More pictures!

Raven fans, say what?! My husband clearly wants my children to be disowned by my father, aunt, and cousins. Me? I'm Switzerland.

And... another one bites the dust! Alexander lost his second tooth to the string and doorknob trick this morning.

Keys Game

Saturday night we went to another great Keys game! The Keys lost, but we hardly noticed. Alexander was mostly excited to get his ice cream like last year, and to run the bases. Even Jack ran the bases this year. He was the smallest one that I saw! The most frightening part of the game was this Red Cross duck, Waddles. Really, I was scared.

Herding Cats (or "T-ball," whichever you prefer)

Today Alexander finished up a 5 week T-ball class. It was... uh... interesting. There were about ten 3-4 year-olds, two coaches, and chaos. I'm pretty sure that at least one kid cried at each lesson, today being Alexander's turn. Overall, though, I think he had a really good time. I am not sure how much of the lessons he retained, but he was taught "fielding position," "catch and cover," "bounce and turn," and "point and throw" for fielding/throwing, and then also coached on his hitting. One lesson that did not sink in for most of the kids in the class is that when you're fielding, everyone should refrain from tackling each other in order to get the ball. I guess they all still need some practice. For the next "season" I signed him up for a science class, so hopefully that won't result in any tackling!

This is the best shot I could get of him playing:

Big Boy Bike!

The other day Alexander finally learned how to ride his tricycle! So yesterday we took him out and let him choose a two-wheeler and helmet. He's doing great on it! (I also realized that he probably would have learned to pedal sooner if the tricycle had not been too small for him.) This is another of those moments when I just can't believe that my kid is old enough for ______. He's big enough for a real bike! Yikes! He was having so much fun that Justin and I were sorely tempted to return to the store and buy bikes for ourselves and a baby seat for Jack. Hmmm... too bad we don't have anywhere to store all those bikes!

Their first baseball game!

On Sunday night, my aunt's friend graciously got tickets to the Frederick Keys game for us, "Uncle Tim," my two aunts, and a bunch of my cousins and their kids. It was the first time my boys had been to a baseball game. It started out a little rough with a meltdown because we couldn't ride the merry-go-round and a meltdown because I wasn't able to bring our snacks in, but things soon smoothed out. Alexander mooched ice tea, popcorn, peanuts, and ice cream from the aunts and cousins, drew in his program, blew bubbles, played with baseball cards, shook his (Daddy's) keys, ran up and down a hill, and generally ignored the entire baseball game while charming the family into giving him ever more food. I would be enormously surprised if any of the three little ones could even tell you who won the game. Alexander ran the bases with the two little cousins and their Daddy, and we even got to watch fireworks after the game. I am surprised that even Jack lasted through the entire event. We didn't get them both into bed until almost 10:00. It was good times, though. I'm sure we'll be returning in the future.

The video is slightly longer than those that I usually post- it is Alexander and his cousins running the bases. He is in blue shorts, a white striped shirt, and a blue baseball cap and is running with my cousin's husband in the white shirt with black sleeves and baseball cap. I pick Alexander up at home plate. Cousin Brendan is slightly ahead in the yellow shirt and Cousin Ryan is the smaller guy right alongside Alexander, wearing light blue.