Spring Fever

It's so cliche, but we really have spring fever over here. It's been (knock on wood) a little over a week since our last snowfall. The snow is almost completely gone from our front and back yard, and, yesterday, Jamie and I raked up the last of the leaves and uncovered our sprouting daffodils. We've spent the last three evenings grilling, taking walks, and getting Jamie started on riding his bike without training wheels. Jamie is signed up for baseball at the end of the month, and he is thrilled to practice catching and throwing with Shawn in the evenings now. I am a little wary of this new phase we are entering - Organized Sports. I have always felt very strongly about sports (or any other activity) not running our lives. Jamie is only 5 years old, but it's amazing what is out there for kids these days. And the amount of time and commitment involved. A friend was telling me about her daughter wanting to do cheerleading and, in one month, it is almost every single night. And her daughter is only 5 years old! Even Jamie's baseball is going to be one night and one weekend afternoon per week. To me, that is the max I will allow on one activity. I am cautious about entering the stage of being a "baseball mom."

Clare is into her second week of preschool now. She has done remarkably well. I am thankful my kids are fairly adaptable children. Clare is eager to see her teacher in the morning and walks in with Miss Pam without a fuss. She is always happy to see me or Shawn when we pick her up, but her teacher reports that she is enjoying herself. My one concern is that when I picked her up yesterday, she was exhausted. It was her day of OT and PT, so that may have contributed to her fatigue. But her face was ashen, and she just looked terrible. Normally, we go right home from school, do lunch, and have a nap. But Simon had a doctor's appointment (yup, another eye infection and fluid in his ears - no ear infection yet), so we were still out and about. By the time we got home, Clare was a wreck. We're obviously going to keep an eye on it for now.

Additional note - So, of course, I started writing this post mid-week and life takes over. Now it is Sunday evening and I am finally getting around to finishing it. Baseball is officially starting this week, and both Jamie and Shawn are super-excited. Our yard is finally snow-free. Clare LOVES to play outside. It is a new experience for her, and she is thrilled to walk around the yard, pull moss off our stone wall, draw on my car with sidewalk chalk, and repeatedly go up and down the ramp to the shed. I talked with her teacher on Thursday about Clare's extreme fatigue after school on Tuesday. Her teacher will make note of it as well, talk to the PT, and see how Clare does this coming Tuesday. Simon's eye is back to normal, and we avoided another ear infection.

We spent the afternoon at the beach today. It was extremely windy right down by the water. Jamie, Shawn, and Simon walked along the ocean's edge, while Clare finished her nap in the car. Once she awoke, we joined them. Clare hated the wind! Her new sentence that she now says about a thousand times a day is, "Me no like it." (Her language skills have exploded, but we'll save that for another day!) As I carried Clare back from the ocean to the nearby playground, the wind was whipping wildly around us. She yelled the whole way, "Me no like it! Me no like it!" I did feel bad for Clare because she really does not like the wind, but she was also making me laugh so hard! We ended our afternoon frolicking on the playground then home to pizza and wings. I love our lazy weekend days.