Sergeant's Sprinkles

Yesterday marked the first day of Fall... I was so excited. I got up quite early, waiting for the doors of my gym to open and ran just over 5 miles. Then as I was springing curls in my hair for the Sergeant's game and sipping on cinnamon tea, singing,  I was thinking of how I am going to decorate my house today for the season... and light my favorite candle while I do it.  

The real Fall feeling only lasted hours that morning. I got to Stink's game and my shade umbrella couldn't be positioned right, so the sun rapidly warmed me. Warmed me to a sweat in S. Stink's jersey when I cheered his first tackle. As half-time approached so did an unpleasant dehydration headache. I realized at this moment I got a little too excited this morning and my Fall plans were premature. Between the dirty football team we were up against, nagging parents and crying kids my 5am perky flower feeling turned into a wilted flower one... in need of water and some rest. I crashed and burned at home after I told my Sergeant how well he did powering through that brutal game. This was a game that we lost but remembered the lesson. The lesson of integrity and doing what is right through true sportsmanship. If you have fun and do your best you always win according to Mom.

That helped Stink through the afternoon... it only took him so far though. As soon as he could tell Mom and brother were re-charged he had plans to win by score at something that day. So he said we were going to the park to play:

-Swings
-Hangin for Bait
-Tickle Monster
-Tag
-Football
-Soccer
-Backstop

And we needed to play all of them, and if we did he would make us Sundaes with sprinkles. So he got his grocery list ready and packed his backpack for the park.

I don't know where he got all of this energy from at this hour and on game day but we all went with it. I got a Hail Mary play (out of luck) and reminded him where he gets his legs from. He made his brother feel terrible and won at ALL of the games we played so he could feel better.

At least we got these out of the deal. Stink couldn't even finish his because he fell asleep after all of that on this non-Fall day. My sweet Benny and I snuggled and watched Jumanji as I rubbed his little sun-kissed cheeks with aloe vera. As for me and my candle... we will wait for cooler days.

Baby, I know

I fall in love with my children more everyday. As they change my hope is that I help them grow. My Sergeant is going through an odd tooth stage, currently. He has two very large front teeth with the surrounding teeth either being very small yet or just barely coming in. So the only meaning I found in this change was some laughter at the breakfast table this morning. We were seeing how many different faces we could get him to make accentuating this look. As you can see he doesn't mind this temporary style... He's having as much fun with it as we are watching it. 

 

 

This is my sweet Sergeant who is struggling a bit right now. My Sergeant who is strong and can bare a multitude of various things at once and still pop out a positive sentence in the midst. I've seen him crack a bit lately. He doesn't like to show that side to me... but when he does he's never ashamed and always comfortable as long as it doesn't affect his 'man of the house' label he thinks he's earned. He tells me today that the 4th grade is hard. His class environment is a little more disorganized than he likes or is used to. He is adjusting. He got that very nasty virus Benny and I shared... he got it the worst actually and gave me more than a few frightening airway scares. He is still recovering. He is practicing football hours every week. He is enduring physically. He still goes from house A to house B. He is persevering. He's being maxed out in every 9 year old area just about. Baby, I know. So I'm going into a protective mode with close and watchful eyes on my dear son. Stink says the classroom is getting better and I know personally the tiresome length of this viral illness will pass in time giving him more energy to focus everywhere else. If not, mom will need to do some adjusting that we discussed today. 

 

In the meanwhile here is Benny and I watching some of that physical endurance at Stink's football game. He has recovered the ball, intercepted and made a few tackles. So proud of that pickle. How I do love you honey.



My three boys and a couple of big teeth... ;)

 

 

And this super cute ring I found today. I surprised Benny with it after school to let him know I'm ready and so excited to see him in baseball... which starts this week!