The Latta Family

Well, it just figures- I wasn't my best parent self with Alexa the other night, and I guess my subconscious said- "Don't leave the other kid out!  He might get jealous!"  The thing is- I actually feel bad about tonight. Here's the set up: Andrew had a baseball game tonight.  He hit a ball pretty far out into the outfield, Doug sent him to 2nd base, and the 3rd base coach was waving him towards third.  He was putting faith in Andrew's speed, and that at this age, the kids still sometimes get addled under pressure and don't make clean catches.  Unfortunately . . . the 3rd basemen made a good catch and was able to tag Andrew. Andrew had a total melt down.  Stomping and crying across the field.  Doug tried to reason with him, but once Andrew gets . . . keyed up, he has a hard time getting himself under control (his apple don't fall far from the tree- what can I say?).  Unfortunately, Doug had to yank him off the field and hand him off to me (as the ...

Poor Alexa.  She just had an episode that was sort of sad, but . . . struck me as hysterical and I had a hard time quelling my laughter. Recently I realized that in some ways, I was a better parent to Andrew than I am to Alexa in the preschool stage of development.  She had been having a "bit" of an emotional evening.  In the old days, when Andrew would have that sort of night, we'd sit on the couch and read through a gigantic stack of books.  I figured he needed calm, attention, and interaction. Unfortunately when Alexa has those types of evenings . . . she spends time alone in her room crying.  There are 2 ways to look at that: she's learning to manage her own emotions which will help her later in life, or well heck- Andrew was an only child I had more time  to do that sort of thing.  Regardless, when I thought of that, I felt bad for Alexa and decided to try to do better about acknowledging that there may be a reason to her loud, emotional, fatigu...

Today is mine and Doug's 13th anniversary. As we were sitting at dinner I was thinking, "Man is this night a LOT different than this night 13 years ago." Here are 13 ways my life is different than 13 years ago. 1. My muscle tone- particularly around the midsection. 2.  My hair which has more grey, but yet it is still so much better!  ("wisdom" and vanity cause me to spend ridiculous amounts of money on hair products- more than I spend on clothes) 3. I fed a small person ravioli's, while they wiggled and jostled next to me in the booth, and dropped forks with spaghetti sauce on my pants- tonight. 4.  I am relearning elementary school math.  I think I've got the hang of fractions now. 5. I know Disney Channel characters.  I am able to tell what show either of my children is watching- from another room, just by the voices of the characters 6. My friends are now made at my kids extra curricular events, not at work, not at the gym, not doing a hobby....

As y'all know, the Special Needs kids are near and dear to my heart. As you also know, baseball is near and dear to my heart.  When the two collide . . . it makes my heart so happy.  This season there is a special needs student on Andrew and Doug's baseball team.  I am particularly proud of Doug and his coaches for "manning up" and saying they would accept the challenge.  Doug, in particular, is "just a little" competitive and was pretty excited about this spring team because there were a lot of returning players and this team was set to be pretty good. This is the boy's first experience with organized sports.  I talked to the dad at the first practice and then I spoke to the mom at another practice. I didn't talk to them as A Goodwill Ambassador or anything like that. I was just talking to them in a friendly, fellow baseball team parent way.  My heart hurt for the mom.  This experience is really stressful for her.  She didn't want her son to...

So . . . soccer has been a bit of a bust so far.  Not because of Alexa, but because the doggone weather is always foiling our plans!  We have only been able to have one practice so far.  It's sort of frustrating!  How are we going to turn Alexa into the next World Cup star- if she can't even get to practice?????  (a small disclaimer, I have actually no plans of her being a soccer star.  If she wants to great- if she wants to do other things- that's cool too.  That whole World Cup thing- was for dramatic effect regarding my frustration with the weather). While we haven't been able to practice, we did get to have our first game yesterday.  The highlight of that event for me- was how doggone cute she was in her uniform! I think the high light for her, was that she got snacks and to go on the bouncy house afterwards.  (as part of the Opening Day ceremonies for the rec league, there was bouncy houses and a Carl Edwards race car for the k...

I've been feeling a little emotional about old Andrew lately (which explains why he's getting so many blogs I guess).  He's transitioning.  I can literally feel and see this transition happening.  He's moving from little kid to big kid.  It makes me a little sad.  Not a lot.  I like this big kid, but I miss the little kid. There's been a couple of situations in the last few weeks, that have really brought it home to me. Plus my kids are 5 years apart.  They are so obviously in separate stages, it's easy to decipher between their emotional/developmental stages. Last week I dragged Andrew and Alexa with me to the ball park, so I could paint soccer fields.  Upon our arrival there, Andrew found friends and ditched us. Letting Andrew out of complete eye sight in a public place is a new thing for me.  I debated for a second and decided I'd give it a try.  It's an enclosed park, there are enough people there that know Andrew, me and/or Doug...

I brought my crew down to visit my parents this weekend.  Doug, his co-teacher, and friends cooked bbq all night Thursday and then worked all day Friday- as happens every year around this time.  After 16 years of this tradition, I have a survival technique for all of us:  the kids and I leave for the weekend and let Doug recover without us.  It's better for all involved because otherwise, Doug spends a fair amount of time being aggravated he can't sleep, and I spend a fair amount of time being aggravated he's not helping out. So in this case . . . absence makes for a happier marriage. Since it was such a fantastic day, Mom and Dad decided to introduce us to a new "hiking" area they found. It was so cool! It was right near a river and there were lots of large flat rocks to run around on and play near the water.  We had bets on which kid was going in first.  Mom won.  Dad and I assumed it would be Alexa. She is pretty accident prone. I mean- just walki...