Playing Catch

Calum has an obsession with cars and balls.  He spends most of his day driving a variety of cars around the house.  If you are not careful, he will take you out with his large dump truck.  He hauls all kinds of stuff around the house.  When he is not driving around the house or eating marshmallow fluff, he is playing catch.  He just loves to play with you.  Once you start, you are his hostage until he is done with you.  Tonight was Lamar's turn to play.

Look...I even got a rare picture of Shianne when she thought I was just paying attention to her brother.

All About Teeth

The past few weeks have been all about teeth in the Lindsay house.  After all kinds of insurance hassles and dentist visits, Shianne finally had three teeth pulled.  Her baby teeth were just not releasing and causing all kinds of problems with her permanent teeth that are coming through.  She was not happy to have this done.  She was still traumatized by our first attempt to have her teeth pulled at our regular dentist office.  We all learned the lesson that she does not respond to Novocaine.  It is the equivalent of saline in her mouth.  NO PAIN RELIEF!!  This second attempt went much smoother and she felt nothing this time with anesthesia.  She is even less happy about the braces that will be coming, but one battle at a time.

Nora Beth lost her first tooth!  I looked in her mouth and noticed that she had a permanent tooth that had popped through.  She had not even noticed this herself.  Three days later the baby tooth came out.  Lamar and I gave it a bit of assistance without to much of a fight from Nora Beth.  Of course the anticipation of it coming out was much worse than the actual event!  Of course the Tooth Fairy visited Nora Beth and left her $1 and a lollipop.

Not to be left out of the tooth drama, Calum has four molars that are trying to make an appearance all at once.  It has been many months since he has gotten a new tooth.  I am happy for him to finally be getting these teeth...it opens up all kinds of food options for him now that he will actually be able to chew his food.

Wordless Wednesday

Middle School

Shianne started the 6th grade yesterday.  Yes...I am now the mother of a Middle School Student.  It was a big step for her this year to go to a school that was different from all of her friends.  Shianne was fortunate to get into Howard Street Charter School.  This school offers such a great opportunity to her with it's small class sizes, innovative curriculum and dedicated staff.  I am already impressed with their communication and energy.  Shianne is looking forward to the art classes, choir and drama program.  It is a commitment for us to get her to school since it is on the other side of town.  The quality of program is worth this sacrifice.  I have already set up a carpool schedule that should make it easier on our group of West Salem parents.  I am so excited for Shianne and this opportunity that she has.  I am still in disbelief that I am the mother of a 6th grader!!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday: Softball

Shianne and Nora Beth performances

I have had all sorts of problems uploading video to Blogger recently.  After several attempts, I threw in the towel and just uploaded to You Tube.  Now Blogger won't let me embed the video in the blog.  Argh!!!  So here are the links to the videos.

Shianne Piano Recital playing Frolic by Bennett

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC6GphRrxgY

Nora Beth Ballet Recital
 
Good Ship Lollipop

New Wave Teddy Bear  (video is sideways...can't get it to rotate)

Dancing Ribbons

I have a great video of Calum falling asleep in his high chair while we were in Hawaii that I will link to later.

:)

Shianne's BIG Game

Shianne had her best game ever tonight!   She decided that she was ready to pitch this season and that today was the day to start as pitcher in a game.  I could tell that she was nervous.  She looked really good in warm up.

It was then time to step on the pitchers mound for the first time.  Her first pitch was a strike!  Confidence building.  The smile on her face was priceless.  She walked her first 4 batters.  She was beginning to look defeated, then she threw three strikes.  Batter out!  Then, the next two batters were out!  Three strike outs in a row.  I do not think her feet hit the ground as she ran back into the dugout.

Second inning came up.  Back to the pitchers mound she headed.  She faced three batters and all three batters were out!!  SIX strike outs in a row now!!  When it was her time to hit, she got a base hit then stole home to score for her team.

Third inning.  The first batter hits the ball.  Shianne fielded it and threw her out at first.  Two more batters up, and quickly they were down!  GAME OVER!!  Riptide wins 8-1

Shianne was so happy!  Her smile just radiated from her face.  When it was time to present the game ball, Shianne owned it!!  She was so proud of herself and her great game.  This was just the confidence boost that she needed.  Congratulations Shianne!

A quick recap of the stats:

Shianne faced 13 hitters, 4 walks, 8 strike outs, 1 hit (who she threw out at first).  She also stole home and struck out once.  Riptide wins 8-1!!  FANTASTIC GAME!

A BIG Day of Tests

I have been searching all around for the right kennel to board the dogs.  We have had two negative experiences in the past that have traumatized my sweet Zara.  I am just blown away by the number of sub-par kennels that I have seen in the past few weeks.  Now today, I found the gem of kennels.  It is clean, the owner was fantastic, it is close to my house, reasonably priced and most importantly, the dogs loved it.  The only thing standing in my way of this jewel was the obedience test.  Now I had no concerns about Zara, it was Boba that I was secretly praying would be on his best behavior. 

Now picture the scene, me with Calum tied on my back, trying to wrangle two excited dogs on leashes all while trying to keep Nora Beth out of trouble.  I should have admitted my defeat right there, but no, I DID IT!  We survived and the dogs surpassed my expectations.  They passed with flying colors.  We have a kennel!!!

Coming off of the kennel high we are off to the next test of the day.  Today was the big Piano Festival that Shianne has been practicing for for months.  She has worked so hard to memorize her two songs and then perform them in front of the jury.  She was so nervous and she did wonderful.  I could just see the relief on her face when she was done.  She can now relax for the next few months of piano practice and move away from the song that she disliked so much!

A BIG Field of Tulips

I look forward to the Tulip Festival every year.  Tulips are my favorite flower and the girls just love to go see all the vibrant blooms.  We got lucky today and the sun came out while Lamar was home, so we headed over to Woodburn to look at the flowers.

Nora Beth was so excited to go down the big slides.

Lamar "wore" Calum for the first time today.  Calum was so excited to see all the flowers that he slept almost the whole time!

Shianne rode on a mechanical bull.  Well, let me rephrase that, Shianne was repeatedly thrown off of the mechanical bull!

And now, my beautiful girls!

Calum woke up at the end of our trip.

No trip to the Tulip Fest would be complete without some jumping in the mud!

My BIG Ball Players

Little League season has started and is in full force in the Lindsay home.  Both girls are playing.  Shianne is playing AAA softball and is on a traveling team.  Nora Beth is playing her first year of tee-ball.  With both girls playing, we have a practice or game on every day of the week except Sunday.  There are many days when both girls need to be someplace at the same time.  Also remember that we have ballet and piano every week.  I am putting the miles on the van right now!  Good thing Calum is so happy to just be out and about!

Nora Beth had her first game this week.  It was so cute to see her playing.  The kids are so funny to watch at this age.  We laughed the whole time.  Nora Beth is so serious about playing.   She has her purple glove and put sparkly stickers all over her batting helmet.  She must be bedazzled at all times!

The girls have grown so much.  Nora Beth has gotten so tall, although you cannot tell when she is standing next to her equally tall sister!

Cats

Lamar and I took Shianne to go see Cats today.  It was so nice to have a day that we could just devote to Shianne.  Our day was almost changed by a sick Nora Beth, but she was doing so much better today and we had a sitter who was willing to stay with both Calum and Nora Beth.  Nora Beth has been battling a case of pneumonia, ear infection and chicken pox...she hit the trifecta of illness!  On a silly note, Jessie, the sitter, has now officially changed Calum's diaper more times in one day than Lamar has in the 7 months since Calum was born!

OK, back to our day with Shianne.  We started off with seeing Cats.  We had fantastic seats.  It was fun to watch Shianne's expressions during the show.  So much joy in her face.  Lamar had seen Cats years ago, but Shi and I had never seen it.  Afterward, we went out for sushi, one of our favorites.  As always, the food was delicious.  We tried sea urchin for the first time, but none of us really liked it.  The texture was just to slimy!  The fatty tuna belly was delicious!

Wordless Wednesday