Archive for February, 2011

Catch

Friday, February 4th, 2011

From Friday Mom – Jaime:
With all this snow and ice, all I can think about is spring. Like any good baseball fan, I judge the official start of spring from when pitchers and catchers report to spring training…which is in 11 days. 🙂

Baseball is our second religion in my family. So many of my memories growing up involve baseball. Going to games at Yankee Stadium. Watching the games we couldn’t get to from our couch. Playing t-ball, then softball.

Having a catch with my dad in our front yard.

Did you ever see the movie “Field of Dreams”? (Well, if you didn’t, I’m going to spoil the end of the movie here.) You know the scene at the end of the movie where Kevin Costner is looking out at his dad and says, “Hey dad? Wanna have a catch?” It always gets me a little misty.

Every weekend when the weather was good, my dad would usually be the one to ask whether my sister and I wanted to go out and have a catch.

We didn’t always want to. We’d grumble about it. We’d throw a fit. One of us would usually grab our glove and throw the ball around with dad…

But the times where we beat him to the punch, where WE were the ones to say “Hey dad? Let’s have a catch,” he’d get this look. Not the bad “I can’t believe I have to do this – again” look. The good “I can’t believe they’re asking me to do this” look. He’d usually drop whatever he was doing, grab his glove and run outside with us before we could change our minds…

While all our time playing (or watching) ball together was special, those moments probably meant even more to him. Not that I would have realized it at the time. But now…

Bob the Bed Fairy brought Andrew a Koosh ball the other day. Every night this week, Andrew has grabbed the ball, looked at me and said, “Mommy? Daddy? Wanna play catch with me?” I’d be lying if I didn’t admit my heart melts every time he asks.

I’m sure I get the same look on my face that my dad used to get when we’d ask him to have a catch with us. Whether it lasts two minutes or two hours, I LOVE every second of tossing that silly koosh ball around with Andrew. It’s great watching him as he gets better at throwing and catching. And it’s absolutely amazing watching the joy he gets doing something that has always been such a big part of my life.

I can’t wait for spring. Not just because I’m sick and tired of this snow (which I am). But I can’t wait to take Andrew outside and throw the ball around with him. Let him watch baseball games with us. Maybe this year, we’ll take him to a game at the Stadium…

Have a great weekend everyone.

Shadow

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

From Wednesday Mom – Janelle:
Today is Groundhog Day, and with the frightful weather out there we are all hoping Punxsutawney Phil does NOT see his shadow.  Through all the ice and snow how could he, right?  I live in the Deep South and am already sick of the cold weather.  I can’t even imagine living any further north.  My newly southern blood just couldn’t handle it.

Recently, Jack has been my shadow.  He went from having to do everything by himself to all of a sudden having me right by his side helping him do a task.  We met a bunch of friends at the park last weekend and he needed me there with him to play with his friends and run around.  These are kids he plays with at school every day and knows them very well. Also, he doesn’t like his bed and has had a few accidents during night.  He also has been hesitant about going to school in the morning.

My husband has been out of town for the last ten days fulfilling work duties.  Perhaps Jack’s regression is a result of not having his daddy around.  He did talk about how much he missed daddy and how he wanted to wrestle with him (something mommy doesn’t do quite as well).

Daddy has been gone A LOT during Jack’s 3 ½ years.  Fortunately, Daddy has been home for the last year enjoying his “shore” tour with his family.  I think Jack has reached the age where he can pick up on things that are different or out of the ordinary.  Has anyone else experienced this with their children?

Now that Daddy has returned home, I’m anxious to see if Jack will go back to his independent ways or regress for awhile.  For the sake of my sanity, I’m hoping he feels more secure with his family reunited again.  I just want to see that sweet smile like I usually see every day.