Baseball started in March... First with practices, well, only 1 or 2 because we couldn't make it to one and another was rained out. It's hard to get better and improve and be confident when you only have 1 or 2 practices, but at least all of the teams are in the same boat! The opening ceremonies, first game and team pictures were also rained out... The kids eventually got their games started and then in April we got opening ceremonies and team pictures taken care of. They did the truck parade again this year:
Christian is doing well with baseball, though he admits it's not his favorite sport and he probably won't play next year. It's up to him, but I can understand, he prefers more activity and with baseball it's feast or famine depending on where you play.
They all take turns playing different positions... Here you see Christian getting an out at second base and playing catcher:
He's doing fine with his hitting... The second picture is one he hit into the outfield and got a double out of it:
And this year there is something new... KID PITCHING!! The first half the season was coach pitch and the second half the season (even though half of the games in the first half were rained out) is kid-pitch. So the opposing team's pitcher gets 3 pitches for each batter and if the batter doesn't hit it, they get 2 more pitches from our own coach. If nothing happens after those 5 pitches, the batter is out. We're rotating pitchers every 2 innings, so we're having 3 pitchers in each game. Our first day of kid pitch Christian was in the rotation!! He did great, though he did hit a batter --- but he took it well and kept pitching. I selected these pictures as they show good form, but there are plenty of others that show how inconsistent he is.
As mentioned last year after Christian was done with his EDMT show that he would get that medieval-like device called a pallette expander as the start of his Orthodontic treatment. After having the spacers in for 2 weeks and the expander bands fit to his mouth he got the expander on April 2nd. We turned "the key" once per day for sixteen days... The orthodontic team told him there would be a feeling of pressure but it would away quickly and shouldn't hurt.
Online I read that they do hurt so I was worried... Christian has been a trooper, commenting on the feeling of pressure but never complaining. I can see the gap in his teeth showing it is working. The hardest part is the restriction on eating anything sticky or chewy.
Christian has never been big on reading. He could read, but when it came to books he just wasn't interested in it... After 1st grade he was reading at grade level. A couple of months into 2nd grade and he was reading at 4th grade level but still wasn't into it. A couple of months ago Christians teacher started an Accelerated Reader contest by splitting the class in half and challenging them to read, read, read...
Christian has accepted the challenge and started to read. He started with Shiloh, and gave a good effort but had trouble understanding it, I think because it was in the 30s and he wasn't relating to it even though he loves the movie. Then he found the Franny K. Stein Mad Scientist books and loved them. After seeing him getting into reading I decided it was time to visit the library to get more books. We ordered the other FKS books and the librarian gave us ideas on other books he might like.
At this point he has read all 6 FKS books, 3 Frankie Pickle books, 3 Gecko and Sticky books, 2 Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and a handful of others. All he needed was the motivation and ..POOF.. he turned into a reader!!!
Yes Christian is still in scouts and enjoys it. Recently we built a birdhouse and bird feeders and they turned out great. The bird house we still need to stain before putting it out, but the bird feeders have been hung out for the birds to enjoy.
The bird feeders are simple to make and we've done it a couple of times now. Cut and orange in half, scoop out the inside (feel free to eat/juice the inside of the orange, just keep the half peel in tact). Skewer the peel, tie string to the skewers, fill the orange with peanut butter and top with bird seeds. The birds LOVE it!
Saturday morning of Easter weekend is always the Folsom Easter Eggstravaganza. It’s tradition now, starting off with the pancake breakfast from the Lions Club (yum) and then the tour throughout all of the booths and then the build up to do the big egg hunt… 15 minutes of getting everyone around a field and 30 seconds of mayhem to grab as many eggs as possible. Christian had better luck this year as last year he came away with only 3 eggs, this year he had more like 15. No major prizes, who wins those things?? But it’s all about the fun anyway, and Christian definitely had fun.
As mentioned in the birthday posts we had tickets to go see the national tour of Cats and the performance was on the Saturday of Easter weekend. Mom and dad were joining Christian and me to see the show. It was a great show with the performers running through the audience and everything. The songs, dances, choreography and costumes/makeup were all fantastic. The story was hard to follow, even for an adult. I think I kept looking for a plot in the story when there really isn’t a plot in Cats! Also, having been backstage on Christian’s small training show it made me think about what was happening behind the scenes throughout the show – it gave me a new perspective.
Later in the afternoon Ken, Kelsey and Evan joined us as we celebrated Easter with a ham dinner on Saturday night and everything went well. Sunday morning the Easter Bunny had made an appearance, as did the Easter Grandma and Easter Grandpa! Then we had some Easter Egg Hunts in the backyard and everyone went home early. Christian and I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon just relaxing and spending time together.
It was a nice weekend, but of course Christian got out of hand and forgot the rules of the house and how to behave. Eventually I gave him his Easter present from me (about a week later).
