Monday, March 28, 2011

Batting practice

Sorry I'm so irregular! I've been getting complaints! I'm trying to get back into the habit, but I'm overwhelmed with work and school! The kids are still keeping life interesting though.
Tonight, Jeremy and Ben played baseball for a long time. Ben stood at our sliding glass door with a red fat bat and Jeremy sat on the floor by the couch pitching ball after ball. Benjamin hit the ball so well, he bounced them off of the front door - that's about 25 feet. At one point, I was in the bathroom giving Hadley a bath. I heard a noise and looked up to see a baseball in the bathtub!

Ben wanted to pitch to Jeremy. I'm pretty sure on the first pitch, I heard a smack and Ben started sobbing. Jeremy hit right in the eye. It was one of those cry until you can't breath heaving sobs. I was putting Hadley's PJ's on and was getting up to check on him. He stopped mid sob and said, "That's okay, Jer. I'm fine." That was that. He came over to show me the mark and went back to playing!

Part of the time I tried to get some video. He hit the ball directly over my head so I screamed - probably a little girlishly! While we were getting ready for bed tonight, Ben prayed, "Thank you for me playing baseball." After prayer, he said, "Mom, I hit the ball at you and you said, (Insert high pitched making fun of me screaming voice) 'Don't hit me with the ball!'"

What a great night!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Verse confusion

We do a devotion with Ben at night. Each one ends with a verse and short prayer. We try and get him to say one or both of them with us.
Today's verse was Exodus 20:12: "Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God will give you."
Ben's version: "Honor your father and mother. Then you will live an awful life and the land the Lord your God gets you."

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

All star in the making

Today was a rough day with Ben. He's such a sweet heart 90 percent of the time... really even more than that. However, those times when he's not in a "sweet" mood are ROUGH.
The beginning of our time together, however, helped me get through the evening that we had. As soon as we got in the car to come home, he started excitedly, "Mom, when we get home, when you are done making dinner and you put it in the cooker, will you play baseball with me?"
I told him that I was making chicken tacos (which was really exciting to him) and that as soon as I cut up the chicken we would play.
As soon as we got home he RAN through the house looking for baseballs and baseball gloves. As soon as I could get away from the chicken, I was on my knees with a toddler baseball glove on my hand dodging baseballs being chucked at my face! Every ball I caught was met with a squeal and "Mom, good job!" If he didn't catch it, he'd say in his big man voice, "Moooom, you missed my glove!"
It was only about 5 minutes before I had to deal with the chicken and he ran off to protect his sister from something. But in those minutes, I saw a little boy turning into a boy - a ball player! He was so encouraging, but he also took the lead. He "instructed me" on how to throw and catch. He's my little leader, my all-star. He's his father's son, a future coach. He's my baby always!