Softball Heaven

So as the season is coming to a close I have to say that, yes it has consumed our lives for the past 6 weeks but it has truly been a lot of fun watching the girls get involved in this sport.  The girls have developed a little bit of a like for it, Lehna more then Maya but it has really been fun watching them get better.  Maya has said that she will try out for Pixie’s next year.  We keep telling her that her athletic ability is really high.  She’s FAST and she seems to know what she’s doing when it comes down to hitting the ball.  She runs really fast too so once we get her throwing a little harder she’s going to be a shoe in for Pixie.  I think it will be a lot of fun watching the girls play together as well.  So that’s kind of the plan right now. 

We had two games last night.  Lehna at 5:30 and Maya at 7:30 one in Denver and one in Mexico so it was a little bit rushed but it was fun.  Lehna hit twice she FINALLY got out of her funk of striking out.  She was so sad every time she kept missing the ball.  So finally she made contact AGAIN!  So it’s good.  The second time she batted she got hit by the ball and so she now has a “war wound”.   So she got on base!  They are now doing Live PITCH and this has been interesting to watch.  Basically the girls get to try 4 pitches and if they are all balls then the coach gets to come in and pitch 2 to them, b/c you get 6 pitches a player in live pitch.  I mean it slows down the game and I think once we do live pitching the rest of the season that will help with the scoring as far as keeping the numbers low!  But it was interesting.

Maya’s game last night looks a lot like the other games they play.  It’s basically just learning what baseball is and how to play it.  There aren’t a lot of skills or anything of that kind it’s just kind of fun for them.  She really likes playing the bases where there’s action.  So first base and pitcher also mainly b/c she gets to get to the ball before everyone else. 

I did get their softball pictures in so I’ll get those up to share very soon.  Speaking of pictures for some reason this reminds me that we got our Official letter for Maya and Little Miss for this year.  Her reign is actually THIS fair season.  So she has been asked to be present at the fair every day and she’s to wear her crown and sash while she’s there.  They have also said that she is invited to go to the Miss Miami County Fair pageant and she’s to sign in as “visiting” royalty and they will make she sure she’s recognized.  She’s VERY excited about her pageant stuff and being able to “show off” her crown and sash.  She will give away her title the last day of the fair so she will only have 1 week to soak it all in.  She said that she wants to do the Denver pageant this year since she wasn’t allowed to last year… but we’ll see it may all fade before then. 

It’s ballet recital time.  The girls are just NOT into it.  I don’t know why they just do not love it.  So Tait is VERY happy that they don’t want to do it next year.  For me I’m a little sad that they don’t want to do it.  I thought they would be excited and it’s so girly that they would be all about it, yep not so much.  Oh well we will just be softball and pageant parents?  Yikes I don’t know about the pageant part of it all.  That’s a different world that I am just not really to get into.

So we are on day 3 of accident free with Mr. Nikolai.  I had to get him more underwear today b/c I couldn’t find ANY this morning.  I only had like 6 pairs for him but they have all disappeared.  Maybe he’s hiding them who know.

Memorial Day!

What a beautiful weekend it was.  I seriously enjoyed myself all weekend long.  We played it so low key it was beyond wonderful! 

Saturday I did all my cleaning.  I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned so more.  I clean upstairs all the bedrooms!  The kids room all the beds were stripped and made.  I moved some furniture around because I had to move Maya’s dresser out of the ‘toy room’ for the baby. 

I moved stuff around in their closet to make room for stuff.  I put it this way these kids have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF!  I’m done with stuff.  We have stuff everywhere.  I want to get rid of all the stuff.  It’s sad b/c when we moved I got rid of so much stuff and it’s like the stuff is BACK!  It never goes away!

I cleaned the toy room out and put up the crib.  Lehna was insistent that we needed to do that.  And I was okay with b/c honestly it one less thing to do later.  I didn’t move the changing table out yet.  And I have to clean out a dresser that is holding STUFF (useless stuff) downstairs and move that upstairs for the baby’s clothes.  I’ll get that done before the summer is over.  But I don’t have any little baby clothes here anymore so I don’t have anything to put in it. I know I’ll get that stuff eventually.  See more STUFF!  I need to just purge EVERYTHING.  That would make it better. 

So the room looks more like a baby’s room.  Nikolai saw the crib and he said he was going to sleep in there with the baby.  I asked him if he wanted his big boy bed moved in here and he said that he was just going to sleep IN the crib with the baby.  He did call the crib a jail though. 

Nikolai is in the mist of potty training and let me tell you he is doing REALLY well with it.  We had him in underwear the majority of the weekend and he didn’t have one accident.  I did put a diaper on him for church and when we left to go to the park and the little man had a big potty in his diaper but it’s a step closer to diaper less!  So I figure by the end of summer he’ll be 100% b/c he’s super close now.  I did swat his butt once this weekend and he cried and I said without that diaper it hurts a little more doesn’t it.  His favorite activity is to pee off the porch.  He asked to go potty and he wanted to pee off the porch and I took him out there and he was unsuccessful, but at least he asked!  He’s so funny when he can’t “make it happen” he was frustrated but he was able to do it.  So SMALL VICTORIES! 

Lehna has been singing like a super star this weekend.  She has it in her head that she is going to write songs and then get a record deal and become a mega star.  I don’t know where she gets these ideas, but all weekend she was plunking on the piano and making up these songs, which let me tell you every time she sung them they sounded different, notes, pitches, everything.  So it was interesting to say the least.  I have guitar lessons arranged for her to start this summer.  She’s very excited and I’ll be excited when she can learn music and really get a jump start on that.  I know it’s going to be interesting as she’s learning but I think once she gets it, it will be good.  I’ll be excited when she can read music and maybe even write the stuff down so it will at least sound the same as she sings them over and over and over. 

Maya was talking about her friends last week and she got really sad and she goes “mom all of my friends are going to leave me next year when I’m in first grade again.”  I reassured her that she will still see her friends and that they can still play with one another it will be like they are with a different teacher.  This has really been the only display of sadness she’s shown about having to repeat the 1^st grade.  She got REALLY sad however.  So I think it’s setting in as to what it will truly mean.  I talked to her about summer school and she is actually excited about it.  I asked her if she wanted to ride the bus and she was ALLLL about riding the bus and I asked her if she wanted Lehna to do summer school and she said “no I want to do it all by myself.”  Not in a mean way of course just in a very matter of fact kind of way.  I know that she will have fun and I want her to be able to gain more knowledge before the break.  When she goes back in August she will feel like a rock star b/c all of the skills she mastered she will be “learning again.”  So I’m hoping that will help her confidence and help her through the second half of the year.  I’m just hoping that this will help her and not totally impact her life in a negative light.  I am sad that she won’t graduate with Deklyn b/c this will separate them for the rest of their lives.  If we still lived in WI it would have been that way any way but it’s just sad that she has to struggle so.  We have our appointment with Riley coming up this June so maybe that will give me some answers, maybe not.  I know how she feels and I’m sad that she has to return to 1^st grade.  It does make me feel like a failure as parent like I didn’t do something for her, but I don’t know what I could have done differently.  So hopefully the guilt won’t last too long. 

So I have been reading this book called “The Child Whisperer” I started reading this book b/c it was a suggested reading from a random blog that I stumbled across and I thought that it’s better to have the knowledge then not.  At first I thought this book was going to be about me and learning about myself instead it isn’t quite that.  It’s more about profiling kids into their strengths based on their category and how best to parent.  Let me just say that I don’t 100% agree with the techniques that have been suggested in this book.  It labels kids based on the kid’s behavior and natural tendencies, which that part doesn’t bother me.  The part that bothers me is the fact that it suggests that you should then cater your parenting based on what’s best for the child and the profile they were identified as.  This is the issue I have; I personally don’t think this is the BEST the technique for raising children.  I think that there isn’t an all fire blanket that you can use to cover all types of children.  I do think that raising children does need to be changed base on the kids.  I agree with this however to only parent in the style that is best for you child I don’t think helps your children.  Take profile 1 – which is like high energy profile.  The description of this profile fits Maya to a TEE!  She is very high energy, she’s creative, she’s imaginative, and she lives in a world of her own.  It suggests that you should create games to help them learn to pick up and to get them to interact with them.  Okay I think that’s reasonable BUT I don’t think that should be that way EVERY TIME.  First of all Maya has to learn HOW to function in the world, not just her own.  So for her she needs to learn not only to pick up but she also has to learn when she needs to do that.  So yes on occasion when I’m getting resistance from her I will say okay pick up only items that are blue.  Or whatever.  But if I did this every time… what is it going to be like when she’s given a task a work that she doesn’t want to do, is her boss going to come to her and say “okay Maya not only do the tasks that make you happy, or are easy to do” no her boss is going to say give me that task.  So I think by only teaching her to live in her world doesn’t help her learn how to learn in her bosses world or heck anyone one’s world.  So I think that it’s probably not my favorite read.  I got another book called “The color Code” and this one’s supposed to be more about me verses them.  So we’ll see what happens.  I am going to continue to read it b/c maybe I’m missing something but that’s my conclusion so far. 

So what’s new in the Wagnerville.

 

 

We are still in the swirl of softball game after softball game right now.  We are almost through the season and so far Lehna is LOVING it.  I think she will be really sad to see it go away.  Tait has been working with her and it’s been a good activity for them to do together.  Maya on the other hand is just not into it.  She plays and doesn’t have a problem getting ready but I think it’s too slow for her.  She likes playing positions like pitcher, or 1^st base b/c there is action on those position.  I figured she would get bored.  I suggested that she play pixie next year and she says she doesn’t want to do it next year.  I’m kind of pushing it for her b/c I think she will be good b/c she’s fast.  So we’ll see what happens.  She talked about soccer so who knows. 

 

Nikolai is seriously the child that gives me the biggest heart attacks!  Nikolai is very independent, which is a great thing for them to have, but he is over the top independent.  He have no problems when you are at a busy area with lots of kids to just wonder away.  It scares the begezes out of me!  Even when there is a overabundance of adults all there watching he still manages to wonder away it is crazy!  He’s so fast and he just wants to explore.  I am seriously considering getting one of those child leash things b/c he just won’t stay put.  He’s so fast too, I mean the kid can get away from us in seconds.  It really scares me to death!  I just don’t want him wondering away from us.  I know he just doesn’t understand he isn’t supposed to go away from us but man it’s scary.

 

So this weekend Denver was supposed to have their annual garage sell day so I had HIGH hopes of getting some supplies for Baby O.  Well Saturday came around and well there was nothing.  Denver only had 7 houses that participated and let me tell you there was NOT much going for the city wide garage sale.  I think lack of knowledge prior to the event was the major issue.  So we got a paper and traveled into Peru, b/c we figured that there would be yard sells there.  Well the first few we went to there wasn’t much going on.  So we were about to wrap it up when we found one more in the paper so we went there.  Well my wish list was an infant carseat, swing, and bassinet/small pack n play.  Well the one house had a infant car seat/stroller for sale and I was like… how much do you want for this… and they go $35?  Tait was like will you do $30 only b/c he didn’t have change… and they go sure!  So we were leaving and there was a baby swing and I stopped the car and go look they have a swing for sale.  Well Tait and I agreed that our price was $10 we weren’t going to go any higher than that, and we would talk them down from whatever price they had…  Well I walked up there and they were selling it for $5 dollars!!!  I’m like SCORE!  So I was able to knock two of my three wish list items off my list for a total of $35!  Majorly excited!  So I’m hoping that as we hit yard sale season we will be able to find my other wish list item.  We won’t be able to find out if this baby is a boy or girl until August so we will miss a lot of the “clothes” opportunity.  But as they come we will get some things I’m sure that will be able to get some unisex clothes J It will alllll work out. 

 

So that’s the news for now.

Weekend

So I wanted to update because I’m trying to be better at updating.

So what’s new what’s exciting… what’s going on. 

 

I’ll start with Miss Lehna.  We have consumed ourselves with involvement of Softball.  Lehna is REALLY enjoying softball.  She does a fairly decent job too.  They keep her in the infield now the entire length of the game, which is an improvement b/c she was one of 3 that they were rotating but she had earned her spot.  She still throws REALLY weak, but she’s getting better.  She can hit she usually hits every time she bats.  She was moved up on the batting rotation which we were SO excited to see that.  They moved her up to #7 so they have enough confidence in her to get batters in, which she does, we just need her to run FASTER.  She tries which I think it’s great that she has taken so well to this sport.  Her season so far is 2  - 1.  The only team that beat them, they turned and beat on Saturday.  Which they were TOUGH.  So I was so proud of the girls.  So it’s really fun to watch her grown.

 

Little Miss Maya is doing well in T-Ball as well.  She doesn’t always hit it during coach’s pitch, but she really does try.  She LOVES playing pitcher and 1^st base.  She gets involved and goes after the ball and is doing GREAT!  She does not like catcher.  She said the gear is really hot.  I am trying to convince her to try pixie league next year b/c we think she can do it.  But she is still on the fence as to if she wants to do it next year.  She talked about soccer.

 

Our son Nikolai gave us the scare of a lifetime.  On Saturday we were at the ball park and they have a park that is attached to the ball park.  Well Nikolai was down playing on the monkey bars and merry go round.  All four of us were watching him as to what he was doing (he wasn’t more than 30 yards away from us) Well I looked up again and I asked Tait if he could see Nikolai and he couldn’t see him.  So I headed down to where I last saw him and he wasn’t there.  So I wondered around the back part of the park looking for him.  Tait, Tanna, and Helen all started looking for him.  I looked between the two fields with all the other kids.  I was looking and looking for him.  Finally Tanna came around the corner between the two buildings and said that they found him.  Tait was carrying him and I asked where was he.  And he had went down the back side of the park, through the parking lot, and across the street to a fire truck.  There was a fire truck that was there that was looking for three other lost kids.  He was just standing by the fire truck.  All of us were telling him that he couldn’t run away from us anymore and that he had to stay at the park.  It was quite the ordeal.  I’m glad that he was safe but still Never Racking to say the least! So after that we were within arm’s reach of him the rest of the time.  So we are working on potty training with him.  Well sort of, we aren’t all that great with it to be honest.  Our babysitter is really doing a great job with him. And so has been exposing him to using the potty.  We are on the go so much with softball we haven’t had a really good chance to get on it and get him potty trained.  But it’s coming soon.  Which once he gets it will be fine.  Just getting to be consistent with it, that’s the challenge. 

 

Baby Number 4.  Well this baby is giving me some issues!  The spotting has been insane with this baby.  I went in for an ultrasound on Tuesday and baby has a strong heartbeat of BPM 133.  They don’t know why I’m spotting.  I have spotted every day since the 26^th.  It’s just annoying.  I have had some cramping with this one and stuff.  I just want to relax and be okay but it’s hard not knowing why this is happening.  I mean every day I just count that as a blessing.  I know I have no control over what is happening, which for  me it is just annoying.  But what can I do.  This is all in God’s hands and just have to have faith that it is all happening for a reason.  I’m assuming this is a boy b/c this is just what Nikolai did to me! But we will move forward and continue as if everything is fine. 

 

So we have been talking baby names.  We would like to go O b/c that’s the next letter in the alphabet with our kids.  I would like to go with O and Russian but this is VERY tall order.  Tait’s names he likes are Oskar for a boy and Tatium for a girl.  We are just kind of in the mist of trying to figure out.  So I like the names Girl:  Odessa or Ora Boy:  Ostyn or Onslow.  The middle name we are thinking for the boy is Trenton; this is now set for his middle name the other… so that’s what we got for now. 

 

Any way that’s the news going on and all the other stuff. 

 

I did have a funny dream the other night.  I dreamed that I was in a play a murder mystery and for some reason I only knew my lines ½ way through the play.  I decided since we never practiced the play the entire length that it was a good reason for me not to have read the rest of the play or know the rest of my lines.  So after a certain point I had no idea of what was going on.  There were all these new characters being introduced in the play.  I didn’t know who was killing people or anything like that.  So I kept watching on the sidelines trying to figure out what was going on.  Well the play was still going on and they kept looking to me to know what the lines were b/c I was supposed to be talking and of course I didn’t know what I was supposed to say.  It was strange.

 

I did see the movie Heaven is for Real.  I want to read the book.  It was very thought provoking and now I want to read more.  It made me feel good when watching it.  It also made me really think about some things to so I want to read the book to see if the same feelings happen again or if they were just provoked by Hollywood.  So it should be fun.  I took Lehna to see it and she really liked it too.  I think it was a really good story.

 

But anyway that’s life right now.  Exciting right?

Baby Blip

Well it's time to get our first glimpse of Baby Blip.  Well that's what I'm calling him right now.  And yes all of my pronouns will be HIMS b/c I'm willing this baby to be a boy.  I was having the same issues with this baby that I have had for all three of my children... so I got to see the doctor and have an ultrasound done.  You'd think this would be easier on my brain, but it's not.  And well everything is fine.  Heartbeat is 133 and he's just a little Blip.  I will see the doctor for my first true appointment next Friday which will be exciting.  I can safely say he's very very tiny.  But just a growing and developing...  I can't wait until I can wear maternity clothing b/c my clothes are tight already.  I have to purchase them again so I'm waiting for as long as I can.  I'm thinking all of the 'tightness' is just baby... right?  Okay so I'm sure not all of it is... but I'm going to use this logic. 


Anywho


our lives have been taken over by softball and T-Ball games.  We have officially started the season and let me tell you we have games almost every day of the week.  It's kind of insanity.  It's going to be a long season, but it's only for like 6 weeks so I know we will be able to handle it. 


Lehna won their first game of the season.  It was a nail biter at the end.  They were ahead only by 2 but the other team got to bat and they got the bases loaded but we needed 1 more out... and it seems like an eternity before they got that out.  But they did :) 


Maya is doing great at T Ball.  She likes to play Pitcher and 1st Base and she really does do a great job.  She can hit the ball when they pitch it verses hitting it off the T Stand.  She can throw really well as well so she is just doing great.  She plays tonight and the storms are supposed to be here tonight...  so we'll see what happens with that.  :)


But our first break for this week will be on Friday... and Sunday.  It should be fun.