Look out folks, Spring has Sprung!

Spring is slowly becoming my favorite time of the year. I adore fall.  It's my personal happy place, the busyness of the summer dies down, sweaters and slippers take the place of {the dreaded swimsuit} and a general comfy-cozy feeling takes over our house.

But for my family, spring and summer are slowly winning out as my favorite time of the year.  This weekend marked the official start of spring for the Budinich's... softball season began with our Tri-Cities tournament.  No, I don't play.  Come on, seriously?  But Jimmie is a heck of a pitcher, Jordan is an awesome dig in the dirt on the sidelines enthusiast and Elle rocks as a cheerleader for her dad!*

Uncle Joe Joe Dancer drove all the way from WSU to play and was awesome. He even slammed into the outfield fence catching a deep fly ball.  He is a rock-star outfielder!

Here's a few pics from the weekend.**

The Brothers: Scouting the Competition

Practice Makes Perfect.

 Cheering the Day Away.  (*Not the pom-poms and short skirt kind of cheering, thank God!)

Hangin' with his hero, Joe-Joe Dancer.

Enjoying some down time in between games.

He's so awesome!

**I won't even talk about how badly my camera sucks.  Did you hear that Easter Bunny?  Oh wait, you're broke?  Crap.

A thought...

I am absolutely in love with my life.  I have the most fabulous husband and kids in the world.  I get to stay home and play with my kids all day.  And I get paid for it.  Hubby doesn't have one of those smokin' hot neck tatoos.  What more could a girl ask for?

Welp, what more needs to be said?

A Valuable Lesson

I learned an incredibly valuable lesson as a mom today.  If you're not a mom, this might not be totally interesting to you, but hang on to it.  Someday it might come in handy.

As a parent, it's easy to become focused on the negative/less desirable qualities or things our children do that we hope to one day steer in the right direction.  As moms, it's sometimes even easier for us to blab our frustrations, insecurities, even negative attitudes about these things to those that share an interest in our children (i.e. teachers, caregivers, fellow-parents of friends, relatives, etc.)  We have our reasons for this: we need to vent, we're feeling a little insecure about it, and we want the other people to know "oh yes, I realize this is a problem!" or we're just so fixated on the issue, it leeches out of us in every situation.

Here's the lesson I learned: SHUT YOUR MOUTH!  You have no idea how you are affecting your child and what you are setting them up for by doing this.  Since I've started my daycare, people feel a certain connection or something with me that makes them want to share all of these types of things.  I realized today, that when I meet their children for the first time, or really have a chance to be around them, I already have an idea of what they are going to be.  If I've heard negative, somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, a place I wish wasn't there... I've decided I don't like the kid.  This is not normal for me!  I like almost all kids!

Please oh please moms... remember this.  Hopefully there are people in your inner sanctum, circle of trust that you can vent to and get advice from.  For all of the rest of us, speak about your child like they are God's gift to the universe (because they are!) and expect that the people that are helping care for them or spend time with them will see them as perfect angels*.  You'll be amazed at how we actually believe they are!  They might even start acting like it for you.

*Before you get on your high-horse, please realize I know there are legitimate issues that need to be shared with teachers, etc.  I would just urge you to really evaluate if your situation truly is one of those issues and what the most supportive and positive way of communicating about it is.  Really people, you'll be amazed.  I'm learning this the hard way myself.  

Adorable Oldie. An Elle Feature.

I think my child is a relatively normal three-year old.  She is very bright, creative, curious, energetic, and sassy.  She is the typical 'princess' child.  There is one small thing that I am a bit worried about, especially looking ahead to her teen years. 
She loves boys.  I am not exaggerating here, she loves them.  Actually, she loves the idea of dancing with them.  I'm not exactly sure where she got this, maybe her favorite princesses always dance with their handsome prince.  Maybe she has gotten a glimpse at a Teen Disney movie while I was busy doing something and forgot to change the channel after her favorite cartoon.  Whatever it is, when she sees a boy she has a liking for she exclaims, "I want to take him to the royal ball!"  Or, "When I grow up I am going to the dance with him!" 
She's had what I used to refer to as "toddler crushes" on many people.  Her teenage uncle's friend Alex has been a favorite for years now. (Seriously, since she was about a year old!)  Then there was Riley, a family friend about 20 years old.  And then it started getting worse; we would go through the drive-thru somewhere and the dorky looking, braces wearing (this is a BIG plus on the toddler scene) floppy dark-haired drive-thru "hunk" was added to the dance card.  I have really gotten over being worried about this since I've repeatedly heard that it's normal for a lot of little girls, and NO, it does not mean we are in for trouble in the teen years so I don't need to start looking into convents and chastity belts!  Then along came Superman...
We rented the new Superman movie a while ago and after much begging and pleading her Daddy let her watch it with him.  She is really into the Incredibles and other super-heroes so we just thought she wanted to check out a "real" one- not a cartoon.  Keep in mind this was weeks ago.  Then when it was time to return the DVD she cried, I mean sobbed!  She just kept saying, "But I LOVE him!  Please can we keep him?"  I thought she just meant the movie, so I promised we would rent it again another time.  For the past few weeks she keeps asking me, "Is it time to rent Superman again?"  "Not yet dear, maybe soon," is my standard Mommy reply. 
Then she started saying things like, "If there are Ickies (monsters) out my window Superman will save me."  I noticed that she replaced Daddy's name with Superman's in this reassurance to herself but I didn't think anything of it, he IS Superman after all.  Then when we went to buy Valentines to give to her friends this week she had to have the Superman ones.  I tried to coax her into getting her usual pick- Princesses, Dora, even Barbie for crying out loud- but, "NO WAY!  I NEED SUPERMAN!" was her only response.  Fine!  Once we got home all she wanted to do was open the cards and look at him in the six assorted poses as well as on the poster that came in the box- Good Lord!  "This is starting to get a little much," I start thinking.  Then yesterday it really came to a head.
"I need Daddy to fix the TV so Superman can come out!" she says emphatically.  I try to explain it to her, but it's like trying to reason with me- it just doesn't work!  So we let it go.  We had a really busy day and she didn't mention it again so I forget about it.  Then this morning I'm giving Jordan a bath and she comes in to ask me if Daddy fixed the TV yet?  I don't know Elle- you'll have to talk to Daddy about that one (hoping to get a little help from the big guy explaining the electronics to our now love-struck girl!)  She goes in to wake up Dad and ask him her question and a few minutes later returned beaming! 

"Daddy said he will fix it and then Superman will come out and be with me! Oh Mommy, I love him!!!" 

"That's nice," I say- thinking she means her Daddy and wondering why the hell he would tell her that!

"And he loves me, Mommy.  Superman and I are in love just like you and Daddy!"

"WHAT????"  I thought you were talking about Daddy!  Honey, you can't be in love with Superman.  He is pretend.  He's only on TV and you are JUST TOO YOUNG!!!"

"Well, I TOLD YOU Daddy is going to fix the TV so he can come out and be with me!"

"Oh honey, we need to talk to Daddy about this!"

So we go in and really wake Daddy up to hear that he has no idea what she's talking about and he must have been talking in his sleep.  He hears all about her plans to be in love with Superman or whatever and not so gently tells her he's just pretend and can't come out of the TV for Christ's sake!
Heartbreak!  I quickly whisper that he needs to be gentle on this one she's "in love" and so he tries to reason with her... "But Daddy, I love him!"  And for the rest of the morning and now that I look back, she keeps repeating how much she loves Superman and that he loves her!  Oh, Good Lord!  Is this what we have to look forward to?  I'm back to worrying about the teen years!

Because I said so.

OK, so at the risk of losing all my "cool" points (that opening of a sentence alone tells you I have none) I'm going to share a bit of fact with you.  I don't really think Bob Dylan is anything to be impressed about.  His voice creeps me out and I just think he's weird.  There's nothing about him that makes me want to listen to his songs. Nothing.  No. Thing.  Just wanted to make that clear.

Here's some other interesting tidbits I've thought about today while on my "day off"* at home. 

Things I miss about living in a Real City.

• Major Chain Restaurants.  Red Robin, Olive Garden, and PF Chang's to name a few.  These are no 5 star, blow your mind restaurants, but in a town that literally has 7+ Mexican Restaurants and a handful of other mom and pop shops, a damn Banzai Burger and some Fettuccine Alfredo are a distant memory.  
• Anonymity.  I like being able to go to Walmart without seeing one single person I know.  I like not caring what I look like when I go to the post office because, what are the chances I'll bump into someone I know?
• Other People's Privacy.  I love the not knowing of some seriously embarrassing information about people that should never have been repeated but was because, let's face it... what ELSE do we have to do?

Things I love about living in a small town:

• No decent restaurants within a 100 mile radius that would only serve to totally screw over my diet and add inches to my ass.
• Constantly bumping into really great people around town who have become great friends in a relatively short period of time.  Especially considering most of them have known each other since at least junior high, and were amazingly welcoming to us when we moved here.
• A never ending supply of seriously juicy gossip that makes the mind numb when one tries to figure out, "Do real people actually do things like that?"

So, what makes this random cacophony of information anything you actually want to hear about?  Because I said so!  Duh.

*My "day off" consisted of running errands with a four year-old for three and a half hours, at least three of which enduring an endless strain of questions involving "Is it time for McDonald's yet?"  Doing three loads of laundry.  Organizing Preschool/Daycare supplies.  Chasing my moronic dog around the neighborhood.  Twice.  Running children to various clubs.  Making dinner.  Loading, Running, Unloading and Re-Loading the dishwasher.  Spending a day of bliss at home and not working for the man no mo.