Baseball Benjamin

Ben is just about done with this spring's baseball season. He is playing with many of the same kids as last year (Looking over that post, I see a lot of similarities to this year, like Max's helpfulness and Andrew's nose-picking).

Ben's swing is stronger.

And his throw is stronger and getting more accurate.

 

Those above pictures taken by JB, who is again helping in the field.  Here is a picture on my phone of my perspective during many games. James, then Ben, then JB.

 
Aprils games were often rainy or drizzly or chilly for two little boys. 

They are quickly running out of room on momma's lap.

I again thank my lucky stars for the years spent in a baseball town of St Louis.  I am helping teach the boys proper baseball vernacular.  For instance, when Ben makes it to second or third base on a hit he used to say "a two-base hit" or "a three-base hit."  Doubles and triples, son.  And he would come running up after excitedly to tell me about how many home runs he had. Just runs, son, the other batters batted you in. But high five, you ran so fast!

Next I'll teach them to say 6-4-3 for a common double play, chant "Hey batter batter batter!" and "We want a pitcher, not a belly-itcher," and "Lay off the high ones!"

Van, van, min-van

Mini-van owners. Us. Yup.

Remember 4-year-old Max's prayer years ago that we could get a minivan like his friends? We got a Honda Pilot instead when our third child came along.

I think this Instagram post sums up how JB and I felt.

 

We have changed our tune.  The Honda Odyssey is nice and roomy and will be so much easier with baby Richards #5 coming.  The boys LOVE it. They are obsessed with the features. Almost 3-year-old James wants to hit the door close button every time.  5-year-old Andrew wishes he could watch a movie even on short rides. 

I thought it was fitting that one of our first trips in it was a soccer carpool.

JB liked white; I had no strong preference. Though I would say that I automatically wave at any white minivan going down our street because I'm sure I know them. 

We have arrived.

Fambly

Nephew Daniel was blessed the first Sunday in May. My parents and two of my sisters drove out from Missouri and stayed the weekend. We met for Saturday lunch at my brother Joe's in Springville, then had Sunday dinner at my house.

Everyone needs a Max when they have a baby.

I believe I have mentioned that Daniel is sweet and soft.

My brother's place and my place get crowded inside for entertaining, so we were glad for nice weather to be outside.

We tried to get a picture of all the grandkids together (except for the Seattle 4), but James -- as usual -- wouldn't cooperate. He screams and nopes his way out of so many pictures.

The boys played well I thought with their cousin Havala. This was the first time they had met her. They introduced her to Legos.

My sister and I compared 28-week bellies.

I did not know my dad was taking the picture yet, and he caught me eyeing her tummy to see if her bun would be baked first.

New 'phews

My brother Joe calls my boys his 'phews, short for nephews. And now I have two more nephews. My brother Peter and wife Mindy have baby Daniel, and JB's brother Bart and wife Collette have baby Spencer. 

I recently visited both babies, and they are so squishy and soft and sweet and succulent. In fact, their mothers may have been a little concerned that I kept petting the baby....

I heard from Collette that Spencer has jaundice and needs to be on the light kit at home.  Oh I feel so bad for them.  Memories came flooding back of those early sleep-deprived, emotional, painful, worrisome days of having a newborn being poked and prodded and laying helpless in a glowing bed.

I dug out the photos to text Collette what our experience looked like.  Maxwell, the upper left, was the worst. We had to go back to the hospital and they put an IV in him and everything. Then we had a flatbed of lights for about a week at home.  Upper right is Baby Benny in the suitcase light kit at home for maybe 5 days or so.  Lower left is Andrew getting some sun in his first week of life when he was looking yellowish, but he never got lights. He's also the only one so far with my same blood type, so he didn't have the blood incompatibility.  Lower right picture is newborn James. He also had a suitcase kit, but would not keep the eyemask on so we rigged up some sort of protection.  They also gave us a glowing tube attachment to keep next to his skin while he nursed. I think it was only for a couple days.

I remember thinking with James, "It's OK, we've survived this before, he will get better and I can be strong." But I still cried. The heelpricks are the worst.  So, I guess I'd better prepare myself for the high likelihood that our new baby will need this as well.

Andrew soccer season 2

Andrew I think is growing more confident in his second season of soccer (here he is last spring)


He's no Benny-ball-game, who once scored 7 goals, but he is trying his best to run after the pack huddled around the ball, and he gives a kick when he can get one in the middle of the sea of shins.

Andrew is a sweetheart who really likes to socialize. He is often chatting with members of his own team or the other team on the field.  When he's sitting on the sidelines he likes to chat with his friend John (who has his arm around him in the picture above), and Andrew has been practicing holding John's baby brother.

Side note -- James is quickly becoming the same size as Andrew. He's only 5 or 6 pounds lighter and an inch or two shorter, while being 2 1/2 years younger.

Andrew was invited to a birthday party that overlaps one of his soccer games. He wants to go to the whole party (he loves this friend), and told me something like how he doesn't get to kick any goals anyway. I gave him a pep talk about not letting your team down once you have committed to it, but he could go to part of the party, don't worry.

This season is compressed into just a month or so, with games on Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons.  It makes Wednesdays a juggle, with an occasional Ben baseball game plus scouts for the two older boys plus all of JB's bishop meetings and appointments. Saturdays can be busy, too. 

We are trying to give our boys opportunities, but can really only handle just one sport at a time for each of them. And Max said he was ok not doing anything this spring.  I think he was waiting for his basketball coach to let them know more about the plans he mentioned for a super league.

Basketball Benjamin

8-year-old Ben just finished another 6 week season of basketball.

It feels like the hoops were higher and the court bigger this time, and he did really well with the challenge of often playing 3/4 grade teams. Though he did lose badly a few times and that stung.

Games were on Saturday mornings or early afternoons, with practice on Tuesday evenings.  He played with his friends Mitchell and Jonah. Here are the three amigos: "Coach, put me in!"  We like this coach, we have been with him for a long time.

Ben often told me that he and his friends were the best players on the team.  His father and Mitchell's father would argue that their boys are ball-hogs who ought to pass the ball more and go for layups instead of long shots. Just trying to inspire.

Their conversations in the back seat carpooling to practice were absolutely the best. They often wove around the subjects of basketball, Legos, Star Wars, and politics -- and the subjects inter-mingled.

For example:

Ben: "Did you see that shot Steph Curry made from half-court?"

Jonah: "He's the best."

Mitchell (wearing a Curry jersey): "I think it's pronounced with a soft C. That's what my mom says. You know, not a hard C like a K. Like John Kerry. I don't know who he is but I have heard his name."

Me: "John Kerry is our secretary of state."

All: "Ohhhhh."

Another time they were discussing in serious tones the rumor in 2nd grade that Donald Trump would take away all Legos. I put that to rest.

Of pictures and nesting and such

Nesting hit me hard earlier this pregnancy. Maybe because I know how weary and big I get at the end. And it will be hot at the end (this is not my first July baby rodeo). My mind is full of projects to get done.

One is pictures. I am finally caught up with the last load of pictures (2 years worth) that we printed at Costco, and now they are all in albums. From the big camera, little camera, JB's phone and my phone. They printed all in a jumble, so I had James's birth mixed in with the most recent for example. It took months of chipping away at the pile.

Speaking of pictures, my work has started to award a monthly MVP and take a picture at staff meetings. March was the first. I tried to put my hand on my pregnant belly and smile to make it obvious. Just looked like a tummy ache. This time I stood in the back right and tried a serious look:

I'm ready for that closeup, Mr DeMille:

Every time I look at it, I just giggle. Such fierceness.

The other main nesting project is The Big Room Switch.  We have four bedrooms - two up, two down. The babies have all slept across from us. When Baby Benny came along, Max and Ben shared (here's the post about easing that transition along. I think putting baby James in with Andrew went pretty smoothly. Our third boy is a great sleeper.) When Andrew came along, Max and Ben moved to the downstairs (see this post about how that move went). They were the same age as Andrew and James are now, but I'm not sure how this move will go.  Never-the-less, it must happen.

The plan is to have the room across from us be a baby girl nursery after hosting boys for 11 years.  But before I can decorate, first, we have to move Andrew and James into the spare room downstairs and into bigger beds than their current crib and toddler bed (James is 3 in June. He climbs out and into the crib when he pleases). Either another bunkbed, or the spare bed down there for Andrew and the toddler bed moved there for James.

Before that, we must move out of that room the printer, extra filing cabinets and sewing table and fabric/crafts stash. That will go into our large laundry room/storage room. But some of the storage has to come out of THERE first, to make room. So I've been hoisting boxes around, shuffling food storage, and trying to find a place for extra wedding gifts, spare shoes, clothes, basketball trading cards, the ice-cream maker, empty Mason jars, old paint (lots of paint) and on and on and on. All stuff we put in there when we moved in 12 years ago this summer.

So for now, a corner is filling up with the girly things I am slowly collecting again to put in a nursery. I gave away everything I had already, after finding out James was our fourth boy -- when I thought I would never have a girl (like in this post).

Anyone want some paint or Pyrex? Help a nesting 6 1/2 month pregnant woman along.