled love of wine to focus on little things like spelling and grammar (as evidenced by some recent late night facebooking). Here's a sweet little rundown:

Emma

Emma is so amazing. She rocks a demanding softball schedule and still manages to get straight As. This fall she is playing for two softball teams. She is playing for a travel team, The Austin Stars, and still playing rec ball at Round Rock. This means games 2-3 nights per week, practice twice per week and weekend tournaments about twice a month. She is getting so good. We are just now really starting to understand the craziness that is youth sports. In fact, I was "one of those parents" at her first Stars tournament. She sat out most of the tourney which she was okay with her but when they finally won a game after batting around the order a couple times and she didn't get to bat, I was pissed. I started crying (I know, right? I don't CRY!) when she said to me after the game "I guess my team didn't need me to bat". I probably should have just got in the car and cried to myself but I was enraged that a grown man made my daughter feel that way...I kinda went psycho-crazy-mama-bear on her coach. We've since moved past that but it is not beneath me to do it again if necessary...

Emma likes to wear my old Clairemont Bobby Sox All Star jacket. I love it!

Ava

Ava will be turning 5 in a week. She is also amazing. She is so amazing, in fact, that she taught herself to read. Much like she taught herself the alphabet before she was two and how to write before she was three. A few weeks ago, she climbed up on my lap with a book and asked to read it. So, I started to read and she stopped me "No, I mean I want to read it to you." Okay, so I'm thinking she must have memorized it. Nope. She was reading. There were a few words she asked for help on but she totally got it. She is also starting to write little stories. She is so, so smart and if it weren't for the fact that the hippopotamus still rears her ugly head, I'd be considering testing her out of kinder next year. She's still in preschool this year because Texas' cut-off for kinder is Sept 1. Here she is on her first day of preschool:

And with her two bffs who are in her class again this year:

She is also playing softball for the first time this year and she is awesome! Her little team, The Sweet Cleats, is undefeated! I love, love, love that her league keeps score. There really is no time when "everybody wins" is a good lesson, right? I mean, I have been kicking my kids' butts for years at all games to help them learn how to lose. I don't need anybody messing up my system with an unrealistic ideal. There is no "everybody wins" in life. So, adding Ava's two games per week schedule ensures that we are at the ball fields during dinner pretty much every night of the week. Cre8ive meals/parenting has been our fall theme :)

Vinny

Vinny is the sweetest 5 front-toothed kid you've ever met. That's right five front teeth. He had always had this cute little gap in his front teeth. Then a few weeks ago, a tooth started coming in! It looks really cute, but unfortunately I think it's going to have to be pulled. I am not looking forward to that experience and am therefore LAGGING on setting him up an appointment... As you can see from the video, he can talk now. He went from point-and-grunt to speaking in sentences in one day. His first sentence was "One more ba" complete with holding up one finger, thereby also conveying that he understood the concept of "one more". We are glossing over the "ba" part here. We all know what it means. We all know what it means TO ME and that's the end of this discussion :)) His longest sentence has been "No want mama do it, I do it!" and his best sentence is "I a u toooo, ma (I love you, too mom)" Be still my heart...

He has also graduated to a toddler bed and peed in the potty a few times. However, full-on potty training is going to wait a bit. He's not quite ready but we are approaching the time. Just beware: the day that mah baybay is out of diapers and off the ba will be a sad, sad, tear-filled, day of contemplating a tubal reversal for me. Please be supportive (with chocolate and wine, DO NOT encourage the reversal!)